Splashing Around the DMV in April

By Reach for the Wall Staff

The month of April has been busy around the DMV, with 6 PVS sanctioned meets, an ‘out of town’ showdown (North Carolina), an Open Water Championship in Florida and some promising news for the local summer leagues. Starting off with the local meets, PVS has officially transitioned to the Long Course season & successfully competed across several sites in Northern VA over the past few weeks. We (along with PVS) have posted results and swimmers can now check their times and see how they rank among other swimmers in the DMV (the link is set to the girls 100m Free). While the current PVS schedule looks sparse for the summer months, we know the PVS Competition Committee is fervently working to craft a schedule that may resemble the ‘Wave’ meets that were held in March.

Meet News:

The weekend of April 8-11, NCAP, FISH, and AAC had swimmers attend the TAC Titan LC Premier. One of the meet highlights was the fierce competition between AAC’s Torri Huske, TAC Titans Claire Curzan and other seasoned veterans. Torri captured 1st in the 50, 100 Free, 200 IM and came in 2nd in the 100 and 200 Fly. Huske and Curzan went head-to-head in the freestyle and 100 butterfly events. The results and accolades for Torri’s swims were well documented by SwimSwam:
Curzan & Huske Light it Up…
Torri Huske Erases Simon Manuel’s 17-18 NAG Record
2 NAG Records in One Race
Curzan Edges Huske in Prelims

In the last SwimSwam article, they go on to mention several other swimmers from the DMV that had success at the meet as well:

• Erin Gemmell (NCAP), 1st 200 Freestyle (Wave II OT cut), 3rd 100 Freestyle (Wave II OT cut), 3rd 1500 Freestyle (narrowly missing the Wave II OT cut), 2nd 400IM, 11th 50 Free
• JT Ewing (FISH): 2nd 200 Backstroke (Wave I OT cut), 7th 100 Backstroke
• Sam O’Brien (FISH): 7th 200 Backstroke (Wave I OT cut in prelims), 5th 100 Backstroke
• Camille Spink (NCAP): 7th 50 Freestyle (Wave I OT cut in prelims), 4th 100 Freestyle (Wave I OT cut), 2nd 200 Freestyle, 5th 100 Backstroke,
• Mackenzie McConagha (NCAP): 5th 200 IM, 5th 200 Butterfly, 3rd 200 Backstroke, 100 Backstroke Prelims (Wave I OT cut).
• Jakob Frick (NCAP): 1st 200 Breaststroke (narrowly missed Wave II OT cut), 2nd 100 Breaststroke (Wave I OT cut)
• Paige McKenna (NCAP): 2nd 1500 Freestyle (Wave II OT cut), 2nd 400 Freestyle (Wave I OT cut), 5th 400 IM
• Sophie Duncan (NCAP): 12th 100 Backstroke, 3rd 200 Butterfly (narrowly missing Wave I OT cut), 2nd 400 IM (Wave I OT cut), 3rd 200 IM
• Matt Van Deusen (NCAP): 8th 100 Freestyle, 9th 200 Butterfly, 3rd 200 Backstroke (Wave I OT cut in prelims)

Last weekend (April 23-25), NCAP held the first competition in Montgomery County since the pandemic restrictions began in March 2020. The NCAP Bronze Bonzai Meet was competed outdoors at the Lakewood Country Club in short course meters (25m) and met all the criteria for capacity and social distancing. Kudos to NCAP for getting the first meet waiver in Montgomery County- we’re looking forward to seeing other meet venues open up again!!

Open Water Nationals:

April 16-18 USA Swimming held the Open Water National championships in Florida & a few from the area made the trip to compete.

The above was posted to NCAP’s Facebook page. Other swimmers from the area that competed were Emma Flickinger (Machine), and Jameson Vanderloo (SNOW). SwimSwam did a good job to summarize the events and provide a single spot for results (USA Swimming site is less than desirable to navigate). Congratulations to those that competed!!

Summer Leagues:

We’ve heard from the Montgomery County Swim League MCSL, Northern Virginial Swim League NVSL, Prince-Mont Swim League PMSL, and the Prince William Swim League PWSL (while we haven’t seen an official announcement from the league): Bridlewood Swim Club News that they are committed to holding a season of meets this summer. The exact details and logistics of the practices and meets are still being fleshed out & we’ll provide information as available. We are excited that the summer leagues will return, they are the bedrock for the growth of the sport in the DMV, it is the first of introduction of the sport to thousands of kids 12 & under and is integral in teaching life skills. More importantly, the teams are fun & keep the kids out of the house!! We will keep our eyes and ears open in May & hope to report lots of good news.