The National Age Group Team Challenge was held this weekend at the Germantown Indoor Swim Center in Boyds.
Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club and Curl-Burke had another showdown this weekend at the National Age Group Team Challenge at the Germantown Indoor Swim Center in Boyds.
RMSC won the 14-and-under meet, with Curl-Burke finishing a close second. NOVA of Virginia Aquatics came in third. The meet allowed swimmers to earn power points from USA Swimming, based on their times. Each team amassed meet points based on the number of power points each of its swimmers earned.
Cierra Runge, 13, of the Delaware Swim Team and Liam Egan, 11, of the Badger Swim Club of Larchmont, N.Y. won Most Outstanding Performance awards for the two-day meet.
The challenge was first organized three years ago by RMSC coaches Dave Greene and Dave Kraft to have an actual club championship, rather than the virtual club championship created by USA Swimming.
“We got everyone together,” Kraft said. “It was the best teams we could invite, and in the first year we invited all the top teams, but some from California were not coming because it was so far. But we had four teams the first year, and this year it’s 8.”
Though local mega-clubs RMSC and Curl-Burke dominated the event, teams came from all over the East coast to attend the meet. The Badger Swim Club and Long Island Aquatic Club came from New York, the Delaware Swim Team from New Castle, Del., and Monocacy Aquatic Club, NOVA and Machine Aquatics from all over Virginia.
Kraft admitted that his toughest competition was still Curl-Burke.
“The main competition for RMSC is Curl-Burke,” Kraft said. “We finished 1-2 in that [USA Swimming] virtual club championship, so they’re our biggest rivals locally and nationally and they’re very strong every year.”
The competition was tight throughout the meet. Ten RMSC swimmers broke records at the event, as did seven Curl-Burke swimmers. The Curl-Burke girls dominated the relays, with the 13-14 teams breaking records in the 200-meter freestyle, 400-meter freestyle, 200-meter medley and 400-meter medley. Curl-Burke’s 11-12 girls relay team also broke records in the 200-meter freestyle and 400-meter freestyle.
Tags: RMSC
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Thank you to all of the competing teams at this year’s meet. It was fun, exciting and very, very fast. Thank you’s also go out to Christa Krukiel and David Kraft for putting in all of the work and to all of the officals, timers and parent volunteers for your time and efforts this weekend. The meet lived up to all of its’ expectations. Great competition at a great venue with great athletes. You could not ask for anything more.
My son swam this weekend and it was a great experience. The meet was tightly run and the competition was very good. Saw some great swims, but didn’t spend endless hours. The big PVS open meets are important as venues to make meet standards and try out new events. That said, it’s fun to attend a meet that doesn’t take every second of the weekend.
Cheers to RMSC and all of the competitors.
A far cry from the days when we had the RMSC-Curl meets in the “old” indoor pool at RMSC. The Germantown pool looks gorgeous! What California teams were invited?? Hopefully Santa Clara!
Unlike PVS opens, NAG had only a few swimmers with BB or below cuts, I believe this was the primary reason the meet did not take every second of your weekend.
Nothing to take away from NAG high competition.
Thanks for the coverage and of course thanks to all those who ran the meet — great job! Sorry, but I take a small exception to your statement that Curl-Burke girls dominated the relays. The relay scores for the girls was Curl-Burke 34,600 vs. RMSC 33,300 — that’s about as close as it gets! Plus, the RMSC girls won the big Crescendo Relay featuring each clubs’ fastest freestyler from each age group and since my girl was in the RMSC 9-10 group, I’d proud to point out that they won both of their relays.
The meet is over. Let us move on. We should not only compare the results for 14& under, but also look for the 15& over. The more successful swimmers are in 15 & over group, the more efficient and safer a swim club is. That means less injury, more motivated swimmers………
I swam this meet, and I agree, it was a very close call. I have to admit, Curl-Burke is a fast team. However, the good part of them being a fast team is that since I always want RMSC to win, I urge myself and my friends to swim as fast as they can. We always end up cheering for each other, close friends or not, we are there for each other.