Wu, Bayer win 20 events between them for Curl-Burke; RMSC wins team title at PVS Junior Olympics
Timothy Wu (Curl-Burke) stepped into the spotlight over the weekend, walking away with the boys’ high point award and five records at this year’s PVS 14 & Under Junior Olympics, which took place Mar. 15-17 at Fairland Aquatic Center.
Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club won the team competition with a total of 5469.5 points. Curl-Burke was second with 5098.5, followed by FISH (1862.5) and Machine Aquatics (1412).
Wu set PVS resident records in all three breaststroke distances, including the open record in the 200 breaststroke event, on his way to six individual and four relay wins for Curl-Burke.
During prelims of the boys’ 11-12 50 breaststroke, Wu broke Carsten Vissering’s resident record of 29.436 by over half a second to win in 28.72. Wu then broke Devin Truong’s (RMSC) resident record in the boys’ 11-12 100 breaststroke for a new time of 1:02.43.
Wu also led off Curl-Burke’s record-setting boys’ 11-12 400 freestyle relay, which eclipsed the previous records by over 1.5 seconds to win in 3:34.65. Wu was joined by Will Cumberland, Andrew Rothstein, and Andrew Alarcon. The same foursome would also set a PVS resident record in the boys’ 11-12 200 freestyle relay, finishing in a time of 1:37.64, and won the 200 and 400 medley relays in 1:48.74 and 4:02.18, respectively.
Wu finished his record-setting campaign by setting the boys’ 12 & under 200 breaststroke resident and open records with a time of 2:15.51, over 14 seconds ahead of second place. Wu also won the 50 (24.02), 100 (51.45) and 200 (1:52.19) freestyle events.
Wu was not the only one breaking records, continuing to show just how deep and talented the PVS is right now in the 11 to 14 year-old age groups.
Cassidy Bayer (12) went under Curl-Burke teammate Janet Hu’s — who will compete this week at Junior Nationals — resident and open records in the girls’ 200 butterfly during prelims. She would later blow away the competition in finals to set a final record of 2:03.82, shattering Hu’s old mark by 1.5 seconds.
Bayer also took first place in the 50 freestyle (24.52), 50 backstroke (28.13), 50 butterfly (25.72), 100 freestyle, (52.77), and 100 butterfly (57.07). Bayer earned the meet’s girls’ high point honors.
Bayer also teamed up with Emily Meilus, Sydney Mathis, and Mimi Baker to break the girls’ 11-12 200 freestyle relay, for a new mark of 1:41.57. Bayer was also a member of the winning 200 medley, 400 medley and 400 freestyle relays.
Isabella Rongione (12) won the girls’ 11-12 500 freestyle in record-breaking time. The FISH swimmer lowered Katie Ledecky’s (Curl-Burke) previous PVS records — both the resident and open record — by over a second to finish in 4:56.58. She was also a winner in the 200 and 1,000 freestyle events in 1:54.36 and 10:06.76, respectively, as well as the 200 IM in 2:08.71.
Thomas Brown de Colstoun (RMSC) stole Kurtis Ratcliff’s six-year resident record in the boys’ 12 & under 200 butterfly, setting a new mark of 2:06.29. He was also a winner in the 100 butterfly (58.45), 200 individual medley (2:09.10) and 500 freestyle (5:04.23).
Owen van Krimpen (Curl-Burke) set a new record in the boys’ 13-14 100 freestyle, with a blazing fast 46.87. He broke Craig Ammon’s 1983 resident record of 47.02, one of the oldest 14 & under records in the books. Van Krimpen also won the 400 IM in 4:11.99.
James Murphy (Machine Aquatic) set the PVS open record in the boys’ 13-14 200 freestyle with a time of 1:42.64, missing Ammon’s resident record of 1:42.01. Murphy also won the 200 butterfly (1:54.60) and 500 freestyle (4:37.87).
Faerber wins 1 & 3-meter events at USA Diving Spring Region 2 Championships
Weeks after winning his first Maryland state title, graduating senior Timothy Faerber (Dominion Dive Club) swept the 1-meter and 3-meter boards in the boys’ 16-18 division, winning by a wide margin in each. His final scores were 539.25 and 535.45. Faerber will dive for Michigan next year.
12-year-old Hailey Fisher (Alexandria Dive Club) won the girls’ 12-13 1-meter competition with a score of 265.80. She was second on the 3-meter board with a score of 278.15.
