Last Saturday, Jan. 20, the George Mason High School varsity swimming squad closed out its regular season with a meet against Briar Woods High School. While the men pulled out a narrow victory, 144-120, their fellow lady swimmers were unable to complete the sweep of the AA Falcons, as they fell 194-68.
The Mustangs were led by sophomore Carlos Clark, who was the newest state qualifier for Mason, adding to the already impressive total of swimmers who will be racing at the state meet. Clark qualified in both the 200-yd. freestyle as well as the 500-yd. freestyle and although he lost the 500-yd. free, Clark still managed to make the cut for the state meet by two seconds.
Also posting victories for the boys was the 4×50 medley relay team of juniors Colin Lauer, Andrew Breen and Kyle Nette, as well as freshman Sam Parker. Parker filled in admirably for junior Jeff Williams, who was absent for the meet. The relay team, although absent one of their usual swimmers, managed to once again post a state qualifying time, beating the cut by .15 seconds.
Lauer came in first in the 100-yd. freestyle and the 100-yd. backstroke, while Breen placed first in the 50-yd. freestyle. Senior Eddie Huber was nipping at Breen’s heels the entire race, finishing a close second.
Nette came in second in the 100-yd. butterfly, narrowly missing the state-qualifying time for the event by .27 seconds and losing only to state-qualifying Tim Mittan by less than a second. Parker also narrowly missed the cut for the state meet in the 100 breaststroke by .12 seconds.
The boys 4×50 freestyle relay team of Breen, Clark, Huber and Nette obliterated the competition, winning by nine seconds, while their counterparts, the girls 4×50 freestyle relay squad came in a close second. The girls team was comprised of juniors Krisie Southern and Jourdan Frankovich, senior Kristi Price and freshman Kelley Frank.
Frank led the girls squad once again, as she posted yet another state-qualifying time of 57:44, her best of the year in the 100 yard freestyle. Frank also won the 200-yd. IM to add to her victory total on the day, besting Kate Fowler of Briar Woods by more than four seconds.
Next up for Mason is the district meet, to be held Tuesday in Strasburg at 4 p.m.
