Without a diving team, the Brentsville District boys could not be favored to win at the Group AA state swim meet Feb. 26-28 at the University of Virginia Aquatic Facility in Charlottesville.

But third place for the second year in a row? Now that's something to brag about.

The Tigers earned 151 points at the state meet, finishing behind only first-place Lafayette (216 points) and No. 2 Jamestown (213). and blowing away 38 out of 40 other teams as fourth-place York finished 35 points behind BDHS.

Most impressively for Brentsville, the 4x400 yard freestyle relay team brought home the gold in the 23rd event of the weekend. Nathan Brown (23.74), Chuckie Zumbaugh (50.17), Michael Hughes (22.24) and Ryan Dunne (46.73) finished the final meet with a combined score of 3:15.78, besting Jamestown's Kyle Evans, Jon Kelmer, Joey Hewitt and Scott Cutler by just 1.88 seconds.

"Everyone one of those swimmers that swam probably had their personal best in the splits," said head coach Julie DeNard.

Brentsville actually won the event twice as the boys' preliminary time of 3:20.30 was 1.66 seconds better than second-seeded Jefferson Forest.

The final time came within 5.13 seconds of the Group AA state record set by Tabb in 2005.

"I don’t know if their technique was anything different than they normally have been doing," DeNard said of her swimmers, mentioning the were a little more relaxed and rested in the run up to the event.

But on game day, "There’s a lot you can do on adrenaline," she said.

Though the Tigers did not win any other events outright, Brown, Hughes and Dunne earned major points for Brentsville in other events. The three boys teamed up with Jules Coy to post a third-place time of 1:39.37 in the first event of the competition, the 4x200 yard medley.

Dunne followed up with an individual bronze of his own in the 200 yard freestyle (1:44.23) while Brown (1:47.35) came in eighth place in an event won by state record-breaker Seth Wensel (1:39.09) of Christiansburg. BD's Zumbaugh (1:52.72) placed 17th and Chris Cunningham (1:57.97) finished 26th.

Dunne wasn't finished there though: his time of 52.64 in the 100 yard butterfly stuck him in fifth place.

Hughes also showed up big with a fifth place finish of his own in the 500 yard freestyle. (4:48.14).

Brown just missed the cut for the top group in the 100 yard freestyle, ending up 1.13 seconds behind eighth-place Devin Bowers in the preliminary event. Brown ended up taking third, however, in the Group B competition.

Meanwhile, the girls team came in tied for 17th overall with George Mason High School, accumulating 36 points. Nicole Haynes led the way with the team's only top-10 finish, placing seventh in the 100 yard backstroke (1:01.22). She also earned 12th in the 200 yard freestyle (2:01.61) while teammate Annalee Gallagher cracked the top 20 in four events, including twice as an individual and twice as part of medley teams.