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Championship Weekend in Review- MPSSAA States

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By Reach for the Wall Staff

MPSSAA 4A3A:

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association held their state-wide championship meets on Saturday February 23rd at the University of Maryland. The 4A/3A schools swam in the morning and the 321A schools swam in the afternoon. Churchill boys, Sherwood girls and Poolesville boys and girls all repeated as champions.

Churchill amassed 312 points, behind the efforts of Steven Mendley who swam two individual wins, 50 freestyle 20.98, 100 freestyle 46.29, both setting new meet records. He was also leadoff on Churchill’s 3rd place 200 Freestyle Relay and anchor on the 1st place 400 Freestyle Relay (Ziad Bandak, John Nguyen, Noah Rutberg, Steven Mendley), which also set a meet record in 3:09.34. Noah Rutberg was the other individual event winner, also setting a meet record in the 100 backstroke with a 50.03. Noah was a member of the 3rd place Medley Relay (Kevin Ho, Daniel Nagard, Noah Rutberg, Ben long Zuo), 3rd in the 200 IM, and meet record in the 400 Freestyle Relay.

Other meet records came from Timmy Ellett, Walter Johnson in the 200 IM, in 1:49.02. Timmy was a member of the Walter Johnson 200 Freestyle Relay team (James Collishaw, Timmy Ellett, Henry Bagshaw, Sean Keller) that also set a meet record with a 1:26.43. While not a meet record, he earned his second individual win in the 100 breaststroke, finishing in 56.37, and was on the 3rd place 400 freestyle relay team. Alex Colson from Wheaton was the other swimmer to set a meet record, winning the 100 butterfly in 48.31. He narrowly missed setting the 200 freestyle record with his winning time of 1:39.72, just .32 off the mark.

In the girls competition, Sherwood defended their title beating B-CC by 26.5 points. They were led by Amanda Wenhold, who won the 50 freestyle in 24.23, 4th in the 100 freestyle and lead off the 2nd place 200 Freestyle Relay (Amanda Wenhold, Erica Hjelle, Taylor Wallace, Emma Eustace), and a member of the 3rd place 400 Freestyle Relay (Sophia Ryan, Amanda Wenhold, Taylor Wallace, Kaitlin Gravell). Senior Kaitlin Gravell, won the girls 500 freestyle in 4:55.59, was 2nd in the 200 IM 2:04.30, was a member of the 3rd place 200 Medley Relay (Sophia Ryan, Kaitlin Gravell, Erica Hjelle, Emma Eustace) and anchored the 400 Freestyle Relay. The other top finisher for Sherwood was Sophia Ryan, winning the 100 backstroke in 56.66, swam lead off in the 200 Medley Relay and the 400 Freestyle Relay.

Catherine Belyakov, Quince Orchard, also set a meet record winning the the 200 IM in 2:01.41. She was a double-event winner, winning the 100 Breaststroke in 1:02.71, was a member of the 2nd place 200 Medley Relay (Marisa Tozzi, Catherine Belyakov, Emily Mann, Anastasia Belyakov) and lead off on the Quince Orchard record breaking 400 Freestyle Relay, which swam 3:30.12 (Catherine Belyakov, Marisa Tozzi, Emily Mann, Anastasia Belyakov)!

The NFHS Network was there to document the meet & if you have an account, can take a look at the meet on Demand: 2019 MPSSAA Class 4A/3A Swimming Championship

See the article Swimming World posted: 10 Records Fall as Churchill Boys, Sherwood Girls Repeat as Maryland 3A/4A State Champions

Tweets we saw during the meet:

MPSSAA 321A:

Poolesville and Poolesville. The boys from Poolesville took charge from the first relay en route to their 8th consecutive MPSSAA state title, winning in 1:40.16 (Jonathan Ye, Justin Yi, Maxwell Chen, Kenny Song). Maxwell Chen was the lone individual event winner, taking the 200 IM in 1:57.85. While there were no other individual or relay champions for Poolesville, none of their swimmers finished outside of 8th place (except for the DQ in the 200 Freestyle Relay), demonstrating their team strength throughout all the events. Damascus was the next closest contender, with individual event winner, Cody Kim, who took the titles in the 200 freestyle 1:44.04 and the 500 Freestyle in 4:37.98. The other individual event winner for Damascus was AJ Navaleza, taking 1st in the 100 Breaststroke in 59.31. Patterson Mill also had a strong showing, with their Senior Jack Leary having a great meet, finishing 1st in the 100 Butterfly in 51.47, 3rd in the 200 IM 1:59.36, and a member of Patterson Mill’s winning 200 and 400 Freestyle Relays.

The girls meet went the same way as the boys, with Damascus and Patterson Mill chasing Poolesville for the title. Poolesville was too strong throughout the meet, winning the 200 Medley Relay (Moshelle Borjigin, Helena Narisu, Sophie Elliott, Miranda Liu) to start the meet. In the very next event, the 200 Freestyle, Moshelle Borjigin and Sophie Elliott, went 1-2 for Poolesville. Carly Sebring from Damascus broke up the Poolesville juggernaut in the next event by winning the 200 IM in 2:03.32. A few events later, Carly followed up with a win in the 100 Freestyle in 50.84, a bit shy of the State record 50.02. Moshelle Borjigin and Sophie Elliott were not done, as they again went 1-2 in the 500 freestyle, as both girls well ahead of the field. Catching the 1-2 fever, Poolesville swimmers Autumn Wang, 1:01.03 and Rachel Ryan, 1:01.18, captured the 100 Backstroke in dramatic fashion as they out touched the 3rd place swimmer from Elkton, Elizabeth Pennington, who finished in 1:01.19!

Congratulations to Poolesville teams, and coach Jon Leong on their 8th title in a row for the boys, and 5th consecutive, 6th overall title for the girls!


See the article Swimming World posted: Poolesville High School Sweeps Team Titles at Maryland 1-3A State Championships

The NFHS Network was there to document the meet & if you have an account, can take a look at the meet on Demand: 2019 MPSSAA Class 3A/2A/1A Swimming Championship

Tweets we saw during the meet:

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