Featured Meet of the Week: Yorktown Patriots vs. Falls Church Jaguars
December 2 – In a close meet Friday night, Yorktown's boys' team outlasted Falls Church 94-92, while the Yorktown girls rolled 104-79.
The rivalry that existed in the early 2000s between perennial National District powerhouse Yorktown and Falls Church may be back. At least that is what head coach Clayton Joyner (Falls Church '02) has his swimmers believing. From 2000 through 2004, the top two spots at the National District championship were fiercely competed for by these two teams, with Falls Church winning three titles in a row. After Friday night's meet, which came down to the final relay, the National District may want to watch out for the Jaguar boys.
“Falls Church hasn't beaten Yorktown in a dual meet in over 15 years. We never beat them when I was swimming, even when we beat them at districts,” said Joyner. “We have some talent on this team. The district better watch out.”
Many of the night's races were battles for second and third, the winner decided after the first fifty yards.
Falls Church was able to capture eight of twelve first-place wins on the boys side, as well as seven on the girls. However, Yorktown's depth proved to be too much as the Patriot boys and girls were able to seize the majority of second- and third-place points to capture the victory.
Max Fish (Yorktown/AAC) was a double winner with victories in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke. He also contributed to Yorktown's lone winning relay, along with Jason Henley, Will Tarkenton, and Dave Emson, in the boys' 200 medley.
Ryan Davenport (FISH) and James Sturges (YORK) had impressive performances for Falls Church. Davenport cruised to wins in both the 200 and 500 freestyle events, using early speed to put distance between him and the rest of the field. Sturges had closer battles in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, but was able to finish strong to secure victories in both.
For the girls', Yorktown senior, Stephanie Romano (Curl-Burke), an All-Met Honorable Mention last year, made it look easy as she won the 200 and 500 freestyle. Other individual winners for Yorktown included Amanda Didawick (AAC) in the 100 butterfly and Elena Bavolack (Alexandria Dive Club) in diving.
Falls Church's Sydney Langer readying herself before the start (Bryan Flaherty/The Washington Post)
All-American Laura Schwartz (Falls Church/Potomac Marlins) impressed in both the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke, winning the latter by nearly a pool-length. Freshman Haley McLean (Potomac Marlins) also had a great first meet, winning both the 50 and 100 freestyle.
Romano and Schwartz faced each other as the anchor legs of the 400 freestyle relay. Romano wasn't able to gain an inch against the junior stand-out; the Falls Church girls finished first by the same margin they held at the start of the final leg.
Both coaches are first-year head coaches with their teams. Claire DiCesare has taken over the head coaching job for the Patriots, while Coach Joyner moved to the Jaguars after being dismissed as the head coach at Robinson High School last season following a hazing incident.
Both teams return to the pool on Friday, Dec. 9. Yorktown will host Mount Vernon at 6:30 p.m. Falls Church will face Edison at Audrey Moore Rec Center at 6 p.m.
Saints' boys win close meet over Sidwell Friends; Saints' ladies roll.
November 29 – St. Stephen's St. Agnes Saints faced off against Sidwell Friends on Tuesday in a fast meet between WMPSSDL opponents. The Saints' boys were able to squeak out a victory 76-71. On the girls' side, the Saints won by a wide margin, 122 to 58.
W.T. Woodson cruises in season opener
Dec. 2 – Woodson's
boys' and girls' teams opened their seasons with large margins of victory over South County, 217-98 (boys) and 196.5-118.5 (girls). Woodson began the meet strong as the divers took first through fourth place on the boys' side and first through third on the girls'. Woodson had several standout swims, including Lead Rogers who broke an 18-year-0ld Woodson record on her way to reaching her first State Cut of the season in a time of 58.76 seconds. Also achieving State qualifying times were the Woodson boys' 200 medley relay (1:40.94), South County's Michael Herrmann in the 100 butterfly (53.07) and 100 backstroke (53.89), and Herrmann's teammate Brooke Malone in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.86).
Lake Braddock girls defeat Annandale Atoms; Bruins' boys lose close meet
Dec. 2 – The Lake Braddock girls were able to double-up Annandale's points total, 211-104, in a lopsided victory, winning ten of twelve events. On the boys' side, the Bruins were able to keep it close, but Annandale's squad was able to secure the meet after winning nine of twelve events, including the final relay. Final score 160.5-154.5.
