Ten Meet Records Fall at Private Middle School Champs
By Barb Harris, Guest Contributor.
The Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland hosted 33 teams in the 18th Annual Washington Metropolitan Private Middle School Swimming Championships on Saturday. The meet was fast, with six individual, and four relay meet records broken.
Stone Ridge 7th grader Erin Gemmell posted a 51.99 in the Girls 100 freestyle to break the oldest standing meet record by almost 2 seconds, Colleen Law’s 100 free of 53.95 set in 2001. Gemmell followed that performance with another win and another meet record in the 50 freestyle with a 23.86, to break the record of 24.85, set by Caroline McTaggert in 2010.
Also setting two individual meet records, was Eleanor Sun, a 7th grader swimming for Bullis School. Sun won a tightly contested Girls 100 Individual Medley over Holton-Arms 8th grader Sophie Duncan, in 59.56, to best the record of 59.87 set in 2016 by Phoebe Bacon. Sun also won the 50 breastroke in a meet record time of 30.71, beating the 2014 time of 31.78 time set by Jasmine Hellmer.
Christian Mayr of the Collegiate School in Richmond, broke the boys 50 freestyle record set just last year by David Fitch, going 23.01, to break the record of 23.20. Mayr was the third double winner at the meet, also winning the 100 freestyle with a time of 49.99.
Sophie Duncan took down the other individual record, the girls 200 freestyle, with a time of 1:52.39, breaking Little Flower and Stone Ridge legend, Katie Ledecky’s record of 1:55.88, set in 2010.
The Holton-Arms team of Sofia Thomas, Sarah Chin, Sophie Duncan, and Ella Myers finished in a time of 1:54.85 to break the Girls 200 Medley relay record of 1:55.42 by Holton-Arms in 2016. The Holton team of Sophie Duncan, Ella Myers, Sofia Thomas, and Alexandra Zupnik won with a new record of 1:42.50 in the 200 freestyle relay topping the 1:43.65 set by Holton in 2016.
Not to be outdone, the boys from Collegiate School in Richmond also broke both relay records. Dalton Jobe, Aaron Moore, Grant Armstrong, and Christian Mayr swam a 1:48.99 in the 200 Medley Relay to break the mark of 1:49.49 by St. Michael’s Episcopal in 2009. Jobe, Moore, Armstrong, and Mayr combined again to win the 200 freestyle relay with record time of 1:38.31, beating the 1:39.84 also set by St. Michael’s Episcopal in 2009.
The two other individual event winners for the girls were: Nisa Ellis Holy Trinity 50 butterfly 26.73, and Mackenzie Ferguson Collegiate School 50 backstroke 27.87. The other individual event winners for the boys were: Aaron Moore Collegiate School 100 Individual Medley 59.92, Will Gillette St. Stephens & St. Agnes 50 butterfly 27.00, Dalton Jobe Collegiate School 200 freestyle 1:55.20, Collin McKenzie St. Albans 50 backstroke 26.32, and Tee Bowles St. Christophers 50 breastroke 31.18.
Holton-Arms dominated the girls meet, winning with a total of 422 points, easily ahead of second place Collegiate School’s 254 points. Stone Ridge was third with 210 points, followed by St. Catherine’s with 183, and National Cathedral with 139.
In the boys meet, St. Christopher’s in Richmond won with 328.5 points, followed by the Collegiate School with 277, St. Albans in third with 272, followed by The Heights School in Potomac with 243, and St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes with 148.
2018 middle school champs results