The Goochland swim teams got in a quick workout last Saturday evening when they traveled to Ashland to face off against Patrick Henry. The two teams of similar size kept things rolling in a meet that finished in an amazing 75 minutes.

  Patrick Henry won both team competitions with a 123-39 victory for the girls and a 87-60 win for the boys. But despite the speed of the meet, the Group A Bulldogs turned in some impressive performances against the Group AAA opponent.

  “I think this was one of our best meets,” said Goochland head coach Elizabeth Ford. “It was fairly competitive and it was against a smaller swim team.
  “A lot of them have been sick the past week so I think a lot of them showed up and did their best,” Ford said.

  In one of the most competitive races of the day, Goochland’s Mary Wright battled Patrick Henry’s Lindsey Anderson neck-and-neck through every meter of the 200 IM. In Michael Phelps style, Wright took the win by a fingertip, reaching the wall in 2:21.53 just ahead of Anderson’s 2:21.75.

  Wright was even more impressive in the 500 Freestyle, dominating the field to win with a time of 6:05.25, over a minute and three seconds ahead of Patrick Henry’s Meade Reihl.

  Willie Sisk picked up two wins for the boys taking the 100 Butterfly with a time of 1:02.72 and like Wright pulling out a distance win in the 500 Free in 5:42.06.

  The one drawback of such a rapidly paced meet comes from lack of recovery time for swimmers between events. Therefore Goochland’s Justin Edwards was the clear choice if an ironman trophy was handed out. Not only did Edwards win three events, but they were back-to-back-to-back races for the boys to close out the meet.

  Edwards was scheduled to go through lifeguard certification prior to the meet therefore he thought he would arrive late. So Ford originally scheduled Edwards for only the final event of the evening.

  “He actually showed up on time and I was like I already have you in those events is that okay?” she said. “He was like ‘yeah’. He did backstroke, breast stroke and the relay all in a row and he still came out on top and he never complained about it.”

  Edwards took the 100 Backstroke with a time of 1:01.07. He was able to rest approximately two minutes during the girls 100 Back before he was back on the platform again for the 100 Breaststroke. Edwards claimed that race in comfortable fashion with a time of 1:07.98 over the Patriots’ Clay Neal’s 1:12.31.

  Another two minutes and Edwards returned to the pool for the final leg of 400 Freestyle Relay. Along with Sisk, Jace Gregory and Kyle McKay, the foursome took the win over Patrick Henry with a time of 4:09.56.

  “I was a little surprised with that relay because we did have two people who were sick in the boys relay,” Ford said. “But the guy went in there and stepped up and did just as well as the other guy would have done.”

  The team travels to Manassas this weekend for the Regional meet where the top three in each event move on to the state competition at the Christiansburg Aquatics Center on February 9-11. 

  Ford believes Wright, Sisk and Edwards stand the best chance of reaching the state championships. “They’re likely our top three that will move on,” she said. “I don’t know if we have anyone in our district or region. Hopefully they’ll be pretty competitive and they can step up and do well too. It will be a long day but it will be worth it.”