Virginia Tech Adds Unique Twist To 2021 Hokie Belt Challenge

This year for the Hokie Belt Challenge, Sergio Lopez opted for a slightly different format than his usual dual meet.

During the first test of the practice, each of the swimmers was asked to swim 2x 150 on 15 minutes, with a 200 easy between the two races. Sergio uses these 150’s to find his swimmers 50, 100, 150, and 200 pace’s for practice, and gives credit to Gus Calado for helping him develop the chart they use for these paces back in 2009.

The scoring works as follows:

1. For every 150 season-best time, the swimmer’s and teams got a point.
2. For Medley Relays, the fastest lead off and split time for each leg were awarded a point.
3. For Freestyle Relays, the fastest lead-off and split time will also get a point.

Below is the breakdown for the “First Test”:

• 1×150 All out on 15:00
• 200 Easy during the 15:00
• 1×150 All Out on 15:00
• 200 Easy Choice on 6:00

First Test Notable Swims – Women:

• Caroline Bentz finished first in the 150 Backstroke in a time of 1:26.92(27.68/29.56/29.68)
• Reka Gyorgy finished first in the 150 Butterfly in a time of 1:29.59 (27.85/30.66/31.08)
• Charlotte Riggs swam the fastest 150 Breaststroke on the women’s side in a time of 1:44.68 (32.21/35.69/36.78) just out-touching Allison Henry who finished in a time of 1:44.73 (32.26/37.03/35.44)
• Rose Pouch won the first round of 150 Freestyle in a time of 1:22.24 (25.94/27.73/28.57); whereas Reka Gyorgy had the fastest time for the women in 1:22.0(26.08/27.83/28.09) in the second round of 150s.

First Test Notable Swims – Men:

• Will Koeppen finished first in the 150 Backstroke in a time of 1:18.41(25.07/26.42/26.92)
• Youssef Ramadan won the 150 Butterfly in a time of 1:17.66 (23.50/27.27/26.89) winning his event in the second round by nearly 3 seconds over the rest of the field.
• Blake Manoff finished with the fastest time of the day in the 150 Freestyle in a time of 1:10.79 (22.25/24.08/24.46), ahead of Noah Desman clocking in at 1:12.13 (22.93/24.48/24.72).

After the 150s, the teams split up into relays that aligned with their Maroon and Orange teams and completed nearly a full slate of relays, with the exception of the 800 Freestyle relay.

• 400 Medley Relay on 10:00
• 100 Easy within the 10:00 time frame
• 400 Free Relay on 10:00
• 100 Easy within the 10:00 time frame
• 200 Medley Relay on 8:00
• 100 Easy within the 8:00 time frame
• 200 Free Relay
• 300 Warm Down

Notable Swim’s and Splits from Relays:

*There were some touchpad errors during the relays; and some of the splits failed to record*

Women’s Relays

• 400 Medley Relay
  • Caroline Bentz came up with another top time of the day leading off the Backstroke leg of the relay in 55.85, nearly 6 seconds faster than any of the other backstroke splits that were properly recorded.
  • Allison Henry had the fastest Breastroke split of the day in 1:06.82 narrowly out-splitting Lauren Barakey by .04 (1:06.86).
  • Karisa Franz split a blistering 55.54 in the fly leg of the relay; over 3 seconds faster than any other butterflyer.

• • Reka Gyorgy ripped a 51.73 on the final leg of the relay, besting the field despite her relay finishing in 6th place.
• 400 Free Relay:
  • Caroline Bentz came up with another big swim splitting 52.73 to lead off the relay winning the leg by just over 2 seconds.
  • Bentz lead-off was narrowly the second fastest split, beaten by Rose Pouch who anchored the VT E-Relay in 52.42 to claim the fastest time of the event.

• 200 Medley Relay:
  • Bentz came in with another strong relay swim leading the B relay to a win splitting 26.77 leading off.
  • Anna Landon had the fastest 50 Breaststroke split, bolstering a 29.59 for the F-relay that finished in 6th place.
  • Abby Larson split 26.08 which was half a second faster than any of the other fly legs.
  • Sarah Shackelford had the fastest freestyle leg for the G-relay.

Men’s Relays

• 400 Medley Relay
  • Will Koeppen squeaked out a win in the opening leg over Forest Webb in 49.73 and 49.74 respectively.
  • AJ Pouch was the fastest Breaststroke split by .03 coming in at 56.27
  • Blake Manoff was the fastest fly split in 49.63
  • Hayden Jay was the fastest Free split in 46.64

• 400 Free Relay
  • Samuel Tornqvist was the fastest lead off at 47.05
  • Noah Desman was the fastest split overall in 46.07

• 200 Medley
  • Ben Eckerson was the fastest back split in 23.25
  • AJ Pouch split a 24.86 Breaststroke for the F-Relay
  • Youssef Ramadan continued his dominance, splitting 20.99 on the fly leg with the fastest split in the meet including the freestyle leg.
  • Dylan Eichberg split 21.16 on freestyle to claim the fastest freestyle league.

Below, find the link to Coach Lopez explaining his 150 Test chart he and Gus Calado created while he was at Bolles:

• Workout #1 – Pinnacle Racing VT – Progression Aerobic-1 to FAST (energy systems) with 150 Chart