Highlights: PVS 14&U Junior Olympic Championships
By Reach for the Wall Staff Writers.
COLLEGE PARK – The 2016 PVS 14&U Junior Olympic Championships (JOs) ended last evening and featured amazing swims throughout the 4-day meet. We will feature some swimmers behind these swims in a subsequent post.
This year for the large teams, Nations Capital came out on top overall, with their boys and girls each winning first. Rockville Montgomery Swim Club got second overall, with their boys and girls each finishing second. Third place overall went to Machine Aquatics, with their boys getting third and girls coming in fourth. The Fish got fourth overall, with their girls finishing third and boys getting fourth.
Joe Flaherty’s Dolphins finished first for the medium-sized teams, and Dragon Swim Team topped the list for the small teams.
At these championship meets, everyone is a champion and they all swam their hearts out. We at Reach For The Wall also saw some outstanding team spirit as well as some great overall sportsmanship.
We w
ould like to give a special shout out to Evan Handy. Evan was swimming his last JO’s – as a soon to be 15 year old, this was his final farewell to Age Group meets. Evan not only had a phenomenal meet but displayed amazing sportsmanship – cheering for team mates and friends. He was in big demand as a lap counter last night at finals. He also counted laps for a good friend who swims for a competing team. Swimmers are amazing kids, and this a fine example of this! Evan, you are a class act!
Facebook status of the day goes to Janine Nickel – “After a long swim weekend back and forth 4 times to University of Maryland, after personal bests in all of her events, after only 5 hours of sleep pushing through her 200 breast (she was so tired she didn’t do any pull outs if you know what that is), what I am MOST PROUD of is that she came out of the pool after a not-so-great swim and JOKED about it with her coach. Giggled afterward with me! So while her times improved, her ability to shake things off has seen the most improvement. The brain is a very powerful muscle that can help you do great things, or it can destroy you. The brain needs exercise too!” This mom and her daughter “get it”!
Check out some of these team areas:
We saw a lot of great spirit at the meet this weekend and would like to applaud Machine and The Fish for their great posters.
Next stop: Long Course Season.
Who is up for a little team spirit competition at the PVS Long Course Championship in July? Reach For The Wall will recognize the team with the most spirit at “Summer JOs”.
I second that shout out to Evan Handy! He went above and beyond being a good sport and a good friend. Staying late at finals (he was finished with his amazing swims) to count and cheer for Jacob (on another team) was phenomenal. Bravo to Evan and BRAVO to his parents!
Thanks! We appreciate you reaching out to us to tell us about this act of kindness!
Thanks for featuring my quote and photo of my daughter! Sometimes maintaining a positive outlook takes work too.
Absolutely true. There is always something to be learned from every race or meet. In or out of the water.