NSA swimmers post season best times at states
Published 7:33 pm Thursday, February 19, 2015
Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s boys’ and girls’ swimming teams concluded a re-building season with a solid showing at the 2015 Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association state swimming championships in Richmond last weekend.
“States went well,” NSA coach Karen Norman stated in an email.
The girls’ 200-yard freestyle relay team advanced from the preliminaries to the finals and ended up placing 16th with a time of 1:49.51. The team included senior Taylor Berard and freshmen Tori Psimas, Anna Grace Towler and Madi Wilson.
“David Forman swam four season best times at the meet,” Norman stated.
Forman, a junior, took 16th in the boys’ 500-yard freestyle by finishing in a personal record time of 5:15.84.
While he did not qualify for the finals in the boys’ 200-yard freestyle, he still improved on his 1:55.37 seed time with a season-best 1:54.18 in preliminaries.
His split times in the boys’ 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays were also his best during the 2014-15 campaign as he finished his legs in 23.26 seconds and 51.47 seconds, respectively.
Those two relay teams swam season best times, despite not advancing to the finals.
The 200 free relay team finished in one minute and 39.35 seconds, slightly quicker than its 1:40.13 seed time. In addition to Forman, the team included junior Sam Towler, freshman Ian Lotz and eighth-grader Nic Psimas.
The 400 free relay team took 7.55 seconds off its previous best mark this season, ending up with a time of 3:42.92. Joining Forman, Psimas and Towler on the team was junior Matt Minter.
“Matt Minter and Ian Lotz also had great splits in their relays,” Norman stated. “It was the first time either had participated in states.”
Lotz completed his leg of the boys’ 200-yard medley relay in 25.84 seconds, fastest on that team, and he also stayed under 26 seconds during his fourth of the 200 free relay with a time of 25.93 seconds.
In the medley relay, Minter cut his backstroke split to 32.07 seconds, and he cut two seconds off his previous best in the 400 free relay, finishing his leg in 58.91 seconds.
Nic Psimas contributed his personal best butterfly split to the medley relay, recording a time of 27.86 seconds.
“This has been a re-building year for us, after losing so many seniors in the past two years,” Norman stated. “However, with the performances during the (Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools) and the state meet, I am confident we are heading in the right direction. We have some amazing young swimmers that will do well in the future.”