Despite the setback of a snow storm two days earlier, the HHS boys and girls swim teams headed north to Fairfax for their regional competition. The meet was held at the Patriot Center at George Mason University and hosted swimmers from the 28 teams across region 4A North. From their conference meet, the HHS team sent eight girls and seven boys who qualified for the swimming portion of the competition. The team also had senior Jarek Arellano, junior Timothy Zepp and sophomore Abner Johnson qualify for the regional dive meet which will be held Feb 18th at Charlottesville. Although Johnson is competing at regionals he has already qualified for the state meet by points.

The team competed in three relays and had 16 individual races. The girls team consisted of freshman Zoey Fox, sophomores Allison Kasch and Katheryn Hulleman, juniors Abby Strickler and Merrill Harmison and seniors Sydney Little, Sara Franco and Ashley Riley. Little was the only swimmer to qualify for the state competition, placing 6th in the 100 meter breaststroke with a time of 1:15.45, and beating a school record. Franco placed 12th in the 100 meter backstroke with at time of 1:08.17 beating her personal record by two seconds and falling short of a school record by less than a second.

“I was really upset cause I wanted to break the school record, but I was happy that I dropped two seconds. I was really concentrating on my turns and my technique for the race,“ Franco said.

Fox, who competed in the 200 individual medley and the 200 yard medley relay with Little, Franco and Riley, was disappointed with the outcome of her races.

“It was weird because the people I know best on the team weren’t there but since we don’t put a lot of importance on age it was ok. My races weren’t that great so I’m hoping to come back next year with improvement. I really want to get my 200 meter time under 2:40,” Fox said.

The boys team consisted of sophomores Aaron Gusler, Josh Byrd, and Gavin Boontarue, junior Austin Bell and seniors Jacob Byrd, Paul Kim and Derrick Crites. Gusler, Josh Byrd, and Bell all competed in the 200 and 500 yard freestyle. Byrd and Gusler also participated in the 400 yard freestyle relay with Boontarue and Kim. Jacob Byrd, who competed in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle with Crites, placed 12th in the 50 with a time of 23.85, missing the state qualifying time by only .66 seconds.

Little, along with Johnson and the state qualifiers from the region dive meet, will travel down to the Christiansburg Aquatic Center on Feb 21st for the 4A state competition.