Fishburne Swimmers on the Rise
Once an after-thought in Fishburne Athletics, the Caissons Swim Team has begun to emerge as a force to be reckoned with. Under the leadership of Coach Carrie Miller-Blackburn, the team’s ranks have swelled to 25 swimmers, the most participants of any winter sport on campus. The team, still undefeated in their new home pool, opened the season on Friday with a strong showing on the road.
Leading into the event, four things were on Coach Miller-Blackburn’s mind: – #1 the boys only had three days in the water after having a 14 day break from being in the water, #2 the boys have only had a TOTAL of two and a half weeks of practice in the water, #3 this was Fishburne’s FIRST meet of the year, and her first meet EVER as a head coach; and #4 – as swimmer Jonathan Ross recently noted with a big smile on his face – it doesn’t really matter (talking to his peers about us not coming in first) because I’m having a ton of fun.
The team arrived at Randolph College in plenty of time to get settled and verify that after writing and re-writing AND re-writing the meet NUMEROUS times due to many situations (sick swimmers, swimmers not being able to attend the meet, swimmers getting suspended, etc) that they had NO changes and that the meet could be “published”.
The meet this weekend consisted of 22 events, 11 of which were boys, and there were three teams competing. Fishburne, Liberty Christian and Virginia Episcopal. The event following the medley relay was the 200 yard freestyle. Draper,B swam the event by himself (due a teammate missing the event because of a nosebleed)…and swim he did, and he did great. This event was followed by the Individual medley – which Curley KILLED – he placed 1st out of 6 and Draper, J was 2 seconds behind him placing 4th out of 6. The 50yard freestyle was next and had 9 varsity swimmers swimming the event with 15 junior varsity swimmers. Chandler Wright (who suffered the early nosebleed) was able to swim and placed 7th out of 9. Carley placed 6th, Fessick,O 9th, Malone, Sullivan and Cruz placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the JV event all within one second of each other, Brand 6th, Fessick,M 11th, Dua 12th, and Anderson and Miller 14th and 15th within 3 tenths of a second of each other. In the 100yard butterfly event that followed Draper,J placed 2nd and Curley placed 3rd out of 6 both within two and a half seconds of each other. In the 100 yard freestyle Ross, Fessick,O and Draper B placed 6th, 7th and 8th out of 13 each within three seconds of each other. Amico and Lendardson did amazing in the 500yard freestyle (that is 20 laps!) placing 3rd and 4th out of 6. Amico immediately followed the 500 with the 100yard backstroke with Ross whom placed 5th followed by Amico placing 6th out of 10. Both Carley and Lenardson were disqualified in the 100 yard breast stroke for two strokes under before turn (Carley), and two strokes under during start (Lenardson). The final event was the 400yard Freestyle Relay Draper,B; Draper,J;Fessick,O;Ross brought the meet to an end by placing 3rd out of 5.
Results for the scoring events were the following, falling short to Virginia Episcopal by two points Liberty blew VES and FMS out of the water. (They have a 14 year old swimmer that placed first in EVERY event that he swam as well as qualified for states):
Curley – 1st place Individual Medley
Draper,J – 2nd place 100yard butterfly
Curley – 3rd place 100yard butterfly
Amico – 2nd place 200yardfreestyle
Lenardson – 3rd place 200yard freestyle
Amico,Curley,Lenardson,Wright – 3rd place 200Freestyle relay
Draper,B,Draper,J,Fessick,O,Ross 3rd place 400Freestyle relay
Coach Miller-Blackburn, pleased with these early results noted that, “Looking at the times from last night, if we can shave off a range of 8-30seconds in individual events, then we have a HIGH probability of qualifying for the STATE MEET!”
