Oakton All-Met junior Kaitlin Pawlowicz turned in two automatic All-American times and won two events on Thursday night. (Photo by Joel Richardson for the Washington Post)
NORTHERN REGION GIRLS FULL RESULTS
One of the few championship events able to get in before the snow was the girls’ Northern Region swim championships.
Thursday night’s preliminaries were held as timed finals and likely will be the final results for the meet, though there is an outside chance a finals will be held next week. The boys’ finals will be held at Washington-Lee pool Oak Marr RECenter at 5:30 p.m. next Friday, Feb. 12.
Northern Region boys’ diving was held last night, and the girls’ diving will be held next Friday, Feb. 12 at 10:30 a.m. at Audrey Moore RECenter in Annandale.
Robinson‘s relay of Christine Canty, Rachel Canty, Becca Bott and Hannah Walden opened the night with a time of 1:49.21 in the 200 medley to win an incredibly close event in which the top four teams finished with All-American consideration times. The Rams were followed by McLean (1:49.84), West Springfield (1:50.52) and W.T. Woodson (1:50.82)
Langley‘s Jayme Katis won the 200 yard freestyle in a time of 1:53.56, nearly two seconds ahead of her nearest competitor — Chantilly sophomore Brenna Ferris (1:55.53). Oakton freshman Dylan Staniszewski (1:56.89) finished third.
Oakton All-Met junior Kaitlin Pawlowicz won the 200 individual medley with an automatic All-American time of 2:01.41. The time just missed the region record of 2:01.06 set by 2007-08 All-Met Swimmer of the Year Ashley Danner. Falls Church freshman Laura Schwartz took second in the event in an automatic All-American 2:05.21, while Robinson sophomore Rachel Canty was third (2:08.67).
Pawlowicz doubled up when she won the 100 butterfly in an automatic All-American time of 55.34 – again just missing the region record of 55.01 set by Michelle Griglione set in 1986. Yorktown‘s Kaitlin Wolla finished second in 56.88, followed by Langley junior Megan Howard (57.72) and West Potomac freshman Hellen Moffitt (57.89).
In the 50 freestyle, West Potomac went one-two, with sophomore Reanna Doña finishing at the top in 24.49 and Moffitt coming in at 24.54. Howard finished third in 24.63.
In the 100 freestyle, McLean junior Eva Green took the top spot in an All-American consideration 51.74, ahead of Walden (53.01) and Katis (53.14).
Greene doubled up her winnings in the 100 backstroke, finishing first in an automatic All-American time of 56.63, narrowly missing her own record of 56.21 set last year. Doña finished second in 58.71 and Lake Braddock senior Christina McGarry took third in 1:00.35.
Schwartz, the Jaguars freshman, took the 500 yard freestyle win in an All-American consideration time of 5:00.86, beating out Robinson’s Bott (5:09.12) and Chantilly’s Ferris (5:09.27)
West Springfield senior SinHye Won won the 100 breaststroke in an automatic All-American time of 1:03.92, ahead of Canty (1:05.12) and Herndon sophomore Jenna VanCamp (1:06.88).
Langley’s relay of Meghan Overend, Howard, Katis and freshman Abi Speers took the 200 freestyle relay win in an All-American consideration 1:38.87, followed by Yorktown (1:39.65) and Oakton (1:40.31). The Saxons (Allie Zeidan, Speers, Overend, Katis) also won the 400 freestyle relay in an All-American consideration time of 3:36.76, followed by McLean, South County and Oakton.
Tags: AAA Northern Region, Abi Speers, Chantilly, Concorde District, Falls Church, Herndon, Kaitlin Pawlowicz, Langley, Laura Schwartz, McLean, Northern Region, Oakton High School, Robinson, South County, Virginia High School Swimming, W.T. Woodson, Washington-Lee, West Potomac, West Springfield, Yorktown
stats corner
thanks, paul
Paul,
When you get back to writing about YOUR swimming tell us what you learned from watching the best high school swimmers in Virginia.
Some great swimming all around, even though know records were broken.
Best race was in the 400 relay when Eva Green came from behind and almost caught the other teams anchor.I wish you had that on video for everyone else to see
I think many swimmers were treating this meet as “states” and trying to get their best times here because its a scy pool. The pool states will be swum in is a scm pool and records could not be broken there at least not the scy records. I dont understand why they use the scm pool
Meet also showed the ridiculous of the VHSL change that reduces the swimmers automatically advancing to states from the top 8 to the top 6. Many swimmers who would place very highly at States are not advancing because the rest of the state does not like seeing so many North Region swimmers in State Finals. The Swims were amazing — the lack of records may not be due to the swimmers but rather the return to traditional racing suits.
