AD's Corner

by Josh Scouten, boys' athletic director

Reports on middle school and high school swimming as well as high school basketball
MS Swimming Finishes 6th of 61 at State Meet
The middle school swim team competed in the MS State Champs Meet. The swimmers all swam lifetime bests in the Centennial Sportsplex pool against the best competition in the state. The following advanced to the finals with their overall place in the meet noted behind the event or individual name. The combined efforts of the team earned them a 6th place overall finish out of 61 teams entered.

Congratulations to all our swimmers and coaches on a fantastic season!
 
Girls:
200 Medley Relay - 7th place
200 Free - Lauren French - 11th place
50 Free - Kursten Griffin - 13th place
100 Fly - Lauren French - 15th place
100 Free - Kursten Griffin - 16th place
200 Free Relay - 7th place
400 Free Relay - 11th place
 
Boys:
200 Medley Relay - 3rd place
200 Free - Pelham Bergesen - 16th place 
200 IM - Ian Brash - 12th place
50 Free - Sam Horner - 10th place
200 Free Relay - 4th place
100 Back - Stefan Pretorius - 8th place
100 Breast - Ian Brash - 5th place
400 Free Relay - 9th place
 
HS Swimming Region Meet Results
The high school swim team competed in the Region Swim Meet last Friday at Centennial Sportsplex. The full recap is included below.

30 of our 35 individual swims (86%) were season bests or lifetime best swims. All of the nine relays swam season best times; of the 36 relay splits we had, 30 of them were season best performances.

Here's the event-by-event recap of the day:
200 medley relay: The "A" girls moved from being seeded 17th to finishing 11th.  Trudy Zou, Natalie Teselle, and Mia Pretorius all went lifetime best splits; their time earned them 9th on the USN all-time Top 10 list. Kevin Chen, Elliott Clark, Ben Werther, and Jack Reed swam our season best time. Elliott's 32.2 breaststroke split was the standout leg. 
 
200 freestyle: Graham Shockley dropped four seconds (from 2:12 to 2:08); Caroline Hollahan went a season best time and her second-fastest swim ever.  
 
200 IM: Trudy went a lifetime best by over a second and improved from 17th to 13th.
 
50 freestyle: Joshua Twillie, Jack, Mitchell Coverstone, Ben, Foster Cook, Jay Karp, Mia, Ky Hall (DCA), and Betsy Nolan ALL went season best times -- that's 9 for 9!  Jack moved up to #5 on the USN top 10 list with his 22.9. Foster had a huge drop from 27.1 to 25.3, and Mitchell dropped from 25.6 to 24.1. Both Jack (12th) and Josh (10th) scored.
 
100 butterfly: Caroline Hollahan went her lifetime best by nearly a second (1:14.1); Margaret Luffman swam a season best time (1:05.2), and Natalie Teselle won her heat in a lifetime best swim of 1:03.5, scoring in the process.
 
100 freestyle: Betsy Nolan kept the sprint freestyle train rolling, dropping from 1:07.5 to 1:05.7. Jessica Mei dropped two seconds, from 1:07.0 to 1:04.9; Annie French improved from 1:04.1 to 1:02.2, and Mia Pretorius cut nearly a second to improve to 1:02.2.  In the boys' pool, Kevin Chen had a season best time of 1:01.6.  Elliott Clark nearly negative split his race, going 30.1-30.3 to improve from 1:02.0 to 1:00.5.  Foster Cook had a huge swim, dropping from 1:01.3 to 57.4 and crushing his heat in the process. Ben Werther had a huge drop from 58.9 to 54.6 to destroy his heat.  Mitchell Coverstone sprinted the first 50 trying to break 24 and punch his ticket to the state meet, and got even closer (24.08).
 
500 freestyle: Graham Shockley dropped 15 seconds from his PR set two weeks ago, going 5:44.2.  Natalie Teselle had a battle and broke 6 minutes shortly after her 100 fly.
 
