Swim & Dive: Oakton Teams Top Robinson

The Oakton High swim and dive team may have a new head coach, but they still have the same winning outlook for the upcoming season.

Last year, the girls team earned their first Concorde District title in the school's history, while the boys fell short of the title by two points to relinquish their title to Westfield.

Under the direction of new head coach Parker Ramsdell — who grew up swimming in the Northern Virginia area as a member of the Oakton Otters (NVSL), York Swim Club and Madison Warhawks — the Cougars may have a shot of making school history again if both the girls and boys teams earn district titles at the same time.

The Cougars kicked off the season with a victory over Robinson Secondary School on Friday at South Run Recreation Club with scores of 194-121 for the boys and 193-122 for the girls.

The team saw a record-breaking performance from Joseph LeBerre, who set the school record for most dive points in a single meet by 27 points.

"[The] record was set by Oakton’s only all-American diver in history," said head dive coach Cheryl Meltz. "Not only did he break the record, he crushed it. It’s definitely a great start for Joe this season.”

Both 200-yard medley teams earned first place: Laura Branton, Gillian Crews, Ashley Doran and Melissa Shebat formed the girls team, and Conor Murphy, Denny Nguyen, Ryan Santoro and Carter Sharer made up the boys team.

Philip Hu received first place in two events Friday night in both the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:59.49 and the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.35.

“I feel that we’re off to a positive start this season. Swims across the board this weekend were fantastic top to bottom," said Ramsdell, who helped lead the Warhawks to two Liberty District championships in 2001 and 2002. "While we still have work to do, this is a promising start to the 2012 season.”

Oakton will next compete 6:30 p.m. Friday against Westfield at Cub Run Recreation Center.