Lady Falcons Swim To Second Place Finish, Set State Record

Posted

By Amy Russell
The Severna Park Girls Swim team took an impressive second place at the Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association State Championships in late February. The girls, who have proven strong all season, recovered quickly from the loss of several key performers from last year with a wealth of new talent that flourished throughout the season.

The Lady Falcons finished just 25 points shy of Urbana High School with a strong performance that included more first place finishes than any team at the meet, including the winners.
“We knew Urbana was the team to beat at States – they have been the past couple of years,” said head coach Mike McTammany afterward. “We did a lot of online research, looking up past meet results to try to figure out where their coach would put their kids so we could arrange ours accordingly,” he confessed.
McTammany admitted he didn’t know much about their freshmen, but apparently they didn’t know about Park’s outstanding crop of first year swimmers, who have been a powerful force all season.
“In the pre-season, one paper ranked us third in the County because we lost a lot of talent last year, but we knew we had strong kids coming in this year to fill the holes,” acknowledged McTammany.
So strong in fact, just weeks before the girls took first place in both the County meet and the Region finals. “We knew if we could get Broadneck in Regionals, that would be a good indicator,” said McTammany, referring to the talent on a powerful Bruins squad.
In all, the girls took five first place finishes and fifteen top tens at the State finals. Perhaps the highlight of the girls’ event, and certainly something to ease the disappointment of finishing second, the Falcons made history in their final event posting a new State record in the 400-yard Freestyle Relay, which was previously held by Urbana.
“By the time the last event came around we knew we weren’t going to win, so it was great to go out and beat Urbana’s state record in the end,” said McTammany. “It was a great way to start thinking about next year.”
By winning more events than Urbana and establishing a new state record, the Severna Park girls team came home feeling proud of their performance, both in and out of the pool.
“It was such a fun meet, all the girls were very gracious at the end, and the coaches were great too,” said McTammany. “Next year, we’ll be back and Urbana will need to be ready.”

Severna Park’s State Swim Championship Results
Women Overall 2nd Severna Park 300 points

Women’s 200 Yard Medley Relay
1 Severna Park 1:50.99
1. Caroline Evans
2. Katie Parker
3. Katelyn Sowinski
4. Molly Gallant


Event 4 Women 200 Yard Freestyle
4 Jenna Kirchoff Severna Park 2:01.62
19 Meghan Bohny Severna Park 2:18.24

Event 6 Women 200 Yard IM
1 Katie Parker Severna Park 2:11.64
23 Haley Hutcheson Severna Park 2:39.32

Event 8 Women 50 Yard Freestyle
2 Marissa Hand Severna Park 25.21
3 Molly Gallant Severna Park 25.37

Event 12 Women 100 Yard Butterfly
1 Katelyn Sowinski Severna Park 56.84
9 Caroline Evans Severna Park 1:05.44

Event 14 Women 100 Yard Freestyle
3 Marissa Hand Severna Park 55.39
7 Molly Gallant Severna Park 57.74

Event 16 Women 500 Yard Freestyle
3 Jenna Kirchoff Severna Park 5:18.71

Event 18 Women 200 Yard Freestyle Relay
2 Severna Park 1:43.51
1. Marissa Hand
2. Caroline Evans
3. Molly Gallant
4. Jenna Kirchoff


Event 20 Women 100 Yard Backstroke
7 Caroline Evans Severna Park 1:05.10
13 Courtney Stoner Severna Park 1:07.82


Event 22 Women 100 Yard Breaststroke
1 Katie Parker Severna Park 1:07.23
9 Olivia Roy Severna Park 1:15.61

Event 24 Women 400 Yard Freestyle Relay
1 Severna Park 3:38.07 (Maryland State Record)
1. Marissa Hand
2. Jenna Kirchoff
3. Katie Parker
4. Katelyn Sowinski

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here