Western girls finish 3rd in Group AA meet

Lafayette swimming and diving coach Harold Baker’s teams have been no stranger to the podium at the state championship over the past few years, and Saturday’s swimming portion of the weekend event proved to be no different. Baker’s boys team took home the 2009 Group AA title, and his girls team finished second.

Jamestown finished a mere three points behind Lafayette, 216-213. Orange County, behind a solid day from Nick Montes de Oca, finished 13th overall with 71 points. Montes de Oca placed third in the 200-yard individual medley and fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke. Charlottesville’s Daniel Foky won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 0:21.12, and finished third in the 100-yard freestyle. The Black Knights finished 16th overall, while Western Albemarle came in 22nd and Fluvanna County placed 40th.

Western Albemarle was this year’s host at UVa’s Aquatic and Fitness Center over the weekend, and the Warriors’ girls team used home-pool advantage to finish third overall behind Hidden Valley - which set five state records - and Lafayette, whose five-year win streak came to an end on Saturday.

Warriors coach Diana Bowen saw her team finish sixth in the 200-yard medley relay (Katie Lesemann, Seana Acker, Natalie Cronk and Katherine Nicholson) and seventh in the 400-yard freestyle relay (Lesemann, Acker, Mattie Webb and Emma McKinley), which gave the team a combined 50 points. Also helping the cause individually were McKinley, Cronk, Acker, Nicholson and Sarah Harding.

Fluvanna County’s Chelsea Tomko had a big day, finishing second in the 50-yard freestyle - just seven hundredths of a second back and less than a second off the state record - and fourth in the 100-yard butterfly. The Flucos placed 10th overall, Charlottesville finished 26th, Monticello 34th, and William Monroe 37th.