If the swimmer isn’t in top 6 in the Northern region, how are they going to place “very highly” at States? If they were 8th in the this region and they beat every other swimmer from every other region, they are still 8th. Why should the school and the family bear the financial burden of schlepping an 8th place finisher to Va. Beach, to swim in “meters” State Championship? I don’t know the answer, but how many indoor track athletes advance to States in each event? How many Wrestlers advance out of each weight class from the Region? If they were fast enough to “place very highly” they should have made the state cut so they didn’t depend on their finish to get there
Thanks for the coverage of our sport — and many thanks for quick publishing of results!
i think that the lack of records may be due to the timed final format
timed finals had very little to do with it… it’s all about the suits ….. records set last year will stand for a long time
If you know its your one shot, timed finals are not an issue and as far as records , many of records are pre 2009 . A lot of state and regional records were set in 2008 by swimmers wearing fspro’s which are still worn and legal and the women can still wear knee suits. 2008 just had an unusual amount of talented girls
Swim Parent… That is a rediculous argument! 8th place at states scores 11 points for the team. That means that only one swimmer could push a team up 2-3 places in States. How is that insignificant?
Last night just illustrated how strong the Northern Region is. The top 4 medley relays all had AAA or AAC times, and the top 12 relays (Robinson got DQ’d but would be in this) ALL had state cuts. There were swimmers who went to states last year and had faster times in this Regional meet, yet didn’t make States.
Make that top 12 400 FREE relays. Oh yeah, and cudos to Eva G. 50.15 anchoring her relay. Wow!
I’m guessing M1Thumb has a daugher who finished 8th in her event last night.
I agree with “dvi says” about the lack of records is due to the timed final format. My daughter swam a tremendous race last night and was only .12 off her fastest time that she did at Junior Nationals last year wearing a full body LZR. The suits are great – but the swimmer that is mentally and physically prepared has the advantage – it’s not just the suit.
My other daughter placed 8th in her event and she was so disappointed it broke my heart. She probably will have a much better time than most of the other swimmers in the other regions, but will not swim at the State meet because they will only send the top 6. I’d rather bring my 8th place finisher to the state meet (even though she was less than 1/2 a second of the state cut time) than not bring her at all.
Records…..eleven events last night, and of the 11 (5 )records were broken last year (100 back by Eva Greene, 50 free, 100 free by Amanda Kendall,and two relays 200 Medley and 200 free by Fairfax HS). The remaining(6) six records are from 2008, Molly Emery & Ashley Danner, 1996 Michelle Griglione, 4 x 100 relay held by Lake Braddock all still stand and were pre-lzr.
I also believe an opportunity for finals some new records would have fallen. There was fast swimming.
Michelle Griglione’s record was from 1986 typo.
being a swimmer, i also know how suits can help the swimmer. but, when i swim at a prelim-final meet, my finals performance, however hard i go in prelims, is always much better.
Looking at juniors and dolan and other meets even with a prelim/final format their are a lot of slower final times.That is because the athletes have given 110% to get into finals or the A final. Thats what those caliber swimmers do at timed finals, they give it their all and thats why many of them one their events. Based on what they did in the past, they wouldnt have gone faster (probably slower) had they had another swim but they did what was needed when was needed.
you may be true, but i am just basing my opinion on my personal experience.
MATT FROM BETHESDA…..dude, there is no need to critize what Paul is doing…Paul, you are the freaking man. Matt, you need to just keep your mouth shut and you might just get your turn
maybe the no.va. cockiness is justified by data, but the Richmond area produces some talent that blows away the #7+ swimmers here. Just on the girls side, the top 4 100 free times in Virginia this club season for age 14-17 are all from the south, same with 100 back.
when was the last time a team outside of the northern region won states as a team for either boys or girls
AAA State Champs (from VHSL Record Book, 1997 first year state champ meet held):
Boys (2001 last year for a team outside of the Northern Region)-
1997 Jefferson
1998 Kempsville
1999 South Lakes
2000-2001 Cave Spring
2002 Jefferson
2003-2009 Robinson
Girls (uhhh, not team outside of Northern Region) –
1997 West Springfield
1998-2001 Langley
2002-2004 Jefferson
2005 South Lakes
2006-2007 Yorktown
2008 Fairfax
2009 Robinson
School from outside the Northern Region certainly have great swimmers and set their share of records, just not enough on one team to claim the title.
