Ten William Byrd boys combined to swim to a third place finish among 26 teams in last week’s state Class 3 swim meet in Richmond. The Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School swept the boys’ and girls’ team championships a Swim RVA facility.
The 10 swimmers making up the Byrd team included Cole Kovacevic, Matthew Hoyos, Michael Hoyos, Colin Murtaugh, Dawson Brinkley, Aiden Brinkley, Austin Nielsen, Evan Copening, Nathan Miller and Griffin Horacek. Byrd also had one girl, Emma Copening, who took 16th in the 100 meter breaststroke.
Byrd’s boys’ 200 Medley Relay swam fast at prelims and broke their own school record that was set in early January at the All Timesland meet. They showed up ready to start the championship finals off with a fantastic swim and broke their record again. The new school record in the 200 Medley Relay for boys’ is now 1:37.53 by the foursome of Aiden Brinkley, Austin Nielsen, Colin Murtaugh, and Dawson Brinkley.
Murtaugh was second in the 100 fly and fifth in the 50 free.
“Colin’s butterfly race in particular was amazing,” said Byrd coach Krista Martin. “He is so fast underwater and his stroke is just beautiful. He had an amazing race all the way to the finish.”
In the 200 IM Austin Nielsen finished third and he also finished third in the 100 breaststroke.
“Austin swims with passion and purpose and had several outstanding swims at the meet,” said Martin.
Freshman Dawson Brinkley was fourth in the 100 IM and fourth in the 100 breast while older brother Aiden Brinkley, a four year varsity senior, finished sixth in the 100 back.
The Terriers ended the night with another school record set by the boys’ 400 freestyle relay team of Miller, Nielsen, Dawson Brinkley and Murtaugh. The previous record set in February of 2021 was 3:20.05 and the foursome lowered it to a new school record of 3:19.19.
Dawson Brinkley also took 12th in the 50 free and Miller was 16th in that event and 15th in the 100 free. Evan Copening finished 15th in the 200 IM.
The boys’ 200 freestyle relay team of Miller, Copening, Griffin Horacek and Aiden Brinkley took 13th in the state.
“I am so proud of all of our state team swimmers,” said Martin. “We had several swimmers make the drive to Richmond to cheer on their teammates and I thought that was just awesome. It was a great day with a lot of fast swimming. I am going to miss our seniors tremendously and I hope they were able to make some lasting memories this past weekend.”