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December in the DMV- what a month of Swimming!!

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By Reach for the Wall Staff

Typically in the DMV December is a busy month for swimmers of all ages, with club teams hosting their mid-season championship meets, public high schools getting their seasons underway, and at the National level, the US Open and Winter Jr. Nationals. This December wasn’t any different, but we also had the addition of World Aquatics (formally FINA) Short Course World Championships that just concluded last weekend in Australia. We’ll do our best to recap some of the highlights from December…here goes:

US Open: November 30- December 3, Greensboro. This meet marked the start of the qualifying period for the 2024 Olympic Trials, so for many US swimmers, this was a good time to rest and put up some fast results, as reported by SwimSwam, 48 men and 51 women earned cuts for the 2024 US Olympic Trials, hitting a combined 159 cut times across all of the swimming events. Here’s the swimmers from the DMV that hit the Olympic Trials standard:

  • Camille Spink (NCAP): 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free, 200 IM
  • Erin Gemmell (NCAP): 200 Free, 400 Free
  • Brynn Curtis (YORK/Auburn): 200 Breaststroke
  • Jed Garner (RMSC): 200 Breaststroke

Snapshot of all swims for NCAP:

Snapshot of all swims for RMSC:

PVS Championship meets: There were a trio of Championship meets held in PVS the weekend of December 1-4, with Maryland Suburban Swim Club (MSSC) hosting the Christmas Champs at Fairland, Machine hosting the Turkey Claus meet at the University of Maryland and Potomac Marlins hosting the Sport Fair Winter Classic at George Mason. A number of meet records were broken over the weekend, here’s what we saw:

MSSC Christmas Champs: No record indicators in results

PM Sport Fair:

  • Tyler Harris (MAKO): 10 & U 50 Free 27.12
  • Connor Minear (AAC): 11-12 500 Free 5:07.77
  • Liam Haas (UMLY): 13-14 50 Free 22.15
  • Diego Ramos (AAC): 13-14 50 Breast 27.27, 100 Breast 59.37
  • Aiden Bond (YORK): 100 Free 45.12
  • Gloria Kuang (AAC): 513-14 50 Back 26.40
  • Sadie Buckley (MAKO): 13-14 100 Back 56.46

Machine Turkey Claus:

  • Matthew Kockler (NCAP): 11-12 100 Free 59.39, 200 Free 2:10.27
  • Jance Campbell (NCAP): 13-14 100 Free 52.08
  • Neil Wargin (MACH): 13-14 100 Back 57.47, 100 Breast 1:04.85, 200 Breast 2:24.18, 100 Butterfly 56.54, 200 IM 2:08.03, 400 IM 4:39.29
  • Nathan Widman (NCAP): 50 Freestyle 22.32
  • Gigi Dent (NCAP): 11-12 100 IM 1:08.32
  • Madison Manne (NCAP): 13-14 400 IM 4:54.09

Speedo Winter Jr. Nationals: Greensboro switched the pool from LC Meters to SC Yards and held Winter Jr. Nats the following week 12/7-12/10. A few of the standout swimmers from the US Open decided to get some additional racing in & stayed to compete, turning in times that blew away existing meet records. SwimSwam compiled all results from both the East and West to calculate a ‘virtual’ champion across the two meets. With that data there were 22 meet records (both East and West) and 5 National age Group Records! From our area, Arlington Aquatic, All Star Aquatics, APACC, George Washington, Machine Rockville Montgomery, and York had swimmers competing. Here’s a breakdown of swimmers that scored points in individual events during the meet:

All Star Aquatics:
Virginial Hinds: 15th 100 Backstroke
Sienna Karp: 17th 400 IM, 11th 100 Breaststroke

Arlington Aquatics:
Simon Bermudez: 13th 200 IM, 12th 400 IM
Nolan Dunkel: 14th 100 Butterfly, 7th 100 Backstroke
Catherine Hughes: 9th 100 Breaststroke, 11th 200 Breaststroke

George Washington:
Ava Topolewski: 3rd 1650 Freestyle

Machine:
Noah Dyer: 8th 200 Freestyle, 15th 100 Freestyle

Rockville Montgomery:
Brady Begin: 13th 1650 Freestyle

Full Results:

juniors-east-complete-meet-resultsDownload

NCAP Invitational: NCAP held their annual Invitational at the University of Maryland the same weekend as Winter Jr’s. Over 20 teams from the DMV and beyond competed at the meet, with NCAP leading the way in the team standings, followed by Long Island Aquatic Club then Asphalt Green. SwimSwam provided 3 recaps of the notable swims, the first detailing the remarkable 1650 swum by 15 yr old Sean Green from LIAC breaking 15:00 to win the race (actual time 14:57.83), with 2nd place finisher from NCAP, Bryce Rohr in 15:27.08! The next recap provided highlights from NCAP’s Camille Spink, LIAC’s Sean Green and Tess Howley. Over the weekend, Camille swam four events and came away with four 1st place swims (200 Free 1:43.82, 50 Free 22.45, 100 Back 53.49, and 100 Free 48.48, her 200 Free was an all time best and each subsequent swim was narrowly off her all time best. The 3rd recap highlighted Sean Green, Camille and Tess, but also noted the meet record swim by Andrew Vanas (NCAP). Andrew won the 13-14 Boys 100 Freestyle in 46.22 ,eclipsing the old mark of 46.35 was set in 2018 by Brett Feyerick. Andrew had a great meet, winning 5 of his 7 events and attaining best times in all.

