Oakton Girls Swimmers Win Second State Championship

Oakton High School's girls swim and dive team won the state championship for the second year in a row this weekend. The boys team placed third.

The Cougar ladies triumphed over Yorktown and McLean with 275 points and two new state records in the 200-yeard medley relay race (time of 1:45.11) and 200-yard freestyle relay (time of 3:28.44). The boys won third place with 192 points.

Highlights from the Friday and Saturday George Mason University meets:

• Janet Hu, Melissa Shebat, Julia Capobianco, and Gillian Crews made up the 200-yard medley.
• Laura Branton, Kendall Lawhorn, Megan Byrnes, and Janet Hu placed first in the 400-yard freestyle relay, 3:28.44.
• Crews, Elise Bourdelais, Byrnes, Laura Branton placed first in the 200-yard freestyle relay, AAC qualifying time.
• Janet Hu swam four state records. She placed first in the 100-yard butterfly, 52.84, a new state record and an AAA qualifying time. Hu also won the 100-yard backstroke, 53.27, a new state record and an AAA qualifying time.
• Megan Byrnes placed first in the 500-yard freestyle, 4:49.75, a new state record and an AAA qualifying time. She also won second place in the 200-yard freestyle with an AAC qualifying time.
• Philip Hu placed first in the 100-yard backstroke, 49.44, with a new state record and an AAA qualifying time. He won sixth place in the 100-yard.
• Branton placed first in the 100-yard freestyle with an AAA qualifying time. She also won second place in the 50-yard freestyle with an AAC qualifying time.
• Diver Bennett Fagan won eighth place overall at the AAA State Boys 1m diving final, 347.70 points.
• John Shebat, Michael Pettinichi, Hu, and Michael Ambrose placed third in the 200-yard medley relay with an AAC qualifying time.
• Shebat, Gregory DeRosa, Ambrose and Denny Nguyen placed fifth in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
• Shebat placed second in the 100-yard backstroke with an AAC qualifying time. He also placed seventh in the 50-yard Freestyle.
• Nguyen placed sixth in the 200-yard individual medley.
• Nathan Pawlowicz placed seventh in 500-yard freestyle.
• Crews placed fifth in 100-yard butterfly.
• Julia Capobianco placed seventh in the 100-yard butterfly.

You can find complete results from the Virginia AAA State Championship meet here www.vhsl.org/athletics.