RFTW ‘Who swam it Fastest’ and All DMV 2019-2020

By Reach for the Wall Staff

With everything shut down for a while, we thought it was a good time to celebrate the swimmers that competed throughout the DMV during the High School season. We’ve compiled the results from over 30 championship meets conducted across the DMV through the end of February. We combed through all the results to generate this culminating report. Congratulations to all the athletes!!

This season, we witnessed a National High School Records from Phoebe Bacon and Torri Huske! Phoebe in the girls 100 Backstroke and Torri in the girls 100 butterfly. In individual high school events in the DMV, there were 54 Automatic All American and 92 All American Consideration qualifying swims. In the Women’s 100 Butterfly, 13 of the top 16 athletes on the All-DMV list for those events swam at least an All American Consideration time!  That is, the 100 Butterfly had 5 Automatic and 8 Consideration. On the Men’s side, the top event was also the 100 Butterfly where 12 of the 16 times met either an Automatic or All American Consideration time standard, with the top two achieving the Automatic standard.

Based on the 2019-2020 high school swimming season, below are our designations for “Who Swam It Fastest”, the All-DMV Team, Swimmer of the Year and Diver of the Year.

Who Swam It Fastest

To determine who swam a particular high school event the fastest, we analyzed which swimmer had the fastest time in comparison to the relevant All American standard (listed in the table).

Girls (Individual):

Event	Time	Name	School	Date	Meet	AA Std	Diff	% diff
50 Free	21.83	Victoria Huske	YTWN	2/22/2020	2020 VHSL Class 6 States	23.20	1.37	5.81%
100 Free	48.63(leadoff)	Victoria Huske	YTWN	2/22/2020	2020 VHSL Class 6 States	50.19	1.56	3.1%
200 Free	1:45.96	Erin Gemmell	SR	2/5/2020	2020 Metro Championships	1:48.74	3.31	3.04%
500 Free	4:47.09	Maren Conze	WAJ	2/5/2020	2020 Metro Championships	4:52.18	5.09	1.74%
100 Back	50.89	Phoebe Bacon	SR	2/5/2020	2020 Metro Championships	54.80	3.91	7.13%
100 Breast	59.76	Anna Keating	JMAD	2/22/2020	2020 VHSL Class 6 States	1:02.58	2.95	4.71%
100 Fly	50.69	Victoria Huske	YTWN	2/22/2020	2020 VHSL Class 6 State	54.42	3.73	6.85%
200 IM	1:55.39	Phoebe Bacon	SR	2/5/2020	2020 Metro Championships	2:01.51	6.12	5.04%
1M Diving	497.30	Haley Marshall	GC	2/5/2020	2020 Metro Championships	N/A	N/A	N/A

Girls (Relays):

Event	Rank	Time	Std	School	Date	Meet	Swimmer 1	Swimmer 2	Swimmer 3	Swimmer 4
Women  200 Free Relay	1	1:34.43	AAAU	JMAD	2/12/2020	2020   VHSL Region 6D	Alexandra Dicks (JR)	Morgan Howat (JR)	Anna Keating (SR)	Elizabeth Kuhlkin (SR)
Women  200 Medley Relay	1	1:41.62	AAAU	SR	2/5/2020	2020   Metro Championships	Phoebe Bacon (SR)	Eleanor Sun (FR)	Erin Gemmell (FR)	Tia Thomas (JR)
Women  400 Free Relay	1	3:24.25	AAAU	SR	2/5/2020	2020   Metro Championships	Makenzie Higgins (SR)	Erika Chen (SR)	Eleanor Sun (FR)	Phoebe Bacon (SR)

Boys(Individual):

