PVS Junior Olympics 14 & Under Champs March 10-13

By Reach for the Wall Staff

In a return to ‘normalcy’, PVS is holding the 14&U Junior Olympic Championships at the University of Maryland. The meet started yesterday (3/10) with the distance events (girls 14 & U 1650, boys 14 & U 1000, and the girls + boys 11-12 500). While spectators are permitted in the facility (yay!), the events will also be live streamed through PVS YouTube . PVS has provided links to the psych sheet , containing the swimmer’s ranking for each event as well as the overall timeline. Last year this event was spread across several meets & locations, so this is a return to the ‘pre-COVID’ format where all the swimmers are competing in the same location.

Last night, Anastasia Orlic (NCAP) cruised to a win by 9 seconds in the girls 14 & U 1650, winning in 17:45.53 the next two finishers were 12 yr. olds, Noelle Caltes (SNOW) 17:54.74 and Ginger Strickland (FISH) 18:12.10. Aaron Jia (Dragon) and Jax Steider (Machine) pushed each other throughout the race to finish within tenths of each other. Aaron Jia took the top spot in 9:59.56, followed by Steider in 9:59.94. In the girls 500 Free, Lila Sherman (FISH) took charge and won the race by a 9-second margin in 5:09.21. The boys race again was much closer with Nicholas Liberty (RMSC) and Phoenix Vaonakis (RMSC) finishing within .06 of each other, Liberty taking the top spot in 5:07.24, Vaonakis in 5:07.30. Trevor Donley (RMSC) also pushed the pace much of the race, but fell off the last 50, to capture 3rd in 5:09.02.

We’re looking forward to seeing the athletes compete & push each other to great swims over the weekend!