Cougars Swim/Dive places third and sixth in Regions Meet

Jennifer Coon, Copy Editor

February 8, 2016

This past week was the swim/dive Regional Meet at Oak Marr Recreation Center. The meet was held over five days in which girls dive preliminaries and finals were on Tuesday, boys dive preliminaries and finals on Wednesday, girls swim preliminaries on Thursday, boys swim preliminaries on Friday, and girls and boys swim finals on Saturday.

Kyla Straker (10) and Julia Powell (12) were the only female Oakton divers that qualified for regions this year. Kyla placed in 15th, and Julia placed in 13th. Girls diving preliminaries were on Tuesday, February 2.

The next day was boys diving preliminaries. Bennett Fagan (12), Liam Klopfenstein (10), and Joe Perrault (9) qualified for the boys dive team for the Cougars for this year’s regional meet. Fagan placed in 10th, qualifying him for the state meet; Klopfenstein placed 20th, and Perrault in 17th.

On Thursday was girls swimming. To qualify for finals, a swimmer must place in the top 16 in their events. Many of the girls were able to put themselves in a good position to earn as many points as possible for Oakton. The same applied to the boys for their preliminaries on Friday, February 5.

Saturday, February 6 was finals for both boys and girls swim at Oak Marr Recreation Center. Many swimmers had best times in their events and relays, and some even were seeded in the A final, meaning they were eligible to earn points for their team. Coach Parker Ramsdell said that at Regions alone, seven girls and eight to nine boys qualified for the state meet by making the cut (the time needed to qualify for a meet) or placing in the top ten for their events at Regions. Not many swimmers placed in the top three for their events on Saturday, however Megan Byrnes (12) placed first in the 500 freestyle and second in the 200 freestyle. The girls’ 200 freestyle relay, which consisted of Byrnes, Elise Bourdelais (12), Evelyn Pickett (9), and Nika Sauger (9), placed second as well. There weren’t any Oakton boys that placed in the top three in finals.

Overall, the boys placed sixth with a total of 152 points in the region, and the girls placed third with 183 points. For the boys, the Langley Saxons won the meet with 229.5 points, with Patriot Pioneers with a total of 215 points as runner up. On the girls side, the Robinson Rams won the region meet with 222 points, and the Langley Saxons were the runner up with 194 points.

About the Contributor

Jennifer Coon, Copy Editor

As a veteran of the Oakton Outlook, Jennifer (right) has seen the paper and her skills evolve since the beginning of her time as a member of the staff. This year, Jennifer is a junior and copy editor of the paper for the second consecutive year. She is also one of the managers for the swim team and involved in many clubs with leadership positions, such as Oakton Swim Club. Some of her passions are writing and coaching for Special Olympics, and her goal for this year is to build a bridge between her interests and writing to give the Oakton community a glimpse into students at Oakton that are often left on the sidelines. By doing this, Jennifer hopes to achieve that the stigma around mental disabilities is reduced and students are more aware of this topic. In the future, Jennifer hopes to attend The Ohio State University as an English major with a minor in Professional Writing. Her favorite quote is the Special Olympics athlete oath: "Let me win. And if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."