Now, many AA titles have been won by school outside of Northern Virginia, but that could largely be due to the small number of AA schools in Northern Virginia.
Probably never but not relevant to the point. The #8 swimmer here isnt getting #8 at states assuming their best are swimming too.
While very few, if any of the #7 or #8 finishers in the Northern Region will finish top 8 at States, many will finish in the top 16 and score points. Limited sample – looking at the Girls results for 2009, of the 16 swimmers that finished 7th or 8th in individual swimming events in the Northern Region, 7 placed in the top 16 at the State Meet. Nearly 50%.
That seems in line with the usual david vs. goliath swim story bandied about here every day (cubu and rmsc against the smaller clubs). Top talent is similar but their army of a million clones wins the war.
Now how did Kempsville and Cave Spring ever win a championship? That is surprising.
David vs Goliath? NO. It is AAA vs AAA and AA-A vs AA-A. While the Northern Region has more goliaths (over 2000 enrollment), each Region has some. What the Northern and Northwest Regions have is more schools with swim teams and more swimmers that swim year round that also want to swim in HS.
AAA- In other sports, other Regions in Virginia dominate. In swimming, the Northern Virginia Regions (Northern and Northwest) dominate. They have more teams and more swimmers. It is not “cockiness.” It is what it is. The Central Region (includes Richmond) has some great swimmers, but most are not swimming on HS teams. If you check the past couple years of Central Region results, there appear to be only five schools that have swim teams. Some great talent in that area but it appears that they are in public schools without swim teams, in private schools, or choosing to focus on USS swimming and not swimming for the HS.
AA – The rest of the state has more AA schools than Northern Virginia and they dominate (Tabb, Lafayette, Jamestown, Hidden Valley). Some great swimmers, but most schools in this area do not compete against them. The number of AA schools in this area is growing, though. Look out for Briar Woods.
In a long-winded and roundabout way I am attempting to convey that the Northern Virginia area has an abundance of swimming talent has the option to swim for a HS team and chooses to do so. The reduction of the State qualifiers from 8 to 6 is more punitive in this area than in others. Swimmers that would score at States for their TEAM are denied to opportunity. Believe it or not, a few could even place in the top 8 at States.
Was the reduction enacted to shorten the meet? To me, the negatives far outweigh the positives. The current structure of meets already devalues the depth of a team as you move from Districts to Regions to States. Why restrict it even more to make the TEAM title more dependent on who is at the very top.
Was the reduction enacted to make the State Meets more competitive? If so, that is just plain wrong. If some Regions are stronger, why try to arbitrarily diminish their strength. Are basketball teams required to trim their roster after each round of the playoffs so they wind up with only their starting five at the Championship game. No, that would be ridiculous. Do football teams have to leave their second string quarterback at home for the Championship? No, that would be ridiculous. Swimming already trims their roster that advances from Districts to Regions to States. Why make is worse. That is ridiculous. I was on deck Thursday night and heard and saw the excitement as swimmers made the cut and earned a trip to States. Too bad some had to be told that what they accomplished was not quite good enough this year. And some these would have scored at States. They would not have been just be going along for the ride.
Top talent may be similar, but the “army of millions of clones” may decide which TEAM wins. What is wrong with that. It is a TEAM competition, isn’t it?
I have blathered long enough. Too long, but it beats shoveling snow.
NORHTERN REGION IS THE BEST…cause we have outlets for our athleats to do well not just cubu or rmsc but summer league (aka nvsl) or other teams like acc, machine, PM, mako or fish who produced kate zigler who went to the olyimpics…and u cant say northern region is good just for swimming other state titles have been won by northern region teams also…aka football stone bridge and westfield,field hockey lake braddock and cheerleading by fairfax,
The main reason you have not seen a AA-A school in the top 3 at states is because of diving and that is what will hurt Briar Woods, Their is no diving for AA-A schools in northern va. and the schools loose a boatload of points because of it.
patriot is correct in their assessment of swimmers in central Virginia .I would not hesitate to say that historically they have produced the fastest swimmers in the state because of Nova but most of their swimmers are in private schools.
Maybe they should have an all-star meet AA-A vs AAA. While AA does not have the depth and never has their have always been some faster swims there then AAA
Sorry, meant include ISL, VSIS and Prep’s..you could swim for your league..
To katy – Sorry, I did not mean to give the impression that the Northern Region only wins in swim&dive. They certainly do win many state titles in other sports. There are some sports that are dominated by other regions, though. It is not the big, bad Northern Region winning everything in sight.
