Virginia releases psych sheets for 5A and 6A high school state swimming championships

Thanks to Robert Gibbs for contributing this article:

The VHSL has released the psych sheets for the 6A and 5A state championship meets, which will happen Friday and Saturday, respectively, assuming that the weather cooperates. The meets will both be held at the Collegiate School Aquatics Center in Richmond, VA, and will both follow a morning-preliminaries evening-finals format, again assuming there are no scheduling changes due to the weather. Generally speaking, all of these schools would have been competing in the old AAA meet until the VHSL undertook a massive realignment beginning last season.

6A Boys
Defending state champion and perennial powerhouse James W. Robinson will be looking to repeat, led by juniors James Jones and James Murphy. Jones won the 50 and 100 free last year, and Murphy did the same in the 200 and 500 free, and both come into this meet as the top seeds in those same events. Robinson will be challenged, however, by Oakton High School. Oakton is led by senior — and Texas commit — John Shebat, who two weeks ago at regionals generated some national attention when he swam personal bests by wide margins in the 200 IM (1:46.07) and 100 back (46.71). He’ll be the top seed in both of those events on Friday. Fellow Oakton senior Michael Pettinichi (Xavier commit) is the top seed in the 100 breast. The only number one seed who is not from one of those two schools is Lake Braddock’s Cole McGarry (Virginia Tech) who comes in with the fastest time in the 100 fly. Of those five, all swim for Nation’s Capital on the club side, except for Murphy, who is part of Machine Aquatics.

Robinson and Oakton also have the top two seeds in each of the three relays, but with eight swimmers listed on each relay on the psych sheets, it’s not certain how those relays are going to play out. Two weeks ago, Oakton won the 6A North Region championship by over 60 points, overcoming Robinson’s Jameses with a lot of depth. A quick count shows that Robinson has nine total seeds in the top sixteen in individual events, with Oakton have two more, so it could be a little closer here.

6A Girls
The girls side of the meet looks to be very similar, with the Langley girls joining Robinson and last year’s champions Oakton as the top three teams. Three members of the USA Swimming Junior National Team will be among the top seeds at this meet, all from NCAP. Oakton junior Megan Byrnes and Langley sophomore Isabella Rongione sit as the #1 and #2 seeds, respectively, in both the 200 and 500 free. Those seeds are the opposite of last year’s finish, where Rongione won the state titles in both events while Byrnes finished second. Meanwhile, West Potomac freshman Cassidy Bayer has the fastest entry time in the 200 IM and 100 fly. In the 50 free, Yorktown junior Suzanne Dolan sits just above Robinson junior and last year’s runnier up, Hannah Baker, who has the top seed in the 100 free. Herndon sophomore Emily Meilus has the top seed in the 100 back as she looks to defend her state title from last year. Rounding out the top seeds is Chantilly sophomore Jacquee Clabeaux. Last year Clabeaux came in fourth in both the 50 and 100 free and helped Chantilly to second-place finishes in both the 200 medley and 200 free relays behind state champions Oakton.

Langley won the 6A North Region meet, but Robinson and Oakton were not too far behind, and it should be another close finish this weekend. Those three schools hold the top three seeds in both of the free relays.

5A Boys
The top recruit in the class of 2015, Andrew Seliskar (California), has gone six for six in individual state titles, winning the 200 IM and 100 fly his freshman and sophomore years before switching to the 200 free and 100 breast last year. His 100 breast time in last year’s preliminaries set a new national high school record, later broken. This year, Seliskar is back to the 200 IM and 100 fly, and could be the hunt for another new national high school record. He swam a 47.14 in the 100 fly two weeks ago at the 5A North Region championship meet. The national public high school record of 45.89 belongs to current Florida freshman Caeleb Dressel, with the overall mark of 45.52 belonging to Texas freshman Joseph Schooling. He’s further off David Nolan’s legendary 1:41.39 in the 200 IM, but in the immortal words of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the 90s version of Angels in the Outfield, “it could happen.”

However, high school swimming is much more than individual records, and one thing has eluded Seliskar in his high school career: a team state championship. That could change this year. Buoyed by a lineup much deeper than just Seliskar, Jefferson ran away with the regional title two weeks ago. They will run into stiff resistance from the South Region title winners and defending state champions, Princess Anne from Virginia Beach. They lost a lot of seniors from last year’s state championship team, and it’s likely to be a fight to the finish between Thomas Jefferson and Princess Anne.

Princess Anne has two top seeds in senior Jordan Bovee (200 free) and junior Daniel Arris in the 100 breast. Other top seeds include Menchville sophomore Alex Moore in the 50 free and 100 free, Potomac Falls senior William Lin in the 500, and Patrick Henry junior Ted Schubert in the 100 back.

Both teams have a good deal of depth, averaging at least 2-3 entries in each event. The 100 breaststroke is a great example of how these two teams stack up. Princess Anne has not only the top seed, but also the second seed in sophomore Eric Fuhs. Meanwhile, Jefferson has the third, fourth, seventh, and ninth seeds.

Jefferson has the top time in all three relays. Princess Anne is seeded fourth in the medley relay, and second in both of the free relays. Neither team included names on the entries for any of the relays, meaning we may see a little strategy play out over the course of the meet.

5A Girls

Maybe the biggest story for this meet is that swimmers will return to defend last year’s state titles in seven out of eight individual events. That lists includes two swimmers from Atlee, senior Brittany Wilkerson in the 200 free and 500 free (third seed) and sophomore Olivia Fisher as the top seed in the 50 and 100 free. Other returning champions include Brooke Point senior Caroline Wanner (Marshall commit) in the 200 IM and 500 free (seeded second), LDHS sophomore Molly Sheffield in the 100 fly, and Jefferson sophomore Carrie Heilbrun in the 100 back (seeded tenth). The other top seeds come from Hickory: sophomore Cora Delgado in the 500 free and senior Susan Hynes (Duke) in the 100 breast.

Defending state champion Albemarle easily won the 5A North Region title, finish over 150 points ahead of second-place Stone Bridge. Hickory won the 5A South Region championship, in a tighter race, over Princess Anne and Atlee. All those schools, plus Jefferson and Menchville, should finish near the top, but it probably comes down to Albemarle and Hickory.