Brookville girls, JF boys win Seminole swimming titles

Brookville’s girls and Jefferson Forest’s boys swam up to their expectations to capture team titles at Friday night’s Seminole District championships at the Jamerson Family YMCA.

The Bees dominated the Cavaliers in the girls meet, scoring 199 points to JF’s 114, while Forest held off Brookville in the boys competition, 156-123, despite missing a number of swimmers with illnesses.

“The flu’s going around,” said Forest first-year coach Elisa Morton, who was selected as district girls coach of the year as well as co-boys coach of the year. “Chad (Nowakowski) had the flu and Joe (Euhus) is recovering from the flu (but) we’ve got a pretty good group of boys.”

The two schools combined to set four meet records in the process of qualifying the majority of their swimmers for next Saturday’s Region III meet at JMU.

Bees senior Jason Brame, the district boys swimmer of the year, beat former teammate Kip Abbott’s mark in the 100 butterfly by nearly a second in 53.57 seconds. He also broke his own record in the 500 free for the second year in a row, setting the standard at 4:46.29.

“I’m really happy with it, especially the 100 fly,” said Brame, who was coming off a sickness himself and was broken down through his YMCA training. “It was definitely an all-time personal best.

“(In the 500 free) I just had to push myself the entire race,” he added. “I’d like to break my PR of 4:34, especially at the state meet.”

He placed third in the 500 free at the Group AA meet last season.

JF sophomore Carter Watson edged Brame’s mark set last year in the 200 freestyle by 0.16 seconds, winning in 1:46.25.

“I was kind of shooting for the 100 free record, too,” said Watson, who was a bit under the weather himself. “(But) I was pretty happy with it.”

Freshman teammate Sarah Fredericksen, the district girls swimmer of the year, set the fourth record, winning the 100 fly in 1:02.21.

Fredericksen, who took August to November off from swimming to march in JF’s band, still isn’t swimming up to her potential. But she was fast enough to break Lauren Hines’ meet record in the 100 butterfly in 1:02.21.

“I just think competitive swimming is so much fun, because you get to break meet records and go to state,” said Fredericksen, who also won the 500 free. “Representing JF swimming is awesome. It’s a lot of fun to make new friends and compete.”

“She’s actually still recovering from (the flu) and wasn’t as strong as she wanted to in the 500, but she still swam very, very well,” Morton added.

Brookville freshman Amber Wingfield edged close friend Emily Black of Forest head-to-head on the anchor leg of the meet-ending 400 free relay. Alissa Williams had recaptured the lead for Brookville on the third leg after Fredericksen had opened it for JF on the second leg.

Wingfield had an exceptional meet, also winning the 100 freestyle in 57.0 and the 200 IM in 2:14.98.

“On my start (in the 100 free), I slipped (off the board) and kind of belly-flopped,” said Wingfield, who just got off antibiotics three days ago. “I took last week off and I’m just tired and exhausted physically, but I was able to bounce back.”

Fellow Bees freshman Taylor Musgrove edged senior sister Morgan Musgrove in the 50 free in 26.51 seconds, earning her state qualifying time.

“She was supposed to beat me,” she said, noting Morgan was seeded nearly half a second faster. “She beat me at the last meet we swam in the 100 free so I was determined to beat her here.”

Brookville’s boys swept the 200 medley and 200 free relays, with Brame anchoring both. He trailed by nearly three yards going into the final leg of the 200 free and was able to pull away by about the same distance to win by a full second in 1:36.45.

“It was the last race of my district career, so I wanted to step up and win it for my team,” Brame said. “Both of our (200) relays did a great job tonight. I’m proud of the team.”

“The boys really, really put it together,” Brookville coach Hank Reed added of the opening 200 medley relay.

He knew it would be hard to catch the Cavaliers, however, after Watson spearheaded a first-through-fourth-place sweep in the 200 free.

“We’ve had some big swims, but they came back,” Reed said. “When they get big points like that, it’s hard to keep up.”