Maconaquah Schools

It's always difficult to end a season. This one is especially hard as a coach and as a dad. This senior class is extremely near and dear to my heart. I love them all. I am so proud of the young men they have become. This senior class finish with a record of 38 wins and 2 losses for dual meets, 4 consecutive TRC wins, several individual conference championships, several sectional finals, and some of the fastest swimmers I have had the pleasure of coaching. Seniors: Landon Bashore started swimming this year as a senior. I wasn't sure about it at first; didn't know if he knew what he as getting himself into. Landon worked hard and improved so much in the 50 and 100 Free. Jonathan O'Connor swam in middle school and freshman year. He decided to swim this season which made me happy. I missed him. He is a great young man and has an enormous heart. He was able to swim at sectional. He finished 24th in the 50 Free and dropped .82 sec. Luke Abbott dropped 5.33 seconds combined from prelims on Thursday and Finals Saturday. He was so excited on Thursday to just make it in the top 16 and get to swim on Saturday. He was seeded 20th, qualified 16th, and finished in 14th place. Luke only started swimming his sophomore year. He has improved so much and was a big part of improving our depth as a team. P.J. Higgins has been a sprinter in past years. This season we needed another distance swimmer. I know it wasn't what he wanted to compete in, but he did what was best for the team. He far surpassed my expectations this season dropping 16 seconds in the 200 Free and almost a minute in the 500 Free. He gave all he had every time. P.J. is a one time TRC Champion and made the podium(top 6) 7 times. At sectional this year, he qualified and finished 16th in the 200 Free. This is a huge accomplishment for him. P.J. also made the finals 2 times in relays. Cole Nye is one of the fastest breaststrokers I have had in 20 years of coaching. When I started coaching the boys in 2005, I started a Top Ten list for each event. Cole ranks 2nd in the 100 Breast and 1st in the 50 Breast. Cole is a 5 time TRC champion and made the podium(top 6) 15 times. He made the Sectional Finals(top 8) 7 times. Cole is great young man and a great friend to the other guys. He has helped me and them with many things. Cole has been a mentor and helped many others improve in breaststroke. Ryley Rodkey exploded this season. He was healthier and stronger. He knew he was going to be the number one sprinter this season and absolutely crushed it. He set some high goals and achieved most of them. Ryley is a 4 time TRC champion and made the podium(top 6) 14 times. One of his goals was to win an individual event at Conference. He got 2nd in the 50 Free in a close race. In the 100 Free, he was seeded 3rd and knew it was going to be tough. He gave absolutely everything he had and won it. He dropped 2.23 seconds. At sectional, he wanted to make the finals heat in an individual event. He was so close; .6 sec away in 100 free. He dropped .5 sec in 50 Freestyle and 1.27 sec in 100 Free. Ryley made the sectional finals(top 8) 7 times in relays. On the Top Ten list, Ryley is 4th in the 100 Freestyle, 6th in the 50 Butterfly, and 8th in the 50 Freestyle. I have watched Ryley grow up since he was a baby. I coached middle school swim with his dad for 20 years so Ryley has been around the pool forever. I am so proud of him and happy for the successful swim career he has had. He has been a great role model and mentor to the younger guys. Garrett McManus has made such an impact on our program. In his four years of high school, he worked so hard at every practice only missing a total of 3 practices. He has been a great leader and mentor. He was 2nd in team points freshman year and 1st the past three seasons. In our TRC meets, he is a 9 time Conference champion, 4 individual wins, and made the podium all 16 races. At sectional, he finished 9th in the 200 Freestyle three consecutive years, made the finals(top 8) three consecutive years in the 500 Freestyle, and totaled 10 finals races. On the Top Ten list, Garrett is 8th in the 100 Freestyle, 6th in the Relay split 100 Free, 1st in the 200 and 500 Freestyle, 8th in 200 IM, 7th in 100 Butterfly, 7th in 50 Backstroke, and tied for 9th in Relay split 50 free. Sectional Finals: 200 Medley Relay: 5th Aiden Ousley, Cole Nye, Ryley Rodkey, Zach Duke 200 Freestyle: Garrett McManus 9th, Drake Samuel 15th, P. J. Higgins 16th 200 IM: Aiden Ousley 15th 50 Freestyle: Ryley Rodkey 15th, Zach Duke 16th Diving: Camron Metcalf 9th, Kade Nye 11th 100 Freestyle: Ryley Rodkey 9th(PR 50.71), Zach Duke 16th 500 Freestyle: Garrett McManus 7th, Drake Samuel 13th 200 Freestyle Relay: 5th Zach Duke, Cole Nye, Ryley Rodkey(PR 22.82), Garrett McManus 100 Backstroke: Aiden Ousley 11th 100 Breaststroke: Cole Nye 7th, Colton Beebe 12th, Luke Abbott 14th(PR 1:11.31) 400 Freestyle Relay: 6th Drake Samuel, Colton Beebe(PR 53.83), Aiden Ousley, Garrett McManus