Hu, Pawlowicz lead Oakton Girls Swim to Second

Janet Hu won two individual titles, one of which was a new state record, and was part of a first-place relay team which set a new national record, but it was not enough for the Oakton Cougars to take the state championship, as Langley won the crown with an overall score of 187 points Saturday. Oakton came in second with 166.

Hu’s time of 26.08 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle was just a tenth of a second off her own state record, but was good enough for first place. Later in the day, her time of 1 minute, 1.05 seconds set a new state record in the 100-meter butterfly.

In the day’s first event for the girls, Melissa Shebat, Stephanie Hallock and Kaitlin Pawlowicz joined Hu on Oakton’s 200-meter medley relay team. The foursome set a new national record with a time of 2:00.24. Hu, Hallock and Pawlowicz, along with Kendall Lawhorn, came in second in the 400-meter freestyle relay to champion Langley by 16 hundreths of a second.

Kaitlin Pawlowicz had a banner day, as well, setting national records in the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2:16.06 and the 400-meter freestyle at 4:14.26.

The Oakton boys had a strong showing, finishing in seventh place. Joseph LeBerre came in third place in the diving competition behind Carl Buergler of Washington-Lee and Ryan Fox of Madison. Janet’s brother Philip carried Oakton’s boys swim team, as he came in fourth in the 100-meter butterfly, fifth in the 100-meter backstroke and was part of the Cougars’ fourth-place 200-meter medley relay team, along with Ryan Santoro, Chris Megaw and Carter Sharer.