Metros Photo Retrospective- Part 2
Photos by Marcus Chen
Picking up where we left off…the Boys 100 Butterfly was a thrilling race start to finish. Alexander Jungbluth (DeMatha), Kirk Morgan (Gonzaga) and Lucas Knapp (Walter Johnson) were stroke for stroke much of the race. At the 50, Kirk Morgan had a 2 tenth lead on Lucas Knapp, with Alexander Jungbluth in 3rd. The final length, Jungbluth brought it home & hit the wall first in an Automatic All American time of 48.31, followed by Morgan All American Consideration 48.55 and Knapp, also All American Consideration 48.81.
| Alexander Jungbluth | DeMatha | 48.31 | AAAU |
| Kirk Morgan | Gonzaga | 48.55 | AAC |
| Lucas Knapp | Walter Johnson | 48.81 | AAC |
Girls:
Teammates Gaby Kaiser and Anika Cai significantly gained points for the team title for Churchill with their 1-2 finish in the 100 Butterfly. This was Kaiser’s first individual Metro’s win and personal best time, winning in an All American Consideration time of 55.39. As with the boys race, the top 3 pushed each other throughout the race, as Anika Cai hit the wall at the 50 ahead of both swimmers. Gaby’s last 50 was 3 tenths faster than the field and secured the win!
| Gaby Kaiser | Churchill | 55.39 | AAC |
| Anika Cai | Churchill | 55.45 | |
| Lexie Bishop | St. John’s | 55.70 |
100 Freestyle:
Boys:
Andrew Vanas secured his 2nd win of the meet in convincing fashion as he was the only swimmer under 22 at the 50 turn. 2nd place finisher Daniel Mulla (Wootton) had the fastest back half of the race, but Vanas had too much of a lead for Mulla to catch him, Vanas hitting the wall in 45.17, an All American Consideration time.
| Andrew Vanas | Georgetown Prep | 45.17 | AAC |
| Daniel Mulla | Wootton | 45.80 | |
| Seamus Rooney | DeMatha | 46.45 |
Girls:
Virginia Hinds successfully captured her 3rd straight 100 Free title, touching in an Automatic All American time of 49.57. Samantha Roemer (Stone Ridge) cam in a close 2nd, also surpassing the Automatic All American standard, with Gabrielle Day (Bullis) touching 3rd in an All American Consideration time.
| Virginia Hinds | B-CC | 49.57 | AAAU |
| Samantha Roemer | Stone Ridge | 49.80 | AAAU |
| Gabrielle Day | Bullis | 50.78 | AAC |
Team Scores:
| Team Scores after 100 Freestyle | Boys | Girls |
| Georgetown Prep 228 | Churchill 209 | |
| Gonzaga 189 | Whitman 200 | |
| DeMatha 180 | Good Counsel 153 | |
| Walter Johnson 144 | Stone Ridge 146 | |
| Wootton 125 | B-CC 137 |
500 Freestyle:
Boys:
Tyler Kominski (Sherwood) got his first Metro individual title with his performance, touching the wall in an Automatic All American time of 4:24.64, which was also a personal best. He put almost 2 seconds between him and the field at the 200 and further increased that lead to win the race by 5 seconds! The battle for 2nd place was fierce between Leopold Nurit (Whitman) and Trevor Donley (Sidwell), with Nurit touching in 4:29.77 to Donley’s 4:29.99.
| Tyler Kominski | Sherwood | 4:24.26 | AAAU |
| Leopold Nurit | Whitman | 4:29.70 | AAC |
| Trevor Donley | Sidwell | 4:29.99 | AAC |
Girls:
Freshman Maura Ahern (Stone Ridge) led from start to finish in winning the 500, an event that Andrea Dworak (Wisconsin/Blake) had won the prior 3 years. Elanor Saybolt (Walter Johnson) was comfortably 2nd in an All American Consideration time and another freshman Ainsley Bell (Churchill) was 3rd.