T.C. Williams boys win big over Robert E. Lee; Lee girls win by three points
Dec. 2 – T.C. Williams' boys recorded one of their highest scores in team history, winning 206 to 101, over the Lancers. Lee was able to win the girls' meet by a score of 156 to 153. T.C. Williams posted some great swims, including a 1-2-3-5 finish in the 500 freestyle by Abby Cox, Emily Dooley, Laura Graves and Amelia Underwood.
Thomas Jefferson crushes Marshall by triple digit margins
In one of the most lopsided meets of the opening weekend, the Jefferson Colonials beat the Marshall Statesmen by large margins on both sides, winning 224-91 (girls) and 207-98 (boys).
Jefferson never let up, sweeping first through fourth place in the girls 200 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 500 freestyle, 100 backstroke, and 100 breaststroke. Double winners included Katie Bennett in the 200 IM (2 minutes 20.48 seconds) and 100 backstroke (1:02.98) and Sarah Liu in the 100 freestyle (58.54) and 100 breaststroke (1:10.69). The Colonials won 10 of the twelve events.
Following the girls lead, the Jefferson boys won nine of twelve events, including sweeps in the 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle, and 200 freestyle relay. The “A” relay team of Luke Thorsell, Miles Oakley, Andrew Seliskar, and Stephen Seliskar hit their first state cut with a time of 1:29.94. Jefferson's double winners included brothers S. Seliskar in the 200 freestyle (1:46.40) and 100 butterfly (53.21) – state cut – and freshman brother A. Seliskar in the 50 freestyle (21.84) and 100 freestyle (47.89) – both state cuts.
Other meet results:
11/29 – Holton-Arms beat Stone Ridge, 69-33, and Holy Cross, 52-50. Holy Cross beat Stone Ridge 71-31.
11/30 – St. John's girls lost to National Cathedral, 88-82, while St. Albans beat the men's side 104-66.
12/2 -Potomac Falls beat Loudoun County 196.5-89.5 (boys); 159-127 (girls).
If you would like your team's meet to be included in our weekly wrap-up, please post a summary, including scores and event winners' names and events, to your team's page, or send it in directly, along with your meet results, to flahertyb@washpost.com. Thank you!
Tags: Amanda Didawick, Brooke Malone, Falls Church High School, Haley McLean, James Sturges, Laura Schwartz, Leah Rogers, Max Fish, Michael Herrmann, National District, Northern Region, Ryan Davenport, Stephanie Romano, Virginia swimming, Yorktown High School
Laura Schwartz is the most underrated swimmer in the region, Go FCSD!!!!!!!
Great to see James Sturges doing so well in high school after a terrific summer season with the Woodley Warriors.
As an FCHS swim team alum, it is wonderful to read about their success this season. It is no wonder with incredible coaches like Clayton, Kristin, and Danny. However, I think it was distasteful of the author to mention a past incident which was unfairly portrayed. These coaches deserve all the credit in the world and we are lucky to have them coaching in our school
Big Cat Fan says:
December 5, 2011 at 7:59 pm
“Laura Schwartz is the most underrated swimmer in the region, Go FCSD!!!!!!!”
Care to provide a little support for this claim?
5:02 lcm 400 IM, All-American in the 200 IM, northern region champ by over 10 secs as a FR in the 500 Fr. I’m sure she won’t be kept a secret very much longer…..
Since you MUST list the clubs for the swimmers, note that Elena Bavolac dives with Alexandria Dive Club.
Bryan,
Great job getting the summaries up. If you didn’t know/haven’t already figured out, people will likely complain about nearly every post because you left out xxxx or wrote too much about xxxx. Keep up the great work.
I echo novaswimcoach….the last few months have had a very nice balance and mix of dc area swim stories, as well as national. Thanks for doing a write up on both a national district meet, and on the Sport Fair meet which is sometimes overlooked in favor of Dolan meet. Thanks for digging a bit deeper!
And yes, I don’t understand why someone can’t post a NICE, positive comment giving their personal opinion without having to “prove it”. Giving an opinion that a swimmer is underrated, is not the same as trying to claim they are the absolute best, etc. Geez.
Big Cat Fan,
With those times she might make one of our B relays.
And by B relay you mean she would’ve been your fastest 500 freestyler at Metros, not to mention being 2nd or 3rd in most other events? Congrats Whitman on having a bunch of sprinters trained by RMSC.
