Lexi Stephens Beats Her Time from Winter Jrs; Heilman Wins 4 at VA High School Invite

2022 Hanover Hawks Holiday Swim Invitational

• December 17, 2022
• Hanover High School, Richmond, Virginia
• Short Course Yards (25 yards), prelims/finals (high school mid-season invitational)
• Full meet results

15-year-old Thomas Heilman returned home from the Winter Junior Championships and dove straight back into competition last weekend at the Hanover Hawks Holiday Swim Invitational.

His third consecutive weekend of racing, this time he wore the cap of Western Albemarle High School, winning one individual event and three relays in the one-day, prelims/finals meet.

While his times didn’t get that close to his swims for Winter Juniors, by any other standard they were ridiculous results for a mid-season meet for a high school sophomore. He swam 46.09 in the 100 fly, missing his National Age Group Record of 44.67 in that event.

He also swam the leadoff leg of Western Albemarle’s winning 200 (20.17, en route to a 1:27.13) and 400 (44.05 en route to a 3:09.30) free relays, plus the butterfly leg of the winning 200 medley relay (20.22 en route to a 1:32.24).

Western Albemarle competes in Class 4 of the six-class Virginia High School swimming & diving system, with Class 6 being the largest schools and Class 1 being the smallest schools.

His 100 fly time is faster than the Class 4 Record that he set at last year’s state championship meet (46.78). The team’s 200 medley also was half-a-second better than their Class 4 Record of 1:32.71 set at last year’s state meet – in spite of graduating two legs of that relay.

The team’s meet-closing 400 free relay time of 3:09.30 is also under the Class 4 Record of 3:09.81, set by a team from Lafayette High School in 2019.

Andrew Seliskar still holds the overall Virginia High School State Record in the 100 fly with a 46.13 set in 2015 at the Class 5 State Championship meet.

The Western Albemarle boys will seek to repeat their state title in February – a good bet, given that they almost doubled the next-best team, Blacksburg, at last year’s meet, 409-213. Blacksburg was at this meet, and on the boys’ side, WA won with 975 points and Blacksburg was 2nd with 610 points.

Heilman broke Meet Records in the 100 fly and 100 free, as did the WA 200 medley relay. Two other meet records went down on the boys’ side: Monacan High School’s Ryan Hufford won the 200 free in 1:38.35 and the 100 back in 48.77. The senior is the defending 200 and 500 free state champion in Class 4 and is committed to swim at South Carolina next fall.

He avoided a big head-to-head matchup with Nathan Szobotoa in the boys’ 500 free. Szobota won that race by almost 12 seconds, touching in 4:28.60, and taking more than half-a-second off the Meet Record. Szobota swims in Class 5, so the two won’t face off at the state meet either. His time would have won last year’s Class 5 state title by almost three seconds.

On the girls’ side, Western Albermarle also won, but it was not for wont of effort by Lexi Stephens of the runner-up Cosby Titans. Stephens won the 100 fly in 54.93 and the 100 back in 53.69. Both she and Christine Datovech from Maggie Walker Governors were under the old meer record (set last year by Datovech in 55.11).

Stephens’ 100 back swim was a new personal best, a tenth better than she swam at Winter Juniors, and both swims were well-under the times that got her 3rd and 2nd in the 100 fly and 100 back, respectively, at last year’s Class 6 State Championship meet.

Stephens, a junior, is a commit to the University of Alabama.

There were a couple of other Meet Record breakers on the girls’ side. Monacan High School won the girls’ 200 medley in 1:46.10, breaking their own record from last year; and Datovech broke her own Meet Record with a 22.86 in the 50 free (.01 slower than her best time).