Courtesy of Jennifer Coon
The Cougars have finally returned to regularly scheduled meets to finish the rest of the 2017-2018 season. However, the James Madison High School Warhawks put up a fight and defeated Oakton for both the boys’ and girls’ sides of the meet. The Oakton boys scored a total of 142 points to Madison’s 173 points, and the girls scored 128 points to the 187 points put up by Madison.
Despite the loss, Oakton still had amazing swims. Several swimmers and relays finished with qualifying States cuts, making for a total of eight, with an additional five qualifying cuts for Regions. On the girls’ side, senior Grace Beeman and freshman Lindsey Kotarski kicked off the meet with lifetime bests in the 200 freestyle. Freshmen Ava Jones and Maddie Flickinger came from behind in the freestyle leg of the 200 individual medley (IM) to move up a place. Sophomore Alexandra Martschenko and junior Charlotte Cai also had season bests in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke, respectively, and senior Lindsey Katsaros earned a lifetime best in the 100 butterfly. As for the boys, junior Nick Highman placed second in the 200 IM with a time under 2:00. Junior Anthony Arcomona, sophomore Kyle McCleskey, and junior Diego Galvez finished the 100 butterfly with second, third, and fourth place finishes. Junior Daniel Gyenis placed first in both of his individual events, the 200 and 500 freestyle. Liam Tolbert, a sophomore, had a lifetime best in the 100 backstroke, despite filling in at the last second. To wrap up individual events, senior Kazunori Yoshizaki finished with a lifetime best in the 100 breaststroke. As for the diving, junior Joe Perreault and senior Liam Klopfenstein placed second and third, respectively.
With the postseason approaching quickly, Oakton Swim/Dive is hoping to make the most out of their practices as they head into their final dual meets of the season. Next week is a double-header for the Cougars; they will first be swimming against Chantilly High School on Friday, January 19 at Oak Marr Recreation Center at 6 pm. Due to the cancellation of the meet on January 5, the Cougars will be taking on the Centreville High School Wildcats on Saturday, January 20 at the George Washington Recreation Center at 6:30 pm as their final meet of the season before Districts the following week.