The Oakton and Robinson rivalry in Conference 5 continued with the last week’s meet: The Oakton girls lost their one win streak with a 33 point deficit, only scoring 141 points to Robinson’s 174. However, the Oakton boys remain undefeated, while giving Robinson their first loss of the season, with a score of 168 to 147, a 21 point win for the Cougars.

For the past six years, Oakton and Robinson have had seven dual meets to battle head-to-head as rivals. Before last night, both the boys’ and girls’ teams were tied to Robinson 3-3. As Robinson moves to a different conference at the end of this year, the Oakton and Robinson rivalry will be cut short during the regular season. However, this doesn’t mean that regions and states won’t be any different in the future.

On the bright side, two former coaches, Ray Rieling and Holly Wheeler, came to the meet to support the teams and visit the swimmers they coached for the past few years. All of the returning swimmers were ecstatic to see and catch up with them at the meet. Head coach Parker Ramsdell was also excited to see them, and even asked Rieling and Wheeler to take splits for a few of the races.

Both Oakton teams swam well, even though the results of the meet didn’t go as hoped for the girls. On the boys’ side, sophomore Anthony Arcomona placed third place in the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly. Albert Xu, another sophomore, earned second place in the 200 freestyle, where he earned his first regional cut. Senior Drew Weber earned first in 100 butterfly and second in 100 backstroke. Sophomore Daniel Gyenis took first place in both of his events, 200 IM and 500 freestyle, and senior and Virginia Tech commit Tommy Hallock also placed first in 50 and 100 free. For the girls, senior Caroline McCleskey placed first in both of her events, the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke. Freshman Leaya Ma placed first in the 50 freestyle and third in the 100 freestyle. McKenna Witlin, a sophomore, placed first in the 500 freestyle and second in the 200 freestyle. Another freshman, Brynn Curtis, placed second in both the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke, both of which were season bests and within .5 seconds of state cuts. On the other half of the pool, Joe Perreault, a sophomore, took third place for diving.

Despite the girls’ loss, Oakton will be looking forward to next week’s meet and the postseason. Because of Inauguration Day, Oakton will be hosting their last meet of the season against Centreville High School on Saturday, Jan. 21. This will be the second dual meet against Centreville this season and senior night for Oakton, where 23 seniors will be celebrated for their time on the team. The meet will start at 6:30 p.m. but senior night will be held before the meet starts.