Anxiety gave way to confidence as the Yorktown Patriots realized they would win a third straight girls state swimming-and-diving championship.
Yorktown finished first with 288 points Wednesday (March 5) at the Virginia High School League Class 6 state meet, with their rival Battlefield Bobcats second with 252 at the Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center in Stafford.
Battlefield now has finished a close second to Yorktown the past three years.
“We’re always sweating it out between us and Battlefield in the state, because they are always better than we thought on paper,” Yorktown coach Torey Ortmayer told ARLnow. “We had a little cushion of a lead entering the finals, but you take nothing for granted.”
The state crown was Yorktown’s sixth in program history and fourth in five years. The Patriots were second in 2022 by two points to Battlefield.
Including morning and afternoon preliminary swimming races, then the evening finals, the meet lasted nearly 13 hours. The team school bus for the meet had left Yorktown at 5:45 a.m.
Yorktown pretty much had the championship clinched prior to the meet’s final 400-freestyle relay race, as long as that Patriots’ team wasn’t disqualified. The relay wasn’t, finishing fifth.
“It’s hard to win three in row,” Ortmayer said. “Things didn’t go actually as we planned, but the swimmers came through.”
Yorktown won two races. The 200 free relay was first in 1:35.76 and Sophie Fredericks won the 100 butterfly in 54:32.
“The 200 relay came through and Sophie won the fly, so that gave us some momentum and we felt better and less stressful,” Ortmayer said.
The Patriots finished second in three races, including the medley relay, just behind the winning Battlefield foursome in the meet’s initial race.
Second individually for Yorktown were Mary Hecmanczuk in the 50 free and Cory McKenzie in the 100 backstroke.
Third were Fredericks in the back, Nora Sherman in the 200 individual medley, Lila Sherman in the 200 free and diver Cecilia Yen. Fourth were McKenzie in 50 free, Lila Sherman in the 500 free and Hecmanczuk in the fly.
Cate Lawler was seventh in diving, Emory Haynes ninth in the 100 breaststroke and Jackie Furches 15th in the 200 free.
“The divers scored about 10 points more than we expected, so that helped a lot,” Ortmayer said.
Yorktown’s winning 200 free relay consisted of Hecmanczuk, Fredericks, McKenzie and Nora Sherman.
Swimmers on the second-place medley relay were McKenzie, Haynes, Fredericks and Emme Cobb. The 400 free relay had Hecmanczuk, Lila Sherman, Nora Sherman and Alaina Desautels.
For the Washington-Liberty girls in the state meet, Charlie Scogna finished sixth in the IM and Clara McCarthy ninth in the 200 free. The 400 free relay was 10th for Washington-Liberty.
