Saints sweep HRA in the pool
Published 9:41 pm Saturday, December 12, 2009
Nansemond-Suffolk’s swim teams swept Hampton Roads on Friday afternoon in NSA’s first home meet of the season at the Suffolk Family YMCA.
In the boys meet, the Saints won 113-57. Sam Burgett and Kevin Joseph won two events each for the Saints.
The girls meet was closer, with NSA winning 89-81. Andrea Beale led the Lady Saints with two event wins.
NSA was without sophomore Gabrielle Bishop, who was at a Junior National swim meet. Bishop won VIS state championships last season in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle.
Without Bishop, the Lady Saints still won the 50- and 100-meter freestyle events; with Meredith Davis winning the 50 in 30.43 seconds and Beale winning the 100 in 1:06.06. Beale also won the 200-meter individual medley in a time of 2:42.29.
Nansemond-Suffolk’s head coach, Karen Norman, was pleased with the victory and pleased to have a close, competitive meet.
“Hampton Roads has a very strong girls team, so this was a very good meet to have early on,” said Norman.
Both Saint teams opened their season last Friday in Richmond. The Lady Saints finished second of four schools at a meet at St. Catherine’s. St. Catherine’s won the VIS state championship last year and is a likely favorite again this season said Norman, so finishing second to St. Catherine’s was no problem for Norman.
The Saints, at St. Christopher’s, finished third out of five teams. Both NSA teams had great individual performances. Twelve Saint swimmers set personal best times in Richmond. Norman said more might have topped those times on Friday.
“We’ve got a lot of young kids, but we have more boys on the team than ever before,” said Norman.
Against the Navigators, NSA swept all three relay events on the boys side. Burgett, a senior, won the 100-meter butterfly in 1:09.23 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.66.
Joseph, a junior, beat the field by more than three seconds in the 50 freestyle (25.22) and was even stronger in the 100 freestyle, winning by nine seconds in 58.59.