Event	Time	Name	School	Date	Meet	AA Std	Diff	% diff
50 Free	19.79	Anthony Grimm	OAKT	2/21/2020	2020 VHSL Class 6 State	20.54	0.75	3.65%
100 Free	44.34	Trace Wall	RRHS	2/20/2020	2020 VHSL Class 5 State	44.95	0.61	1.36%
200 Free	1:38.14	Jacob Rosner	L	2/5/2020	2020 Metro Championships	1:38.40	0.26	0.3%
500 Free	4:22.99	Sam Oliver	JCHS	2/21/2020	2020 VHSL Class 6 State	4:28.38	5.34	1.99%
100 Back	48.16	Brett Feyerick	PREP	2/5/2020	2020 Metro Championships	49.38	1.22	2.47%
100 Breast	53.86	Anthony Grimm	OAKT	2/21/2020	2020 VHSL Class 6 State	55.84	1.98	3.54%
100 Fly	48.71	Landon Gentry	PATR	2/07/2020	2020 Region 6B Championship	48.92	0.21	.4%
200 IM	1:50.24	Noah Rutberg	WCH	2/5/2020	2020 Metro Championships	1:49.57	-.67	-.61%
1M Diving	530.80	Sam Duncan	JMAD	2/21/2020	2020 VHSL Class 6 State	N/A	N/A	N/A

Boys (Relays):

Event	Rank	Time	Std	School	Date	Meet	Swimmer 1	Swimmer 2	Swimmer 3	Swimmer 4
Men  200 Free Relay	1	1:23.39	AAAU	WWH	2/22/2020	2020   MPSSAA 4A3A State	Alec Cooper	Michael Paulos	Kris Lawson	Lucca Scott
Men  200 Medley Relay	1	1:31.28	AAAU	GONZ	2/1/2020	2020   WMPSSDL Championship	Ryan Catron	Mac Marsh	Matthew Pottker	Ollie Bernasek
Men  400 Free Relay	1	3:04.91	AAAU	GONZ	2/1/2020	2020   WMPSSDL Championship	Matthew Pottker	Ryan Catron	Jt Ewing	Ollie Bernasek

All-DMV Team

We all know that the Washington Post identifies ‘All-Met’ swimmers each year (Boys, Girls)citing their judgement and placement in championship meets as criteria.  But we also want to recognize high school swimmers in our area based on how the NCAA/College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) determines their All-American teams, so we’re designating an “All-DMV Team”.

Basically, if we were to simulate a single championship meet, the top 1-8 finishers in each event would be First Team All-DMV, and the next 9-16 would be Second Team All-DMV.  Also, to be considered for the All-DMV team and Swimmer of the Year, the swimmer/school must be within a 50 mile radius of Washington D.C.  

All DMV Team Listings(each spreadsheet has the top times):

Individuals:

Relays:

Swimmer of the Year

Last, the discussion for Swimmer of the Year.  In some team sports (e.g., NBA/MLB), this honor is given to the athlete that has the highest impact on the team and has elevated the team to great performances. In other sports, this honor is given to the athlete that has the best single/multiple performances in a specified event.

Here’s what we’re using for our criteria:

1. The swimmer must have at least 1 top time in an event in the DMV;
2. S/he has a faster time than the All American standard for an event (and the higher percentage above the standard, the better);
3. S/he is ranked in the country as provided by SwimCloud.com; and
4. As a tie-breaker/additional consideration, number of swims in the top 16

Girls

Based on the criteria above, Torri Huske, Yorktown (DMV ranks: 1st 100 fly, 1st 50 free, 1st 100 free, 2nd 200 Free, 3rd 500 Free, 2nd 200 IM), Phoebe Bacon, Stone Ridge (DMV ranks: 1st 100 back, 3rd 100 Fly, 1st 200 IM),  are the candidates for our female ‘Swimmer of the Year’ award.

