The George Mason swim team traveled to Christiansburg, Virginia on February 21 to compete in the 2016 2A State Championship. The boys left with a first place trophy scoring 383 points. The girls team won the runner up trophy to Maggie Walker High School with 315 points. Overall, 21 out of the original 22 swimmers advanced from the preliminary rounds to the final rounds of the meet.
The closest and most intense races of the night were the relays on both the girls and boys team. Kicking off the meet, the boys 200 medley relay placed first with a time of 1:41.92 in a close finish against Maggie Walker. The girls 200 medley relay then placed second with a time of 1:57.57.
In the boys 200 freestyle relay, Mason swam a 1:33.91 barely putting them in second place behind Radford High School, losing by 0.82 seconds. The girls 200 freestyle relay however pulled out a first place win with a time of 1:45.32.
The biggest event of the night however the boys 400 freestyle relay with TJ Roche (Freshman), Miller Surette (Senior), Daniel Reinfurt (Junior) and Justin Britton (Junior). These four set not only a new team record, but also a new state record with the time of 3:18.42.
The girls 400 freestyle relay finished in second place with a time of 4:02:07.
The night also brought about many individual highlights. Tying as top scorers and leading the team for George Mason, Britton (Junior) and Surette each placed first in all their individual events. Britton in the 100 backstroke and 100 freestyle. Surette in the 500 freestyle and the 200 IM.
Other individual highlights were Adam Janicki (Freshman) placing fifth in the boys 200 IM; Roche, who placed second in the boys 100 Freestyle and third in the boys 50 Freestyle; Chris Markus (Senior) dropped a second giving him a fourth place title in the boys 100 Fly; Francesca King (Senior) placed fifth in the girls 100 fly; Sam Updike (Sophomore) placed sixth in the boys 100 breaststroke; Julianne Kelly (Senior) placed fifth in the girls 100 breaststroke dropping 1.5 seconds.
With a great day of team and individual successes, this was the third year in a row that the boys’ Mason swim team has won the VA State Championship.
“We really worked hard the entire year, we graduated a lot of seniors and last year I knew it would be hard to defend the boy’s state title. Everyone stepped their game up to get us to this victory,” said Head Coach Jack Cashin. “We gave Maggie Walker a run for their money and I can’t wait to see how we do next year.”