| Mara Ahearn | Stone Ridge | 4:54.43 | AAC |
| Elanor Saybolt | Walter Johnson | 4:55.89 | AAC |
| Ainsley Bell | Churchill | 4:59.21 |
200 Freestyle Relay
Boys:
The Relays always get the crowd in a fever pitch and a noise level up to rock concert decibels. Through 3 exchanges, the margin between 1st and 4th was less than 5 tenths. Gonzaga had the early lead and at the 3rd exchange was 1:02.85, Georgetown Prep was 1:03.20, DeMatha was 1:03.19 and Churchill was 1:04.04. It took a blazing anchor from Andrew Vanas- 19.79, to put Prep atop the podium, touching in a new Metro record ands Automatic All American time of 1:22.99!
| Georgetown Preparatory School | PREP | Gabriel Hanson | Johnny Hughes | James Kratz | Andrew Vanas | 1:22.99 | AAAU |
| Gonzaga College High School | GONZ | Kirk Morgan | Jackson Tovornik | George Thiede | Patrick Fisher | 1:23.31 | AAAU |
| DeMatha Catholic High School | DEM | Selim Ericson | Seamus Rooney | Abraham Watts | Jonathan Lombardo | 1:24.59 | AAC |
Girls:
Equally as exciting, Churchill and Stone Ridge quartet of Freestyle sprinters thrilled the crowd with a back and forth race, where Stone Ridge pushed Churchill, but came up short of the victory. Despite the 22.9 split from Stone Ridge sophomore Samantha Roemer, Churchill’s Annika Cai held her off to capture the victory.
| Winston Churchill | WCH | Gracelyn Schur (SO) | Gabriela Kaiser (SR) | Alexa Chen (FR) | Anika Cai (JR) | 1:37.26 |
| Stone Ridge | SR | Mara Ahearn (FR) | Quinn Muller (FR) | Addison Webb (SR) | Samantha Roemer (SO) | 1:37.59 |
| The Holton-Arms School | HA | Omannaya Ndu (SR) | KaiLi Ji (SO) | Natalie Roscetti (FR) | Mila Weliwitigoda (FR) | 1:38.61 |
Team Scores
| Team Scores after 200 Freestyle Relay | Boys | Girls |
| Georgetown Prep 282 | Churchill 277 | |
| Gonzaga 231 | Whitman 237 | |
| DeMatha 231 | Stone Ridge 214 | |
| Walter Johnson 215 | Good Counsel 213 | |
| Churchill 176 | Holton-Arms 153 |
100 Backstroke
Griffin Oehler got his 2nd individual win of the night and again scared the meet record with his performance. His 47.15 was an Automatic All American and only 4 tenths shy of the record set in 2013 by Jack Conger.
| Griffin Oehler | Georgetown Prep | 47.15 | AAAU |
| Charlie Begin | Churchill | 48.94 | AAC |
| Gabe Hanson | Georgetown Prep | 50.18 |
Girls:
Virginia Hinds captured her 2nd individual win of the meet and completed her 4-year sweep of the 100 Backstroke at Metros. Good counsel’s Celia Watkins swam a strong race and captured 2nd in an All American Consideration time, while Whitman’s Jisoo Yeou posted a personal best time capturing 3rd.
Here’s what we were able to dig up on 4-year event winners at Metros…in recent history, Phoebe Bacon also won this event from 2016-2019, Erin Gemmell won the 200 Free 2019-2022 and Katie Ledecky won the 200, 500 Free 2012-2015. On the Boys side, Grant Goddard won the 100 Butterfly 2012-2015, Carsten Vissering won the 100 Breast 2012-2015, Others such as Jack Conger, while undefeated in his 4 years at Metros, did not swim the same events each year.
| Virginia Hinds | B-CC | 53.26 | AAAU |
| Celia Watkins | Good Counsel | 55.74 | AAC |
| Jisoo Yeou | Whitman | 56.71 |
100 Breaststroke
Boys:
Luc Dionne (Walter Johnson) captured his first individual title by out dueling DeMatha’s Jack Hamilton, hitting the wall in an Automatic All American time of 54.44. Jack Hamilton had a 1 tenth lead at the 50 turn, but Luc finished strong, splitting a full second faster than the field on the final 50.
| Luc Dionne | Walter Johnson | 54.44 | AAAU |
| Jack Hamilton | DeMatha | 55.46 | AAC |
| Maximus Devinney | Churchill | 57.10 |
Girls:
Catherine Bu collected a win for Churchill in the last individual event of the night, repeating as champion in this event from 2025 and touching just ahead of Viona Sunjaya with an All American Consideration time.
