By Ishita Singh

*Starting next week, the weekend roundup will run on Monday.

Strathmore Bel Pre vs. Theresa Banks (PMSL) – suspended
Strathmore Bel Pre and Theresa Banks suspended their meet this weekend because of storms. Thunder is an immediate cause for meet cancellation, so swimmers bounded out of the pool at the first clap.

“That’s the first time that’s happened in 10 years,” Strathmore vice president Ellen Wesley said. “I’ve been in the business all this time and I’ve never seen one called off.”

Rain started falling around 8:40 a.m., just after the meet’s first race, the boys’ 18 and under 200-meter medley relay, finished. Though it eased at times, it never stopped falling, and the teams were partway through the backstroke swims when the meet was suspended.

The meet will resume on Wednesday at the Strathmore Bel Pre Pool in Silver Spring. Warm-ups will start at 6:30 p.m. and the meet will start around 7.

Closest Meets of the Week
League	Teams	Score
MCSL	Tanterra vs. Mohican	394-394
MCSL	Stonegate vs. Westleigh	397.5-394.5
MCSL	Norbeck Grove vs. Clopper Mill	379-376
MCSL	Cedarbrook vs. Damascus	397.5-391.5
MCSL	Darnestown vs. Franklin Knolls	398-391

Mohican 394, Tanterra 394 (MCSL)
Rather than pack it in when the thunderstorm struck, Mohican and Tanterra packed into their cars to wait it out. At that point the teams were tied, and despite their dedication the meet remained that way with the teams finishing the dual knotted at 394 points.
It was a strong comeback for Tanterra, who trailed by as many as 20 points and were down by seven at the halfway mark, according to coach Karen Zarchin.

“I thought our team was a little off in the first half but they really came back strong in the second half after the rain,” Tarpons assistant head coach Stephanie Forlenza said.

Erin Stout won four events in the up-to-18 group: the 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter individual medley, 100-meter breaststroke, and the 50-meter fly. Michael Stephens won the 50-meter fly, 100-meter IM and 100-meter breast.

Kevin Johnson, 12, Patrick Scordato, 14, and Tess Speiser, 11, led Mohican with four wins each.

Tanterra preserved the tie by winning the girls’ relay, thanks to the efforts of 13-year-old Kylie Sheapp, who closed a gap of 10 to 12 meters according to Zarchin, before giving way to 8-year old Kennedy Nolan, who won it on the anchor leg. In all, Tanterra picked up 30 relay points to Mohican’s 26.

Stonegate 397.5, Westleigh 394.5 (MCSL)
With the meet on the line, Stonegate’s Emily Stutzman, 10, Melanie Doan, 11, Natasha Jacome, 13, and Kristen Gload, 8, won the girls’ 14-and-under 175-meter free relay to best Westleigh in a matchup of two of MCSL’s top Division B teams.

A 45-minute rain delay paused the meet with only two events remaining and Westleigh up by one point. After the weather cleared, the boys swam their relay, and Westleigh increased their lead to seven points with a one-three finish. But the Stonegate girls picked up ten points with their one-two finish in the relay, winning the meet.

Swimmer Rachel Jaffe, 15, said the win was very important for Stonegate. “Westleigh is really good, so we were not expecting a win. We’ve come up in the past four years from I to G to C to now this is our second year in B [division], so this was a really big deal for us.”

Westleigh broke eight Stonegate pool records. Brittany Dickerson broke a record in the 14 and under 50M butterfly, Matthew Gibson in the 14-and-under 50-meter backstroke, Thomas Finn in the 18-and-under 100-meter backstroke and Andrew Scher, Nikos Tragotsis, Matthew Gibson and Kevin Scher in the boys’ 175-meter freestyle relay.

The star of the meet was twelve-year-old Andrew Gibson, who broke four records for Westleigh, in the 12-and-under 100-meter IM, 12-and-under 50-meter freestyle, 50-meter backstroke and 50-meter butterfly.

Stonegate also walked away with some records. Jessica Schipani broke a pool record in the 14-and-under 100-meter individual medley, and Gload broke a record in the 8-and-under 25-meter butterfly.

Broadlands 238.5, Red Rock 219.5 (ODSL)
Swimmers are used to being wet, but when lightning is thrown into the mix, it becomes a different story. That was the case Saturday in the Old Dominion Swim League, where all meets were either totally rained out or halted before they could be completed.

At Broadlands, the home team and Red Rock got in about half of a meet before a thunderstorm set in, sending the few hundred people in attendance scurrying for their cars. The deck and pool cleared out in mere minutes. Because the meet was more than halfway complete, the scores tallied by each team at the time of the delay will recorded as an official score. The meet will not be completed.

“Anything that wasn’t halfway will probably be rescheduled,” ODSL Vice President Teresa Pluiskaitis said.

Pluiskaitis estimated that half of the meets in the league got through freestyle and backstroke, while one quarter completed the full meet and another quarter didn’t get through very much at all.

As an example, Brambleton’s meet with Potomac Station was canceled by 9:30 a.m.

- Washingtion Post staff writer Bill Oram contributed to this report

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