For the first time in recent history our Fork Union Military Academy Blue Devils broke into the top 10 teams in the state final standings. Not only did we break into the top 10, we finished 4th overall!
We are especially proud of how our young men came together as a team to accomplish this leap in standings (from 12th place last year), as was evident by our fantastic relay swims. We started the meet as a huge underdog in the 200 medley relay with a group of virtually unknown swimmers seeded four seconds out of the top spot. It was going to be a struggle just to make the finals. When the smoke cleared they finished second overall with a time of 1:38.91 (K. Housh 26.59, S. Ibrahim 26.78, M. Jewell 23.69, T. Calhoun 21.85), in the process smashing our school record by over three seconds! For an encore our 200 free relay duplicated this same feat, again finishing second and destroying the school record with a time of 1:28.61 (M. Jewell 22.37, B. Reynard 22.65, S. Ibrahim 21.47, T. Calhoun 22.12). Finally, our 400 free relay, composed of all underclassmen, finished eighth in the championship final with a time of 3:28.90 (K. Housh, J. Warren, J. Caudill, B. Reynard). This marked the first time that FUMA placed all three relays in the championship final!
In addition to our incredible relay efforts, we had several great individual swims including M. Jewell (7th - 50 freestyle; 8th - 100 butterfly), K. Housh (8th - 200 IM; 10th - 100 breaststroke), S. Ibrahim (16th - 100 freestyle, 6th - 100 breaststroke), T. Calhoun (9th - 50 freestyle), B. Reynard (16th - 50 freestyle), and J. Brown (13th 100 breaststroke). This meet also marked the championship debut for freshman C. Covington (PB times in the 200 and 500 freestyle), Juniors J. Warren (PB time in the 200 freestyle) and J. Caudill (PB time 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly), and 8th grader Obi Okeyo (PB time in the 100 back). Other notable swims came from veteran Junior J. Gencavage (PB times in the 200 IM and 100 fly). In all the team broke six school records!
Next up the squad travels to Easterns which is sure to be a fast meet.
Congratulations to all of our swimmers that competed in the USA-S District Championship. The District Meet was our best yet with 35 personal best times, seven first place finishes, an additional 27 top eight finishes, and THREE new Region Championship Qualifiers! Congratulations to Kacie Grunau, Sierra Durham and Luke Knisley for achieving their Regional qualifying times (Sierra adds the 100 fly to her full list of regional events). Kudos also goes out to Miles Willard, who in his first season just missed the 50 freestyle Region qualifying time by one tenth of a second.