MCSL Week 4 Recap
By Ally Navarrete and Annabel Redisch
The 2019 MCSL season has one dual meet left as Week 4 is now complete. Despite the intense heat, we continued to see some impressive swims across the league. Here’s a recap of what went down across MCSL pools on Saturday.
Meet Results
Division J brought us the closest dual meet of the season so far in the match-up between Lake Marion and Rock Creek. Top seed Lake Marion was able to edge out Rock Creek by just two points, the final score being 395 to 393. An important factor in Lake Marion’s win was that the team won all four relays.
In Division E, Old Farm took down Bannockburn by a mere eight points. The meet was close throughout, with each team alternating in winning races and relays. A factor contributing to Old Farm’s victory could have been the team’s win in seven out of ten breaststroke events.
In Division D, Potomac Woods scooped up its first win of the season against Darnestown. This is quite surprising; Potomac Woods had yet to win a meet, and Darnestown beat the team at Relay Carnival. Now, Potomac Woods has an even record with both Darnestown and Mohican: 1–3.
Relay Carnival Results
Following the conclusion of Week 4, all Relay Carnivals across MCSL are now complete.
Twinbrook continued its dominance in Division O, winning Relay Carnival with a 42 point lead over second-place West Hillandale. The team won 8 relays and did not have any disqualifications.
In Division M, there was a tie between Upper County and New Mark Commons. NMC only won four relays compared to UC’s 8 wins. NMC was successful by placing second in 6 relays, scoring many points for the team.
The Division F Relay Carnival came down to just four points. Cedarbrook took down Franklin Knolls, an impressive feat for the team seeing as it only won four relays, whereas FR won six.
Tallyho placed second at the Division A meet, with the 15-18 age group leading the team in points. The Mixed 15-18 200M Freestyle Relay composed of Ben Long Zuo (16), Phoebe Bacon (16), Maya Fischer (17), and Brett Feyerick (16) finished first in a time of 1:43.56, only .56 off of the current MCSL record in the event held by Rockville from 2016.
In the Mixed 15-18 200M Medley Relay, Bacon, Josh Wolfson (15), Fischer, and Feyerick set a new MCSL record of 1:52.27, taking down Tilden Woods’ 1:52.85 record from 2018. Congratulations Tallyho!
Division A’s Country Glen has now taken the county’s top spot in the Boys Open Medley Relay Ziad Bandak, (17), Dylan Danaie, (16), Jordan Gross, (17), and Ian Mackey,(18) with a time of 1:49.10. This puts CG ahead of second seed Northwest Branch, who went 1:49.88 at the Division B Relay Carnival. Last year, only one team entered All-Star Relays with a seed time under 1:50, so we’re sure to see a fast race in the coming weeks between these two teams.
Tilden Woods Katherine Gould, (16), Hannah Gould, (18), Sienna Karp, (14), and Maya Drill, (18) will be looking to repeat an All-Star Relay victory in the Girls Open Medley Relay following a winning time of 2:03.98 at Relay Carnival, making TW the top seed in the county. History is looking to repeat itself at All-Stars this year, as Tilden Woods is seeded less than a second ahead of Woodley Gardens, who were the runner up at last years relay championship.
RFTW Editor’s Note: Looking at times across the leagues in Prince Mont, PWSL and NVSL, the boys team from Chesterbrook (NVSL) has put up the fastest 200 Medley so far with Ryan Soh, Tyler Lentine, Thomas Outlaw, and Ryan Mathis swimming a blazing 1:44.84. The Girls fastest Medley Relay also belongs to Chesterbrook’s (NVSL) Jillian Johnson, Sydney-Cate Thornett, Maria Perotti, Emily Friedman who swam a 2:03.28.
Stand-out swims
Rockville’s Anabel Sha (10) posted a best time of 31.25 in the 50 freestyle this weekend. Sha is the only 9-10 girl so far to break the 32 mark and currently sits at #1 in MCSL.
This weekend, we saw 2 more swimmers break 1:00 in the girls 15-18 100 freestyle: Rockville’s Erika Chen (16) and Glenwood’s Molly Benson (16). Chen posted a time of 59.83 and Benson finished in 59.90, and they sit at #3 and #5 in the league, respectively.
The girls 13-14 age group continued to swim extremely fast this weekend. The current #2-#7 seeds in the 50 backstroke all posted best times under the 32-second mark.
In the girls 8&U 25 breaststroke, 3 of the top 8 swimmers finished with best times: Flower Valley’s Ayla Barish (8), Mohican’s Jill Geib (8), and Clopper Mill Kingsview’s Sabrina Arispe (8). All 3 swimmers have times below the 24-second mark, and they currently sit at #5, #7, and #8 in the county, respectively.
On the boys’ side, Calverton’s Grant Haley (10) went a best time in the 25 fly, 16.35, to move into the #8 spot in MCSL. Haley is in close competition with his Calverton teammate Trevor Donley (10), who currently sits at #11 with a time of 16.45.
Country Glen’s Nasim Elkassem (13) broke the 28-second mark in the 50 fly in a time of 27.97. Elkassem sits at #3 in MCSL, both an impressive time and seed for a 13-year-old in this event.
Michael Kueh (11) of Upper County broke 33 seconds in the 50 fly this weekend for a time of 32.53. Kueh is currently the second-fastest 11-year-old in this event and is seeded at #16 in the league.
Looking Forward
Week 5 brings some of the most intense and close meets of the season due to the pairings. The Number 1 and 2 seeds in each division swim each other, as do the 3rd and 4th, and 5th and 6th. These pairings will determine the final dual meet points scored by each team and finalize season records. Coaches Long Course is finally upon us! Coaches will be held on Tuesday, July 9th at Rockville Swim and Fitness Center. Come out to cheer on your team’s swimmers, or to just watch the fast swimming that occurs at this meet. For more details, read the RFTW Coaches preview.