December 9-11 MAKO held their Holiday Invitational at the St. James with 14 PVS clubs in attendance. This meet was not trials and finals, only 1 swim per event, however they held separate age group categories for 11-12, 9-10 and 8 & Under, with the 13 & overs competing in the multi-age category. We have full results on our site: MAKO Holiday Invitational

World Aquatics Short Course Championships: December 12-18 the World Aquatics Short Course Championships were held in Melbourne, Australia, where Team USA competed against the best in the world. Erin Gemmell and Torri Huske found the podium in several events, both individual and relays.

Torri Huske:

As indicated in the graphic above Torri had a part in several World, American and Championship records at this meet. In the 4x 100 Medley, the American quartet of Claire Curzan, Lilly King, Torri Huske and Kate Douglass broke the world record with a time of 3:44.35, beating out the old standard of 3:44.52 that was also set by the United States. In winning the Women’s 4 x 50 Free Relay, Torri led off with a 24.08 (which would have placed 9th in the Individual 50 Free event), Claire Curzan, Erika Brown, and Kate Douglass rounded out the relay, setting a new American and Championship record with a 1:33.89! The Mixed 4 x 50 Medley Relay, Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Kate Douglass and Torri Huske also set a new World Record with their time of 1:35.13. The Women’s 4 x 100 Free Relay also set an American record with Torri, Kate Douglass, Claire Curzan and Erika Brown, the new standard at 3:26.29.

Erin Gemmell:

Erin started the meet off by swimming in the 400 Free and heats of the Women’s 4 x 100 Free Relay. In the prelims of the 400 Free, Erin was well situated, qualifying 3rd overall. In the final she finished 6th overall, in 4:01.82, just shy of her personal best and almost 2 seconds shy of 3rd place, which was captured by her Team USA teammate Leah Smith. Erin had to wait for the final day of competition to race her other individual event, the 20 freestyle. Again she made it through the heats positioned in 3rd place, and the final race was spectacular. The gap between 2nd and 4th was a mere .3 seconds, with Rebecca Smith (Canada) touching in 2nd in 1:52.24, Merrit Steenbergen (NED) in 3rd 1:52.28 and Erin 4th in 1:52.56. Erin did find the podium, winning a Bronze medal in the Women’s 4 x 200 Free Relay, with her teammates, Alex Walsh, Hali Flickinger and Leah Smith. Erin swam the 3rd leg in 1:52.23, the fastest split of the foursome!

RMSC Holiday Invitational: December 15-18, the last major ‘trials and finals’ meet within the DMV was held at the Germantown Indoor Swim Center, with 15 teams in attendance from PVS and nearby Middle Atlantic and Metropolitan LSC’s. This was another chance for several swimmers to compete in a trials and finals event after either qualifying in an earlier December meet, or coming back to the DMV after competing at one of the National meets. Many meet records were broken during the course of the meet, here’s what we saw:

Boys:

  • Jeremiah Germosan (RMSC): 11-12 50 Free 23.72
  • RMSC 11-12 200 Free Relay, 1:37.67 J Germosen, S Lee, R Fontana, K Chen
  • RMSC 11-12 40 Free Relay, 3:38.24 J Germosen, S Lee, R Fontana, K Chen
  • Griffin Oehler (RMSC): 13-14 100 Back 52.19
  • Michael Kueh (RMSC): 13-14 100 Buttlerfly 51.17
  • Adriano Arioti (RMSC): 15 & Over 100 back 47.53, 200 Back 1:43.03, 100 Butterfly 47.47, 200 Butterfly 1:44.72
  • Jed Garner (RMSC): 15 & Over 100 Breast 53.76
  • Toby Barnett (RMSC): 15 & Over 200 Breast 1:55.93, 200 IM 1:47.66, 400 IM 3:46.68
  • RMSC 15 & Over 200 Free Relay, 1:24.00 O Watkins, P Koenig, N Elkassem, N Arndt
  • RMSC 15 & Over 200 Medley Relay, 1:31.31 T Barnett, J Garner, D Yune, N Elkassem
  • Annapolis Swim Club 400 Medley Relay, 3:23.03 J Hayburn, B Schrepfer, T Murphy, J Deppe

Girls:

  • Virginia Hinds (ASA) 13-14 100 Back 54.71, 200 Back 2:00.33
  • Andrea Dworak (RMSC) 15 & over 100 Free 50.36, 200 Free 1:48.41
  • Amy Qin (RMSC) 15 & Over 100 Back 54.90
  • Livia Vinditti (RMSC) 15 & Over 200 Back 1:58.64
  • Sienna Karp (ASA) 15 & Over 100 Breast 1:01.49
  • Sarah Eliason (RMSC) 15 & Over 100 Butterfly 53.94
  • RMSC 15 & Over 800 Freestyle Relay, 7:28.05 A Qin, L Venditti, S Eliason, A Dworak

Congratulations to the multitude of swimmers that competed during the month of December and achieved your goals! We will highlight the high school swim season in a separate post…Happy Holidays!!

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