Swimmer of the Year (Girls):

Phoebe Bacon, Stone Ridge

Performance rundown:

• 100 Backstroke (#1 DMV, National Record, #1 in the U.S as of 3/15)
• 100 Butterfly (# 3 DMV, #9 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• 200 IM (#1 DMV, #1 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• Automatic All American in all 3 events (100 back, 100 fly, 200 IM) Also swam on  Automatic All American 400 Free Relay (#1 DMV, #11 in the U.S. as of 3/15) and 200 Medley Relay (#1 in the DMV, #9 in the U.S. as of 3/15)

Runner Up:

Torri Huske, Yorktown

• 100 Butterfly (#1 DMV, #2 in the country and National Public School Record!)
• 50 Free ( #1 DMV, #3 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• 100 Free ( #1 DMV, #6 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• 200 Free (#2 DMV, #6 in the U.S as of 3/15)
• 500 Free (#3 DMV, #40 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• 200 IM (#2 DMV, #9 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• Automatic All American in 6 events (50 free, 100 Free, 200 Free, 500 Free, 100 fly, 200 IM)  Also swam on Automatic All American 200 Medley (#2 DMV, #24 in the U.S. as of 3/15) and 400 Free Relay (#2 DMV, #38 in the U.S. as of 3/15), and 200 Free Relay (#3 in the DMV, #43 in the US as of 3/15). You’ll see in the Top-16 individual spreadsheets that we included the 50 Back leadoff swims

Performance Rundown:

Diver of the Year (Woman):

Haley Marshall, Good Counsel

There were 4 divers in the mix for this consideration, Haley Marshall, Good Counsel, Genevieve Thibodeau, Stone Ridge, Michelle Mazzara Stone Ridge, and Madison Grosz, James Madison. Haley (#27 in the U.S.) amassed the highest point total of divers in the area with her win at Metros. Metros was among her three wins at championship events, National Catholic (where she set a meet record), WMPSSDL, and Metros. Genevieve (#51 in the U.S.) placed 2nd at Metros (posting DMV 3rd best score 453.70), 3rd at WMPSSDL, and 3rd at National Catholics. Michelle (#59 in the U.S.) was in the mix with her 2nd place finishes at National Catholics and WMPSSDL scoring 466 points (2nd best in the DMV) and 5th place finish at Metros. Madison (#95 in the U.S.) won the VHSL Class 6 State and the Region 6 championship title, her highest point total of 447.95 at the state meet which is 4th in the DMV.

Notables:

Erin Gemmell, Stone Ridge, as a Freshman posted the top time in the DMV in the Girls 200 Freestyle, (5th in the U.S. ) the 3rd fastest 100 Free (#21 in the U.S.), both Automatic All American times. Two other Freshman had stellar seasons were Camille Spink, Battlefield who posted three Automatic All American times in the following: #2 time in the DMV in the 100 Free (#15 in the U.S), 3rd in the 200 Free (#8 in the U.S.) and 4th in the 100 back (#22 in the U.S.); and Maren Conze, Walter Johnson who posted the top time in the DMV in the 500 Free (#10 in the U.S.), 5th in the 200 Free (#28 in the U.S.) and 15th in the 100 free. Her 500 and 200 times are also Automatic All American. Other swimmers with multiple Automatic All American standards: Anna Keating, James Madison 100 Breast (#1 DMV, #2 in the U.S. as of 3/15) 200 IM (#6 in the DMV, #38 in the U.S.); Abby Carr, Washington Christian Academy 100 Back (#6 DMV, #52 in the U.S. as of 3/15), 100 Fly (#5 DMV, #36 in the U.S as of 3/15); Abby Harter, Briar Woods 100 Breast (#3 DMV, #40 in the U.S. as of 3/15), 100 Fly (#2 DMV, #7 in the U.S as of 3/15), 200 IM (#3 DMV, #18 in the U.S. as of 3/15); Catherine Belyakov, Quince Orchard 100 Breast (#2 DMV, #31 in the U.S. as of 3/15), 200 IM (#5 DMV, #34 in the U.S. as of 3/15); Mackenzie McConagha, Briar Woods 100 Back (#2 DMV, #10 in the U.S. as of 3/15) 100 Fly (#4 DMV, #31 in the U.S. as of 3/15); Sophie Duncan, Holton Arms 500 Free (#2 DMV, #28 in the U.S as of 3/15) 200 IM (#4 DMV, #20 in the U.S. as of 3/15)

