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Bobcat swimmers come together to take out Raiders
Battlefield swimmers celebrated senior night on Saturday with wins against Stonewall Jackson for both the boys and girls at in Manassas.
Yet it was the freshmen who made every bit as big of a splash as their twelfth-grade teammates at the Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center.
Kevin Lee and Justin Bogle led the Bobcat boys (6-1) to event victories in the 200 yard medley relay, 200 yard IM, 200 yard free relay and 100 yard backstroke while fellow freshmen Addison Smith, Meghan Pyles, Peri Lowell and Stephanie Bolton all captured individual or team golds for the Battlefield girls (5-2). The boys won 215-70 and the girls won 180-106.
The seniors had their share of star performances too, with Bobby Duggleby, Andrew Martin and EJ Tremols bringing in wins for the boys and Bethany Martin contributing to two wins for the girls.
“It always surprises me when the freshmen come in,” said coach Karri Guiliani, who has been at the helm of the Battlefield swimming program since the school’s 2004 inception.
At about the mid-point of the season, Guiliani noticed the chemistry among the 71 swimmers lacked and there was a separation between the 15-20 freshmen and the 50 or so upperclassmen.
“It was really different this year,” she said. “It felt like we lost a bit of team unity that we had in previous seasons.”
Senior and junior team captains, like Duggledy, Tremols, Martin and Kara Mountain then called together team meetings by the side of the pool, including the youngest amongst them.
Lady Bobcats bonded with a “big sister, little sister” type of approach and the boys began huddling together before relay events to motivate and pump up each other.
“The main thing I’ve worked with the seniors is to get to know the freshmen,” said Guiliani. Whereas it used to be that swimmers would hit the water with the idea of simply winning, she said team members began to realize that even if some of the freshmen were not first or second, they could still bring in points to help the team by finishing in the top five.
She singled out Bogle as a quiet-but-confident teenager who is beginning to grasp “the whole team concept” surrounding the high school version of the sport as he is accustomed to the individual style.
He is just one of many on the team though. The concept of balancing teamwork with individual achievement is most prevalent in practice for the girls’ relays, according to the coach.
“It’s been kind of funny to watch this season,” stated Guiliani as she discussed the competition between the Group A and Group B relay teams.
“And, the first couple of meets, our B relay would beat our A relay,” she said.
In fact, the 400 yard free relay B team consisting of Martin, Kashne Kamalanthan, Kelly Wagner and Kristen Havrilla finished first just last weekend by less than one second over the Battlefield A team of Bolton, Amy VanBuskirk, Laura Gass and Lara Crider.
What has happened is the girls in the lower B groups have wanted to earn spots on the A teams and have swam harder and trained better to achieve that goal.
“These girls, they swim fast but when they got something to swim for, they got a little faster,” said Guiliani.
The girls’ team is younger overall than the boys and is “in a building year,” according to the coach. At this point in the season, Guiliani is not sure which girls will make it to regions or states, but she expects to send 8-10 boys on to states alone with all three of the Battlefield relay teams competing at least in regions.
Duggleby, junior Kenny Heidel and EJ and Nick Tremols all appeared at states last year and are on track to go back this year.
As for the girls, Guiliani said she believes she had swimmers who can rack up points in any given event. It’s that No. 1 swimmer that’s still evading Battlefield.
“In the next two or three years, when they step up to be those first two finishers… I think they’re going to be amazing,” she said.
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