Faerber and Fisher advanced to East Nationals, hosted by Montgomery Dive Club at the Montgomery Aquatic Center, April 12-15.
DDC and ADC each qualified five divers for East Nationals, who will be joined by any pre-qualifiers based on scores. Montgomery Dive Club had only one diver, Kali Becker, compete, and she advanced as well.
Tags: Alexandria Dive Club, Andrew Alarcon, Andrew Rothstein, Cassidy Bayer, Curl-Burke, Dominion Dive Club, Emily Meilus, FISH, Haily Fisher, Isabella Rongione, James Murphy, Machine Aquatics, Mimi Baker, Montgomery Dive Club, Owen van Krimpen, PVS Junior Olympics, RMSC, Sydney Mathis, Thomas Brown de Colstoun, Timothy Faerber, Timothy Wu, USA Diving Spring Region 2 Championships, Will Cumberland
As always, thanks RFTW for your coverage!
I’ll get to the point, I believe Fairland is an unacceptable venue for this meet and I hope that others will voice their opinions. I feel lucky to have served as deck marshal for the six sessions I attended. Although it’s not always fun asking people to relocate, etc., I was most grateful not to have to contend with the viewing area.
I’m not going to belabor all the unacceptable situations caused by the overcrowding, culminating with the intervention of park police…I’ll just say I believe, we as PVS parents, as well as, all the athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers deserve better.
PVS is arguably the top LSC in the country and according to its own Vision Statement: [We] are striving to become the preeminent LSC in the country.
That said, it’s a darn shame that for our biggest championship meet of the year, parents consider themselves lucky to even be able to watch their own kids compete. And it’s virtually impossible to invite grandparents to see the young stars break records or just to see them experience the thrill of participating in such a great event for the first time.
I am confident in saying that our kids are models for the rest of the nation. We should provide them with a great environment from which their talent and hard work can be properly exhibited and a place that gives them every opportunity to perform at their very best. THEY surely desire better!
Again, I hope others will voice their opinions.
As a parent who has lived through a number of the PVS champs (summer and winter) at Fairland, I do agree. I appreciate that PVS is able to get access to Fairland regularly and for the smaller meets it works just fine. For the championship meets, however, it is very tough for spectators. I do think I’ve seen, however, in some of the Board or Competition Committee minutes, that JOs may move to UMd next year (could be wrong, but that’s what I think I read.) It will be too late for me — my kids have aged up to senior levels — but if so UMd is a great facility to watch a meet and a great pool for the kids. OTOH the concessions aren’t great and I don’t think they let the host clubs provide them. Anyway — congrats to all of the kids who swam so well and thanks to all of the officials, coaches, parents, and host clubs who spent so much time putting on a good meet in spite of the limited space.
It’s the proverbial rock and hard place. Yes, U of MD is a superior venue. But the rental cost is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than Fairland, resulting in higher entry fees which are nixed by most clubs. And when PVS holds a meet at UMD, there is always a flood of complaints about campus parking, especially when classes are in session. The same goes for meets at George Mason Univ.
Why not the Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex? It was held there three years ago and it was very nice.
becuz every time you swim at Pg you end up w/sinus and long problems from the poor air quality. The powers to be at PVS made a mistake by combining the 9/10-11/12 sessions into one session because it created a problem with too many people in the building. BUT… the most important participants, the swimmers didn’t seem to mind at all and swam very fast. There was easily room on deck for additional timers as well
Agreed PG is a nice facility but also agree I’ve experienced some very less than favorable air quality there during meets.
Also agree that the kids don’t mind Fairland — at least mine never has. It’s definitely the spectators who have a very hard time of it during the big meets.
Spectators can always escape the madness of the viewing area by volunteering. Come on down to the deck and be a timer, a marshal, an official.
wyb, yes, i’m always amazed at the resiliency of our kids. Mine is on a big club and they barely had room for their bags in their team area, let alone a place to sit down. — but few complained about it. this can be overcome to some extent by not combining the sessions.
I’ve heard about the health concerns at PG and you’d think if this is reality and not just anecdotal evidence, something would have been done about it at that facility. I hear references to “Fairland Flu” too, but I tend to dismiss them also as anecdotal.
This article is incorrect. Dominion Dive Club qualified 6 divers to East Nationals along with another 6 two weeks earlier at the Region 3 championship. They also had one current national champion who is pre qualified to East Nationals bringing Dominion Dive Club’s total up to 13 divers qualified to East Nationals.