All Star meet – I have heard that their used to be such a meet. Maybe it was before Virginia began having a State Meet. It came after Regions and included public schools and private schools. It may have even included teams from other states. It may have been an invitational. It was the fastest meet around, or so I am told.
Why does swimming need to send 8 swimmers to States? In golf, top 6 individuals qualify, In tennis, only regional champion moves on, in wrestling, top 4 in a weight class move on. In Track, a sport with more participants than swimming, only the top 6 move on. It’s too bad some kids don’t get to go, but it’s that way in all sports. There is a time standard that they could have made. The harder to get into a meet, the harder they need to train, the faster they have to swim.
Patriot, I stand by my Goliath statement. School size doesnt matter, of course the same division has similar size schools. It’s the total culture and resources that surround that school.
If none of the top southern swimmers go to the meet, and lots of schools don’t even have teams, the whole notion of a state championship seems kind of silly. Even Montgomery co. schools recognize that and compete against (and most times lose to) the best at metros instead of clobber the Finksburg Flailin’ Whales at a meaningless state meet.
AA swimmers are not in the same league as AAA ..They would get crushed at a meet.Its always been that way..AA swimming is like summer league swimming,amateurs trying very hard. Most of the AA swimmers I have known are nice good hardworking kids but they just swim a couple months in high school and when the graduate, they are done. The AAA swimmers are usually more committed to their sport and the good ones get to college on swimming scholarships. It would be a waste to swim a AAA vs AA meet
Some clarifications to my earlier comments:
Swim Parent: I regard anyone who can score at State as having “finished high”, and if you can score at State you should be able to go to State, especially in a year when the cuts were skewed by the suits used last year. My qualification ot Top 16 as high is probably why my kid still enjoys swimming, never felt the pressure to go to one of the big clubs or increase her practice schedule to more than six hours a week; and will have gas left in the tank to swim in college (just as many of the big club swimmers are quitting)
B. Smith: Your remark seems gratuitous and it was 7th not 8th! Good motivation for this year’s Sectional Meet however, so when life gives you a lemon make lemonade!
I agree that E. Greene’s 100 free anchor was the swim of the meet. As for the backstroke, the fireworks next year should be pretty amazing when Eva and R. Dona go against J. Hu.
3ASwimmom,
You are the prime example of why some people should never post on a site like this one…
“AA swimming is like summer league swimming,amateurs trying very hard.” Whatever you are smoking, I hope you’re kids cant get to it. Is it these kids fault where they live? That they live in Loudoun county means that they are amateurs? I bet the SNOW coach would take great offense at that comment. While it’s obvious that there isn’t the depth in AA, there are plenty of very good swimmers, many of whom actually go swim in college and actually beat AAA level swimmers in club meets on a regular basis
Check out the times for the Hidden Valley Titans girls team from their AA-A State meet last year
http://www.pvswim.org/0809hs/2009VaStatesAA-A.html
Pretty fast. While not many AA schools may be able to compete with the AAA schools, Hidden Valley sure could have last year. Top five and shooting for second at the AAA meet is my guess.
Have not checked the boys times. I will leave that to someone else (hey, it is almost game time).
Crazy swim parents are awesome. I wish there was an article on it for a better forum.
Baseless Arrogant Parent is a good one.
My personal favorite is Delusional Parent: the one that says her boy is 0.5 seconds away from zones when reality says its really 3.0 seconds (the timers and clocks ALWAYS get her kid’s time wrong!)
Trash Talking Parent is cool too…The one that tells a competing 8 year old that she’s gonna lose to her kid. That’s cool.
Psycho screamer is always fun.
Youtube Shrine Builder is a new phenomenon but its got legs.
I can go on forever. Any other favorites??
How about adding 3Aswimmom to that list?
she’s the inspiration
Well I certainly didnt mean to offend and I am not a “psycho swim parent”but you have to admit (if you are honest) that by and large swimmers in AA are just not at the same level and really dont seem to accomplish as much at the year round level or after their high school swim days are over. As I said, I am sure they are all nice hard working kids its just for whatever reason they are not high level athletes.
I would type more but off to practice
By what standard are you judging these kids (and why do you feel the need to decide whether they have value or not? There are so few (local) AA kids how can you compare their accomplishments with all of the AAA in NOVA? There are 30 AAA high schools, each with 900 up to 3200 students. There are about 7 “local” AA schools all w/ less than 900 students. Is their kind of a numbers disparity in your comparison? Go look at PVS results for swimmers from SNOW, the old AVST team and the CUBU kids that live in Loudoun, these kids are not “high level”?
