Metros Photo Retrospective- Part 1

Photos by Marcus Chen

2026 marked the 61st occurrence of the Washington Metropolitan Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championship (METROS) which brings together invited public high school and prep schools in the Washington Metropolitan area (MD, DC, VA) for a chance to compete in a trials and finals format. Almost more importantly, competing in this meet gives the athletes ‘bragging rights’ against their club team peers in both the individual and team standings. The meet started Wednesday February 4th with the Boys diving competition. 20 points separated 1st through 3rd place, with Dylan Imirowicz, from B-CC taking the top spot with 493 point through 11 dives. Beau Amprey from Sidwell Friends earned enough points for the 2nd spot at 484.25 and George Shannon from Landon captured 3rd with 471.2 points. This was a repeat win for Dylan and caps off his 4-year career finishing in the top 10, where he finished 9th as a Freshman, and 4th as a Sophomore.

The girls took over the boards on Thursday and Elise Pantezzi from Quince Orchard edged out Kaarina Williams, Whitman for the title, with Eden Brenner B-CC capturing 3rd. This trio of Seniors finished in the top 10 at Metros for their career, with Brenner winning the event in 2025.

200 Medley Relay:

Georgetown Prep and Churchill Girls started their championship by taking the top spot in the 200 Medley Relays. With Andrew Vanas led off with a 23.17, followed by Griffin Oehler 24.92, Prep had over a 1-second lead on the field at the 100 and did not relent the last two legs. Their time of 1:31.06 was an Automatic All American, Walter Johnson finished 2nd with an All American Consideration time.

PREP	Andrew Vanas  (SR)	Griffin Oehler  (JR)	Rafa Fontana  (FR)	Johnny Hughes  (SR)	1:31.06	AAAU
Walter Johnson	Owen Friedman  (SR)	Maxwell Bagshaw  (SR)	Lucas Knapp  (SR)	Christian Greer  (SO)	1:33.43	AAC
DeMatha	Alexander Adebiyi  (SO)	Jack Hamilton  (SR)	Alexander Jungbluth  (JR)	Jonathan Lombardo  (JR)	1:34.16

Girls:

The girls race a a bit more back-and-forth, where B-CC’s Virginia Hinds put the Baron’s out in front with her 24.72 split. Churchill didn’t get to the front of the pack until the 150, where Annika Cai split 24.67 in her leg to give her anchor a lead into the final 50. Gaby Kaiser split 23.8 to keep Churchill in the lead, and Good Counsel’s Alexis Johnson split 24.14 to out touch B-CC for 2nd! All three relays earned All American Consideration times.

Churchill	Ainsley Bell  (FR)	Catherine Bu  (SR)	Anika Cai  (JR)	Gabriela Kaiser  (SR)	1:44.56	AAC
Good Counsel	Celia Watkins  (SR)	Kellie Kincaid  (SR)	Madeleine Inman  (JR)	Alexis Johnson  (FR)	1:45.82	AAC
BCC	Virginia Hinds  (SR)	Hailey Hammond  (SR)	Malia Mendizabal  (SO)	Olivia Morton  (SO)	1:45.98	AAC

Team Scores after Medley Relay	Boys	Girls
	Whitman 58	Whitman 98
	BCC 58	BCC 89
	Gonzaga 49	Quince Orchard 50
	Prep 48	Churchill 48
	Walter Johnson 42	Good Counsel 42

200 Freestyle:

Boys

This was a thrilling race to start the individual events- Charlie Begin (Churchill) took the race out, hitting the 100 in 46.61, a half a second clear of the field. Kirk Morgan (Gonzaga) was solidly in 2nd followed by Lachlan Bartholomew. Ultimately, that was the finishing order, with Charlie achieving an Automatic All American standard and narrowly missing the meet record of 1:37.13 from 2015.

Charlie  Begin	Churchill	1:37.37	AAAU
Kirk  Morgan	Gonzaga	1:38.83	AAC
Lachlan Bartholomew	Walter Johnson	1:39.29	AAC

Girls:

Mara Ahearn (Stone Ridge) set the tone in prelims garnering the top seed going into Finals, and did not relent as she led wire-to-wire, just ahead of the hard charging Catherine Bu (Churchill) and Hannah Clattenberg (Maret).

Mara  Ahearn	Stone Ridge	1:50.80
Catherine  Bu	Churchill	1:51.04
Hannah Clattenburg	Maret	1:51.21

200 IM

Boys

There was no doubt from the first 50 that Griffin Oehler set out to challenge the 200 IM record posted two years ago by Adriano Arioti…and through the 100 he was only 6 tenths behind. Griffin split 30.65 on the breaststroke leg (1 tenth faster than Arioti), however had too much to make up in Freestyle, splitting 25.64, where Arioti split 25.61. Ultimately, Griffin bested the field by 4 seconds and swam his lifetime best, touching in 1:44.11!!

Griffin Oehler	PREP	1:44.11	AAAU
Luc Dionne	Walter Johnson	1:48.12	AAAU
Maximus Devinney	Churchill	1:50.24	AAC

Girls

Celia Watkins (Good Counsel) led this race from the outset, but was never out of reach from 2nd place finisher Lexie Bishop (St. John’s). Lexie crept back on Celia in both the breaststroke and Free, but Celia’s 29.9 backstroke split put enough distance between her that Lexie came up just short, both girls earning an All American Consideration time.

Celia Watkins	Good Counsel	2:02.39	AAC
Lexie Bishop	St. John’s	2:02.95	AAC
Ainsley Bell	Churchill	2:05.43

50 Freestyle

Boys:

Andrew Vanas (Georgetown Prep), runner-up in this race last year, got to the wall ahead of the field in 20.55 for his first individual Metro title. Quiince Orchard Junior, Colton Mettler hit the wall 2nd, in 20.67 and rounding out the top 3 who made it under the 21 second barrier was DeMatha Freshman Selim Ericson who touched in 20.84

Andrew Vanas	Georgetown Prep	20.55	AAC
Colton Mettler	Quince Orchard	20.67	AAC
Selim Ericson	DeMatha	20.84

Girls:

Samantha Roemer (Stone Ridge) held her spot as the top seed from the prelims and came within 2 tenths of the meet record!

Samantha Roemer	SR-PV	22.88	AAAU
Gabrielle Day	BU-PV	23.52
Anika Cai	WCH	23.74

The battle for the team title was tight throughout the meet, with several lead changes for both the Girls and Boys, here’s where things stood after 50 Free:

Team Scores after 50 Freestyle	Boys	Girls
	Prep 160	Churchill 153
	Gonzaga 109	Whitman 146
	DeMatha 107	Good Counsel 113
	Walter Johnson 103	Stone Ridge 112
	Churchill 103	B-CC 94