The season is only really just beginning for the Langley High School girls’ swimming team. The Saxons, expected to be the top team in the strong Liberty District, didn’t disappoint, posting the top team score Saturday night after the swimming phase of the meet.

In Sunday's diving competition, rescheduled from earlier in the week due to bad weather, Lauren Tangney of Langley was the lone McLean-area diver to earn a spot at Sunday's regionals with her sixth-place finish. Her performance bulked up the Saxons' overall district win as the second-place McLean girls' team did not have a diver score points. With a final score of 460-383, the Saxons are one-third of the way to their season goal of winning districts and challenging for the top spot in regionals and states.

“We’re switching gears a little bit into the postseason,” said Langley coach Ryan Jackson. “We’re trying to match what we did last year for the girls … we’d (even) like to do a little bit better than that.”

The Saxons boys’ team, firmly in second, was led by senior Chuck Katis, who helped the squad to a win in the 200-yard medley relay to open the night, came back with a district record of 1:52.21 in the 200-individual medley (just shy of an automatic All-American qualification) and broke his own district mark in the 100-breaststroke (56.95, well inside of the automatic All-American honor). He capped off the night by swimming the anchor leg of the 400-freestyle relay, in which the Saxons were edged by the district-winning boys team from Madison by just over a second.

“You look at the way he swims in the water, it’s insipiring,” Jackson said of his Harvard-bound star. “You look at the 100-breast, the other three breaststrokers that were in the event were like – ‘Oh my God, wow.’ It’s just amazing to watch someone swim that fast.”

While Katis was thrilled to break his own record and see his sister Jayme win the 200-freestyle, he took some extra joy in breaking the district record of former Langley teammate Stephen Richards in the individual medley.

“When I first joined Langley, I remember the swim when Stephen set the record. And now it’s a nice token of working my way up the ranks to get that record,” he said, confident that he can lower his time even more between now and the state meet. “It’s not my lifetime best time, but for where we are, lifting weights on Friday, double practices, it’s a pretty substantial drop.”

All told, the Saxons came home with 11 titles in the district, four for the boys and seven for the girls. The girls team won all of its relays and Jayme Katis (200-free), Abi Speers (50 and 100-free) and Meghan Overend (100-butterfly) took individual titles. Chuck Katis won his two events and was joined by Ryan Natal (100-butterfly) as an individual titlist.

“We put the pressure on ourselves throughout the season,” Jackson said of his girls’ squad. “Finishing second in regionals and states and not graduating anyone and bringing that whole group back, we’ve been thinking about it since last year and using that as offseason motivation.”

Putnam leads McLean

McLean’s Charlie Putnam collected a pair of district titles, and won perhaps the highest-quality event of the night, the 200-yard freestyle. Putnam (1:42.46) broke the district record of 1:43.21 held by former Madison standout Adam Pennington, but second and third-place finishers Natal and Cyrus Hashemi (Marshall) also went under the former district mark.

“We’re all really talented,” Putnam said of his rivals in the event. “And to do so well this year, it feels great. I did everything I needed to do and I’m really satisfied with the outcome.”

The University of Virginia-bound senior had to come from behind after Hashemi took the lead early.

“I was really nervous, because I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make-up the deficit,” said Putnam, who took over the lead in the last 50-yards. “It was down to the wire, it was a really good race.”

Putnam also won the 100-yard backstroke, but fell short of breaking his own record in the event, which came on the heels of his anchor-leg swim in the 200-freestyle relay, in which the Saxons finished third.

The Highlanders boys team finished fifth in the district and the girls’ team placed second place, behind Langley.

McLean’s girls were led by Annie Springsteen, who won the individual medley, and Eva Greene, who earned the title in her signature event, the 100-backstroke, where she holds the district record, set in 2009. The Higlanders capped the meet with a state-qualifying time of 3:40.39 in the 400-freestyle relay (Springsteen, Alexis Danchak, Katie Yensen and Greene), finishing three seconds behind the district champions from Langley.

Stephen Clark of McLean was the top area diver, placing eighth for the Highlanders, but his season came to an end, as only the top-six divers earned a spot in regionals.

McLean Patch incorrectly reported the Langley results in its earlier editions. We deeply regret the error and apologize to our readers.