Boys

Based on the criteria above,   Anthony Grimm, Oakton (DMV Ranks: 1st 50 Free, 1st 100 Breast, 3rd 100 Back, 15th 100 Free),  Brett Feyerick, Georgetown Prep (DMV Ranks: 1st 100 Back, 3rd 100 free, 4th 50 free) Trace Wall , Rock Ridge (DMV Ranks: 1st 100 Free, 2nd 50 Free) and Sam Oliver, John Champe (DMV Ranks: 1st 500 Free, 3rd 200 Free) are the candidates for our male ‘Swimmer of the Year’ distinction.

Swimmer of the Year (Male):

Anthony Grimm, Oakton

Performance Rundown:

• 50 Free (#1 DMV, #4 in the U.S. as of 3/15),
• 100 back (#3 DMV, #54 in the U.S. as of 3/15).
• 100 Breast (#1 DMV, #7 in the U.S as of 3/15).
• Automatic All American in all 3 events (50 Free, 100 Back, 100 Breast) Also swam on  Automatic All American 200 medley relay (#5 DMV, #52 in the U.S. as of 3/15) and All American Consideration 400 Free relay (#4 DMV, #73 in the U.S. as of 3/15). You’ll see in the Top-16 spreadsheets that we included the 50 Back leadoff swims and on SwimCloud he is ranked #2. As we saw with his online interview with SwimSwam after the VHSL State meet, he accomplished this on an abbreviated season as he was out rehabilitating a back injury.

Runner Up (Tie):

Brett Feyerick, Georgetown Prep

Performance Rundown:

• 50 Free (#5 DMV, #81 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• 100 Free (#3 DMV, #69 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• 100 Back (#1 DMV, #13 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• Automatic All American in 100 Back, All American Consideration in 2 events (50 Free, 100 Free). Automatic All American 200 Medley Relay (#2 DMV, #19 in the U.S. as of 3/15), 400 Free relay (#2 DMV, #45 in the U.S. as of 3/15) and All American Consideration

Trace Wall, Rock Ridge

• 50 Free (#2 DMV, #14 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• 100 Free (#1 DMV, #21 in the U.S. as of 3/15)
• Automatic All American in both 50 and 100 Free. All American Consideration in the 200 Free Relay (#9 DMV, #113 in the U.S. as of 3/15)

Diver of the Year (Male):

Sam Duncan, James Madison

Sam (#29 in the U.S.) posted the top score across the DMV with 530.80 points, was the top diver during the VHSL dual meet season, won the Concorde District, Region 6 and Class 6 State meet. Other divers in consideration were Michael Parker, Sherwood (#31 in the U.S), who posted a 529.20 winning Metros, also swept the titles at the MPSSAA Region and State meets. Finn Gelbach, The Heights posted the third best score in the DMV with a 509.95 and placed 1st at the WMPSSDL, and WCAC meets and 2nd at Metros and National Catholics.

Notables:

The relay teams from Gonzaga posted the fastest times in 2 of the three relays and earned Automatic All American in all three. The 200 Medley Relay time of 1:31.28 is the 10th fastest in the U.S and the 400 Free Relay 3:04.91 is the 25th fastest in the U.S. The fastest 200 Free Relay in the DMV was posted by Walt Whitman 1:23.39, is 15th on the list in the U.S. The time achieved by Sam Oliver, John Champe in the 500 Free earned an Automatic All American and #7 in the country as of 3/15. Aiken Do, WT Woodson is the only other male swimmer (than those mentioned above) that earned Automatic All American in more than one event, the 100 Free 44.83, (#2 DMV, #46 in the U.S. as of 3/15) and 100 Breast 55.71, (#2 DMV, #58 in the U.S. as of 3/15)