Jaguar Swimmers Finish Season With Historical Achievements

The Falls Church High School swimming and diving team concluded a successful season that saw swimmers shatter a host of long standing school records.

Senior co-captain An Le broke two school-best marks for the 50 (25.06) and 100 freestyle (55.69), shattering the 50 record four times over a 10-week span. The previous record in the 100 stood at 55.80.

Le broke the 100 freestyle record for FCHS at the Regional competition. That mark dated back to 1981. Le’s fifth-place finish in the 50 at the Regionals also earned her a trip to the state competition.

Le also took part in the girls 200 freestyle team that placed eighth in the region and crushed the existing school record of 1:45.30, dropping that time to 1:43.74. Le is joined on that team by co-captain Kristen Stefanowicz, Uyen Le and Mandy Smith. They’re school record-setting performance was good for eighth place in the region, missing a trip to States by two-tenths of a second.

“The amazing thing is that not one of the Falls Church High School girls swim team participates on a year-round United States Swimming team,” FCHS head coach Timothy Boyd said. “All individual swims at the regional competition were personal best times. It was a great way to end the season.”

On the boys side, the 200 Medley Relay team of Steven Wilkinson, Jonathan Shallant, Bryan Flaherty and Aaron Frank placed 16th in the region. Individually, Shallant had personal best swims in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke and Flaherty had a season best time in the 50 freestyle.

Mike Hume may be emailed at mhume@fcnp.com