| Catherine Bu | Churchill | 1:03.61 | AAC |
| Viona Sunjaya | Damascus | 1:03.75 | AAC |
| Brooke Lakso | Sherwood | 1:04.79 |
Team Scores
Going into the final relay, the Boys title was still up for grabs as Georgetown Prep held a 25 point lead and needed to finish the race without a DQ to stay ahead of Walter Johnson
| Team Scores after 100 Breaststroke | Boys | Girls |
| Georgetown Prep 336 | Churchill 368 | |
| Walter Johnson 299 | Good Counsel 274 | |
| DeMatha 288 | Whitman 271 | |
| Gonzaga 249 | Stone Ridge 214 | |
| Churchill 224 | Holton-Arms 182 |
400 Freestyle Relay
Boys
With the points doubled for Relays, DeMatha had a shot at overtaking Walter Johnson for 2nd place, as long as they finished 4+ places ahead in the final race. Gonzaga had a lock on 4th, and took a sizeable lead after the first 2 legs 1:31.99 (Kirk Morgan 45.49, Cole Gangemi 46.50), second place was occupied by Walter Johnson 1:33.13 (Lucas Knapp 45.96, Taiyo Murphy 47.17). Charlie Begin brought Churchill back into the race splitting 44.61, as they had a slight lead on Gonzaga (2:18.21 to 2:18.57) with the anchor swimmers in the water. Maximus Devinney delivered the win for Churchill splitting 45.28, and an Automatic All American time of 3:03.49. The last 15 yard of the race were thrilling as Devinney had to hold off a hard charging Griffin Oehler who split an event best 43.81, and brough Prep back from 5th to 2nd!! Walter Johnson finished 3rd, as Luc Dionne anchored their relay splitting 45.95, for a final time of 3:05.45 just ahead of Gonzaga who finished in 3:05.57.
| Winston Churchill | Douglas Sims (SR) | Jay Cole Devinney (FR) | Charlie Begin (SR) | Edward Devinney (JR) | 3:03.49 | AAAU |
| Georgetown Preparatory School | Gabriel Hanson (SO) | Rafa Fontana (FR) | James Kratz (SO) | Griffin Oehler (JR) | 3:05.26 | AAC |
| Walter Johnson | Lucas Knapp (SR) | Taiyo Murphy (SR) | Lachlan Bartholomew (SO) | Luc Dionne (JR) | 3:05.45 | AAC |
Girls:
The girls race was close at the first exchange, where Churchill held a slight lead on Stone Ridge, but by the 3rd exchange, Stone Ridge opened a 2-second lead on the field, with anchor Samantha Roemer to go…Only B-CC’s Virginia Hinds split faster than Roemer (Hinds 50.08, Roemer 50.22), Stone Ridge had enough to seal the relay win, almost 4 seconds ahead of the field in an Automatic All American time of 3:29.12. Churchill place 2nd in the race, but also had amassed enough points to claim the team title!
| Stone Ridge | Harper Rushton (JR) | Mara Ahearn (FR) | Addison Webb (SR) | Samantha Roemer (SO) | 3:29.12 | AAAU |
| Winston Churchill | Ainsley Bell (FR) | Gracelyn Schur (SO) | Alexa Chen (FR) | Catherine Bu (SR) | 3:32.90 | |
| Bethesda-Chevy Chase | Malia Mendizabal (SO) | Olivia Morton (SO) | Hailey Hammond (SR) | Virginia Hinds (SR) | 3:33.03 |
Final Score
The Team championship titles were won by Georgetown Prep Boys and Churchill Girls. Prep hadn’t won the team title since 2019 and Churchill returned to the top of the podium after a 1-year hiatus as they won in 2024. Griffin Oehler was also the recipient of the Frank Martin Award for Outstanding Performance, with his wins in the 200 IM and 100 Backstroke!
| Team Scores Final | Boys | Girls |
| Georgetown Prep 376 | Churchill 410 | |
| Walter Johnson 344 | Good Counsel 312 | |
| DeMatha 315 | Whitman 305 | |
| Gonzaga 279 | Stone Ridge 262 | |
| Churchill 272 | Holton-Arms 214 |
