Swimmers Unbeaten at Home, Send 5 to State Meet
Report from Coach Gray:
Tuesday marked the final regular season swim meet of the year, and my final dual-meet as Fishburne’s head swim coach. It was a great way to end my coaching career at FMS: crushing our rivals Massanutten for the third time this year and maintaining our undefeated record in our refurbished pool.
Fishburne came in first in all of the events except for the 100 free, beating Massanutten 56-13. After the meet the two teams got together in the foyer for a little party. It was a great show of sportsmanship and was wonderful to see the two teams who had just fought it out in the pool hanging out over cake. Thank you to Kathy Berrang and Joan Burne for providing the cake and other snacks.
I am so incredibly proud of this year’s swim team. They have broken all but three of the school records, beaten more teams at the VIC Conference Championships than any previous team I have coached, and 5 swimmers qualified for states.
A big part of what made this year so successful was the coaching staff. Coach Miller-Blackburn and Coach White are both experienced swimmers were incredible assets to the team. Our team captains and managers also did a lot behind the scenes to make this such a successful season. Royce Pinner (co-captain) contributed his boundless enthusiasm and incredible sportsmanship by cheering on every swimmer at every meet. He is a big part of why coaches and parents from other teams came up to me multiple times during the season to compliment the team on the way they interacted with their competitors.
This was the first year that the Caissons had swim managers; Yale Osseroff and Nicholas Payne did a spectacular job making sure the team was where they were supposed to be and had the equipment they needed to be at their best. The biggest shout out, however, goes to Colin Green (co-captain). He was instrumental in designing the dryland workout, kept communication up between members of the team and gave everything he had at every practice, setting the bar for what was expected from the other swimmers. He is a true leader and will be sorely missed after graduation.
But the season is not quite over.
Tomorrow afternoon McKinely Duffer, John Hutchison, Josh Draper, Colin Green and I head off to Richmond for the state championship meet. The 4 of them will swim in the 200 Medley Relay Friday morning. McKinley Duffer will also compete in the 200 IM on Friday and the 100 Back on Saturday. The relay is currently ranked 30th in the state and Duffer is ranked 33rd in the 200 IM and 22nd in the 100 Back. I can’t wait to see them compete at this prestigious meet and hopefully drop time and make it into the finals.
The entire Fishburne family wishes them luck as they make Fishburne history. I am also excited because some of my former swimmers Jason Montgomery ’11, Alex Burkhard ’11, Andrew Simons ’12 and Jacob Holsinger ’08 will be swinging by the state meet to lend their support.
Go Caissons!!!