Since this is about HIGH SCHOOL swimming, is it really necessary to identify the student-athletes’ USA Swimming and US Diving clubs? This is one reason why the Fairfax County School Board cut back the number of practices for these teams. After all, you don’t see coverage of other high school sports mention their AAU or Babe Ruth team affiliations.
@High School Swim Fan:
Don’t you think that club swimming affiliations matter in high school swimming? Most of these swimmers don’t even practice with their high school teams; the high school team just offers them another venue to work on race techniques developed during club practices. A swimmer can put any team’s cap on and race. High school and summer league coaches will brag about their kids, but most of those super stars were trained by someone else. Not all, but most.
AAU and Babe Ruth affiliations may not be mentioned because there are other factors that influence the success of a baseball player’s performance on a high school team, namely team chemistry, which can’t be developed on an AAU or Babe Ruth team because there are different coaches and players.
Different sports, different types of coverage. Even team USA Swimming acknowledges the teams their Olympians and World Championship participants train with.
NoVA Swim Fan — Having recently moved to Northern Virginia, I can tell you that other state athletic associations don’t permit athletes to participate in their club team and their high school team during the competitive season. Second, I see coverage referencing their club teams as simply providing fee adverstising to the clubs. It detracts from those swimmers at who do well, but who choose not to swim with a club because maybe they do other sports or activities. It is simply not necessary as far as the coverage. This information is readily available to college coaches who are recruiting them through such sites as berecruited.com
I realize other areas don’t have the same set up as this area (although many do), but last time I checked RFTW covers the D.C. area where swimmers do in fact swim with club teams during their high school seasons. I’m not sure how mentioning where someone else trains and gets their coaching detracts from the swimmers who choose not swim club. If they are a top swimmer, their name will be mentioned on this site.
Since I’m guessing you are or have been a swim parent in this area, take a look around the high school meets happening this week. The level of competition will be significantly reduced across the area because two major club invitationals are taking place this weekend and the top high school swimmers are choosing these meets over high school dual meets. The coaches at every high school in this area know who produces their stars and work with the clubs – often directly – to accommodate their club schedules. Find me one event at Metros, Regionals, or Counties that has even three non-club swimmers in the top heat and I’ll maybe understand where you’re coming from.
Even the Good Counsel swim coach would probably agree that Jack Conger and Sarah Haase are more products of RMSC then his tutelage. Give credit where it’s due I say. When the posts start linking to the club websites registration pages, then we should probably start complaining.
I don’t see why we are arguing about this in the first place. I coach both HS AND Club and for many swimmers, both are important for them. Claiming that HS coaches have no influence over development is a bit irresponsible. There are great coaches in both arenas. Club benefits most swimmers because they will likely swim 2 to 3 times a week as much (days/hours) as they would if they just did HS. I’ve had HS swimmers make Regionals and States without swimming club. Why does it matter EITHER WAY if the club team is or is not mentioned? This is a SWIMMING website. Not simply summer league, or just HS, or just USS. Every single post on here has people arguing about the smallest, most insignificant details. Instead, why not focus your energy on posting positive thoughts about the amazing swimming we are lucky enough to have/see in our area? Healthy debate is one thing, but petty arguments take away from what is a great resource for DMV swimming. Good luck to everyone at Dolan, Winter Classic, travel meets, and all of the HS swimmers.
Big Cat Fan says:
December 6, 2011 at 10:38 pm
“5:02 lcm 400 IM, All-American in the 200 IM, northern region champ by over 10 secs as a FR in the 500 Fr. I’m sure she won’t be kept a secret very much longer…..”
What about splits?
Don’t be an enabler, SG. Otherwise, we will be seeing posts for the next year with her updated best times.
I am high school and club coach as well and I completely agree with NovaSwimCoach’s response. Stop bringing up silly details that have no bearing on the story at all! We should be commending all of these athletes, not bringing them down about who is faster and why. Geesh people.
NovaSwimCoach is absolutely correct. Let’s be fair and list the swmmers’ high school, club and summer teams.
B. Smith says:
December 10, 2011 at 3:43 pm
“Don’t be an enabler, SG. Otherwise, we will be seeing posts for the next year with her updated best times.”
Agreed. Under no circumstances should we do anything to encourage more posting by the psycho swim parents who use this website to fawn over their children.
That’s a good description of the OP.