The South Lakes Swim and Dive team officially ended their season at the winter sports banquet on March 1st, 2022. The team had a very successful season, bouncing back from the abnormal season last year because of Covid.

On January 28th, the Seahawks competed at Districts. The swimmers faced a huge difficulty before the meet due to the cancellation of prelims because of a snow storm. This meant that instead of swimmers having two chances to swim their event, they only had one. South Lakes went up against five other teams in the Concorde Conference. 

Though the cancellation changed many swimmers’ strategies, the Seahawks were able to shine through. The team had 86% best times. The girls 200 Medley Relay got their personal best time and made the state meet. South Lakes got third overall for women and fifth for men. We had 23 swimmers move on to regionals. 

“I am so proud of how everyone did over the weekend.” Coach Mallon, the head swim coach, said “Thank you all for swimming so hard and cheering on your teammates!” 

The week after Districts were Regionals. Regionals, thankfully, went according to plan on February 4th and 5th at Oak Marr rec center. The Seahawks went against 12 other teams including Herndon. 

Our South Lakes girls placed 8th overall and the boys placed 9th. The Seahawks had four relays qualify for states: girls 200 medley, 200 free and 400 free relays, boys 200 free relay. We also had three people qualify for individual events. Josh Bordovsky (Junior) in the 200 Individual Medley and Clara Landeryou (sophomore) and Veronika Owen (sophomore) in the 100 fly. 

Evan Melnick, a South Lakes diver, also earned an All American Score! The All American meet consists of the best swimmers and divers in the country. So this is a huge deal!

Two weeks later, on February 18th, the Seahawks competed at states in Stafford, Virginia. The Seahakws faced 49 other teams. 

Two of the girls relays made finals. The 200 medley relay consisted of Veronika Owen, Lauren Wagner (Junior), Clara Landeryou and Sophie Kennedy (Junior) in prelims and Juana Hernandez (Senior) in finals placed 13th overall. The girls 400 freestyle relay consisted of Ashlyn Diederich (Junior), Juana Hernandez, Veronika Owen and Clara Landeryou placed 10th overall. 

All three of our individual swimmers made finals! Josh Bordovsky placed eighth in his 200 I.M and Veronika Owen placed eighth in her 100 fly.

“I was very pleased with my swim.” Josh said, “I didn’t have a game plan going into it, I just went and swam as fast as I could.” 

“I was very happy with my performance.” Veronika said, “I felt that everything fell right into place. I didn’t really expect any time going into the race, I was just happy to be there.” 

Though the swim season has come to a close, the team has made an astounding comeback from Covid.  The swim team can’t wait to dive back in the pool next season!