Swimming into the Holidays!

By Reach for the Wall Staff; Photos by Marcus Chen
Lead photo Adriano Arioti from Metros 2023, courtesy Marcus Chen

As we head into celebrating the Christmas weekend, here’s a few highlights from the past week/weekend of swimming in the DMV.

December 14– Holton Arms and Stone Ridge held their annual dual meet which in the past has been a fun and close ‘rivalry meet’, last Thursday was no exception. Holton came to the Stone Ridge campus down 14 swimmers due to illness and other circumstances, but cam away with a 22 point victory. The meet was a back and forth affair, with Stone Ridge leading the meet by 2 points with 4 events to go. Holton went on to sweep the top 3 places in the 500 free, just out-touch Stone Ridge to win the 200 Free Relay, and outscored the gators in both the 100 Back and 100 Breast. At the conclusion of the meet, coach Malena Ferrari commented that will all the illnesses and injuries, ” The girls rose to the challenge of the day”.

Top performers (2-event winners):

• Nadia Thomas, Holton-Arms: 200IM, 100 Back
• Cate Gaskin, Holton-Arms: 100 Fly, 100 Breast
• Addison Webb, Stone Ridge: 200 Free, 100 Free

Photos (All photos courtesy Marcus Chen):

Diving

Meet Photos:

December 14- Boyds, MD: Rockville Montgomery Swim Club hosted their annual December Championship meet, which this year was renamed to the Riley Eaton Holiday Classic. From the RMSC website: “As an RMSC swim coach for 35 years, he coached thousands of young people, many of whom grew to love the sport as much as he did and have gone on to their own careers in coaching, including current RMSC coaches who swam under Riley. On a national level, he served for nearly 20 years as a founding member on the Board of Directors for the National Club Swimming Association. In the Potomac Valley LSC, Riley served as an HOD at-large delegate, senior chairman, and general chairman. In 2014, Riley was presented with a USA Swimming Life Membership for his years of dedicated and exemplary service to the LSC and most importantly the athletes. After retiring from coaching, Riley was the Holiday Invitational announcer for many years and could always be found with tootsie pops on his table.” Throughout the weekend, you could find kids enjoying tootsie pops all around the facility, no matter the age group or time of day! The meet was live streamed via the Montgomery County Recreation YouTube Channel, and the sessions were packed with energetic swimmers and fans alike. Many new meet records were set with Rafael Fontana (6 individual records) and Alexander Jungbluth (4 individual records) setting the pace!

Girls:

• Viona Sunjaya (RMSC) 13-14 200 Breaststroke 2:17.02
• Andrea Dworak (RMSC) Open 200 Freestyle 1:47.49
• Livia Venditti (RMSC) Open 200 Backstroke 1:57.64
• Sienna Karp (RMSC) Open 100 Breaststroke 1:00.80
• Maria Webb (RMSC) Open 200 Butterfly 1:59.87
• RMSC Open 200 Medley Relay 1:42.57 Livia Venditti, Sienna Karp, Sarah Eliason, Amy Qin

Boys:

• Rafael Fontana (RMSC) 11-12 50 freestyle 23.15; 11-12 100 Freestyle 51.09; 11-12 50 Backstroke 27.02; 11-12 100 Butterfly 55.46; 11-12 200 Backstroke 2:01.36; 11-12 200 Butterfly 2:02.73
• RMSC 11-12 200 Freestyle Relay: 1:37.48 Rafael Fontana, Selim Ericson, Tripp Thomas, Markos Mastronikolas
• Alexander Jungbluth (RMSC) 13-14 50 Freestyle 21.24; 13-14 100 Backstroke 52.00; 13-14 100 Butterfly 50.64; 13-14 200 Butterfly 1:52.66;
• Nicholas Liberty (RMSC) 13-14 1000 Freestyle 9:34.48
• RMSC 13-14 400 Yard Freestyle Relay: 3:16.92 Alexander Jungbluth, Colton Mettler, Jeremiah Germosen, Lachlan Bartholomew
• RMSC 13-14 200 Yard Medley Relay 1:37.14 Colton Mettler, John Dawson, Alexander Jungbluth, Jeremiah Germosen
• RMSC 13-14 400 Yard Medley Relay 3:33.14 Colton Mettler, John Dawson, Alexander Jungbluth, Jeremiah Germosen
• Evan Mackesy (RMSC) Open 1650 Freestyle 15:15.44; Open 500 Freestyle 4:23.94
• Aaron Stevens (DSA) Open 50 Freestyle 20.47; Open 100 Freestyle 44.62
• Adriano Arioti (RMSC) Open 100 Backstroke 46.97; Open 100 Butterfly 46.89;
• RMSC Open 200 Yard Freestyle Relay: 1:22.47 Owen Watkins, Nassim Elkassem, Elliot Lee, Samir Elkassem
• RMSC Open 800 Yard Freestyle Relay: 6:45.48 Adriano Arioti, Brady Begin, Nassim Elkassem, Elliot Lee
• RMSC Open 200 Yard Medley Relay: 1:30.30 Nassim Elkassem, Brian Wilbur, Adriano Arioti, Owen Watkins
• Diamond State Aquatics (DSA) Open 400 Medley Relay: 3:22.67 Bryce Patterson, Aaron Stevens, Jude Winnington, Chase Bearley

High School Swimming

December 16th was the 2nd week of dual meet competition for the Montgomery County MD high schools, we have all the results posted here: December 16.

Across the river, the Prince William Swim Center hosted the annual Cardinal Classic Invitational, where high school teams from the Prince William area competed in a trials and finals style meet. All results can be found on SwimCloud: 2023 Cardinal Classic Invitational