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Tiger swimmers top Cougars
Days before Kettle Run’s swim meet against Brentsville District, Cougars' coach Angie Smith set out to lower expectations.
“I do want to let you know our goal for this meet is time improvements not winning. They are a very large team,” wrote Smith in an e-mail.
Pitting a first-year program with no seniors like that of the Cougars against a powerhouse like Brentsville is almost unfair.
But any state championship will go through Brentsville if the team meets its own expectations, especially on the boys side as the Tiger boys finished third in states last year.
Brentsville swimmers ended up taking the top spot in 22 out of 24 events this past Saturday in the second Northwestern District meet of the year. While the Tiger girls won a lopsided contest 204-80, the boys came out on top by a closer 106-90 margin.
When asked what surprised her most about Brentsville, Kettle Run girls captain Sarah Hudson replied, “Sheer numbers.”
“Uh, they have a lot of people,” she added. “And a lot of their people have been swimming for a long time.”
Tiger coaches and players alike acknowledged their depth charts are much more substantial this year for both the boys and girls.
Brentsville boys captain Michael Hughes recalled that during the 2007-08 season, he was one of only a few Brentsville backstrokers on the team. “Now, we can fill a whole pool with decent backstrokers,” he said.
Hughes figured one of the best chances to improve on last year’s marks would be for more than one relay team to succeed.
“The relays should come together a little more because we have really good ‘A’ relays but our ‘B’ relays and all that, they seem to be, like, lacking a little bit. It would be nice to get state cuts for them, too,” he said, later adding, “It could easily get us a lot more points.”
According to girls captain Lauren Bussian, several underclassmen who participated last year now swim year round and rising stars like Annalee Gallagher, Nichole Haynes and Britany Higdon have shown more dedication to the sport.
“They get it a little bit more,” said Bussian. “As freshmen, they were just starting to get into it and as sophomores, they really understand the whole high school thing a little bit better.”
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