3ASWIMOM…You don’t know what you are talking about. AA SCHOOLS ARE SMALLER THAN AAA. IF YOU LOOK AT DISTRICTS OR STATES…YOU WILL FIND FAST TIMES, AND KIDS THAT HAVE GONE OFF TO COLLEGE TO SWIM. HOWEVER, THEY ARE NOT AS DEEP THAT’S JUST BECAUSE OF NUMBERS AND THE SIZE OF THEIR SCHOOL.
You are making statements that don’t make any sense.
Reality Check:
The only Olympian I have ever spoken to personally, the silver medal women’s flyer on the ’92 Team (also won two relay gold’s), did not start swimming year around until she was 14. She also swam at a low division Arizona high school and there wasn’t a decent training pool within 20 miles of her home town . . . She also pointed out that NCAA rules forbid more than 20 hours a week organized practices for your sport, so if your kid is already swimming 20 plus hours a week as a 13 year-old what exactly are they going to do to get faster?
Fact is that none of these kids have the realistic possibility to do anything more than develop a life long love of the sport and perhaps have some fun swimming in college.
LMAO – love these psycho parents arguing about swim training and HS Swimming. Out of the 10,000 local swimmers, you cant count on one hand how many have participated in the olympics, and maybe less than 50 who made trial cuts. Most wont go on to college to swim and even fewer will make NCAA cuts. The region has some great swimmers, but few will ever go to the next level. Parents need to chill and most of the parents of elite swimmers I know arent outwardly psycho, and very low key. The kids put enough pressure on themselves – psycho parents make it worse and the they eventually burn out.
‘speedo is all i wear,’ you are exactly right. its really sad to see some of these parents pushing their kids like robots. oh well if your son doesn’t have a state title under his belt…you should be happy that he got to states! if my parents were driven to have a successful child more than i am to do well and drop time, i would snap and stop swimming…hope that your kids wont do the same
3ASwimmom — I’m really glad you didn’t mean to offend anyone with your uninformed, sweeping generalizations. Luckily, the swimmers here in Loudoun know better than you that AA swimmers can and do swim on the collegiate level, even Division I programs. For example:
Lauren Ritter — Va. Tech (Dominion)
Matt McLean — UVA (Potomac Falls) 2008 ACC swimmer of the year
Caylyn Tate — William & Mary (Potomac Falls)
Cole Jamison — GMU (Potomac Falls)
Nick Swinimer — West Virginia (Potomac Falls)
Daniel Durazo — Drexel (Heritage — Heritage was AA until his senior year went it went AAA — guess that one year of AAA was crucial)
Can’t wait to see how many more from the Class of 2010 and beyond go on to the college ranks!
You might be right 3Amom, AA and AAA swimmers are different caliber…AA swimmers are actually faster:)
I see four or five AA swimmers names on the Top 100 PERFORMANCES of ALL TIME (TWO in the TOP 10!)) list but I dont see any of the “superior: AAA swimmers. Maybe the AA swimmers have to try harder because the are so inferior….
http://65.110.72.225/SPIPDF/20091224bellmscy.pdf
Lets not forget the AA swimmers in central and southern Va because their are alot
LOTS of AA swimmers left off loudeners list above though..
Dave Walter-Texas (if you dont know of him, you live under a rock) on the list (top10)and Olympian.
Matt McLean-UVA- Top 10 all time list, 2x
Jordan Anderson-Auburn and Rhodes scholar- top 100
Todd McGraw-UGA
Even Greg- UM -Go blue
Sarah Smith- top 100 all time list
Kaitlin Perks-Tenn- top 100 all time list
3Amom—you had better educate yourself before you post
you are naming handful of swimmers out of thousands in AA i can write u a novel with the names of the elite swimmers that have come outta AAA more specifically the northern region. not agreeing totally with 3Amom cause AA does have individual talent as well a select few teams that can compete with AAA but as a whole AAA and the northern region not only have more deapth but also more stand out stars end of story
Yo, KATY: SHOW ME THE NAME OF AN AAA SWIMMER ON THE LIST ABOVE, THE TOP PERFORMANCES RAANKED AS HIGHLY AS THE “INFERIOR” AA SOUTHERN VIRGINA SWIMMERS..
Get off your AAA high horse and realize percentage wise their are probably the same that go on to swim but AA has the ONLY OLYMPIAN>>>>DAVE WALTERS!! and AA has TWO swimmers in the top Walters and Mcclean..and a Rhodes scholar,Anderson..back it up with your “stand out stars” If they aint on the list
I dont care if you can write a novel, so can I ..show me the names !!