The Yorktown Patriots have won all of the big meets in recent years, but until this winter, the girls team had never won all three in the same season.
That changed the night of Feb. 18 in Hampton when Yorktown achieved that triple-crown milestone by winning the 2022-23 Virginia High School League’s Class 6 state swimming and diving championship.
Yorktown won with 216 points, just four more than runner-up and defending champion Battlefield. A year ago, Battlefield nipped Yorktown by two points in the state meet.
Prior to the state event this winter, Yorktown won region and district postseason titles.
“I didn’t think we would have enough at the start of the season to be state champions,” Yorktown coach Torey Ortmayer said. “But these girls have done so much winning the last four or five years, they know how to win big meets. That was their maturity that showed up.”
Yorktown clinched the season-ending state meet by finishing third in the 400 freestyle relay, the final event of the competition.
“A fourth would have been good enough and a fifth would have given us a tie for the title. So the girls knew what they had to do in the race,” Ortmayer said. “I told them before the race to have safe starts and go and compete hard.”
That relay consisted of Nora Sherman, Lauren Fatouros, Sarah Newman and anchor Rachel Conley. All four already had swam a considerable amount of yardage in other races that day, including the earlier preliminary events, prior to the 400 relay.
“They swam their best race of the seasons, time-wise,” Ortmayer said.
The Patriots finished as state champions despite not winning a single event. A second by Conley in the 200 freestyle and a runner-up by the 200 medley relay were the team’s highest finishes.
Conley had a third in the 100 butterfly, Bridget Morris Larkin was fourth in the 100 breaststroke, and Sherman was fifth in the 100 backstroke and sixth in the 200 individual medley.
Also sixth for Yorktown were Clara McCarthy in the 200 free and Sophie Fredericks in the fly.
Fatouros was eighth in the 500 free and 10th in the breast, McCarthy was 10th in the 500 free and Fredericks was 11th in the back.
That medley relay consisted of Morris Larkin, Sherman, Newman and Fredericks.
Yorktown’s ninth-place 200 free relay was made up of Conley, McCarthy, Newman and Mary Hecmanczuk.
“We had a very strong showing in the preliminary races earlier in the day, and that put us in a position to win the meet,” Ortmayer said. “Winning this state title was very tough, because Battlefield just kept rising up and swimming well. It was a very big accomplishment for this team.”
The state title was Yorktown’s fourth in school history. The other championships came in 2021 and back-to-back in 2006 and 2007. Since 2013, the Patriots have finished second in the state four times.
• In the boys Class 6 state swim and dive meet, the Yorktown Patriots finished third with 177 points. Langley won with 219 and Robinson was second with 184.
Leading Yorktown was double state champion Nolan Dunkel. The junior won the 100 butterfly in a state-record time of 47.33 seconds and was first in the 100 backstroke in 47.91. Both times also were school records.
Dunkel also swam on the team’s second-place 200 free relay by anchoring the event and third-place 200 medley relay.
“We had eight swimmers to put ourselves in contention to win, and we did that,” Yorktown coach Torey Ortmayer said. “Nolan did a lot of the heavy lifting for us. He understands about doing what it takes to put the team first.”
Dunkel won all six of his his postseason individual races, including two victories each in district and region meets.
Yorktown’s Luke Aslaksen finished fifth in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free in the region meet, Noah Robinson was fifth in the 100 breaststroke and 12th in the fly, and Rayce Winn was seventh in boys diving.
Billy Weber swam on the 200 free and medley relays. Robinson, Aslaksen, Lincoln Hop and Colin Sartori also swam on relays.
• For the Washington-Liberty Generals boys team at the Virginia High School League’s Class 6 state meet, Eli Martin had a strong showing by finishing third in the 100 backstroke and fourth in the 200 individual medley.