200 freestyle relay: The boys were seeded 8th and moved up to 7th in a season best time of 1:35.2, earning a spot on the USN top-10 list: Mitchell Coverstone led off in another best time that's just shy of the state cut (24.06), and Josh Twillie (23.4), Ben Werther (24.9), and Jack Reed (22.7) added strong splits as well. This looks like a relay that can score at state with a couple of tweaks. The girls looked good as well, with Betsy Nolan, Puja Jagasia, Jessica Mei, and Caroline Hollahan swimming our season best time.
 
100 backstroke: This was the one race all day that didn't have any lifetime bests for us. Puja Jagasia was just .3 off her best time.
 
100 breaststroke: Jessica Mei swam a season best time by nearly 3 seconds; Annie French improved nearly 4 seconds to 1:16.2, and Ky Hall dropped from 1:19.4 to 1:17.5 -- both earned their state cuts!  Trudy Zou swam a lifetime best, winning her heat and earning a spot on the podium at 7th.  In the boys' pool, Elliott Clark had a well split race, dropping almost three more seconds in the process, finishing in 1:12.7 
 
400 freestyle relay:  In the boys' pool, Jack Reed led off the "A" relay in his best time (53.5); Graham Shockley was his best time as well (59.2). Mitchell Coverstone (58.4) and Josh Twillie (52.7) were pretty worn down in their fourth event but still managed to help the team get 12th.  The "B" relay was highlighted by Jay Karp's 10 second improvement over his best time, 1:01.7. Kevin Chen (1:00.3), Elliott Clark (1:01.2), and Foster Cook (58.4) were all solid at the end of a long meet.
 
The girls' "B" relay had strong swims from Betsy Nolan (1:06.4), Katie Watke (1:05.3), Jessica Mei (1:05.5), and Annie French (1:02.1).  The "A" team finished 12th, with Margaret Luffman (1:02.6), Mia Pretorius (1:01.8), Natalie Teselle (1:01.2), and Trudy Zou (59.8) all posting hard-won fast times.
 
HS Basketball teams prepare for District Tournament
The boys' and girls' basketball teams played back-to-back Friday and Saturday. 

The girls defeated Lighthouse Christian on Friday night at home. Trailing by one point at halftime, the Tigers returned to the court and made a run in the third quarter. The Tiger defense held Lighthouse to just one point in the quarter while scoring seven to take a 22-17 lead into the fourth quarter. A quick run by Lighthouse at the start of the fourth quarter made it a game again, but USN responded led by Olivia Dossett, who scored 13 points as the Tigers pulled out the 37-27 victory. 
 
They traveled to Ezell Harding on Saturday for a district game against the second place Eagles. The Tigers struggled for three quarters to put the ball in the basket, with only the third quarter sparking the scoreboard for USN. Olivia Dossett scored 10 points to lead the team, but the Tigers could only put 19 total points together against an athletic and sharp-shooting Eagles team. 
 
The boys' basketball team hosted Webb School on Friday night in a district game that would get the Tigers back on the winning side. USN used solid defense to keep the Feet off the scoreboard and scored at will throughout the game. Drew Dibble led with 16 points and Tevin Burdette added 15 points to pace the Tigers. USN led by 14 at halftime and cruised in the second half to win by 17 points, 58-41.
 
USN traveled to Ezell Harding on Saturday as well and improved their district record to 6-3 with a 59-43 victory. The Tigers started the game slow, but picked up the pace in the second quarter after trailing 6-8 at the end of the first. USN played great defense in the second quarter and connected on the offensive end to build a 21-13 lead at halftime. The two teams played a fairly even third quarter with USN outscoring EHCS 17-14 to hold a 38-27 lead going into the final quarter. The Tigers opened the fourth on a 7-0 run that snapped the spirit of the Eagles with USN up by 18 points. Tevin Burdette paced the Tigers with 22 points and Rashad Jones added 11 points.
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