Katie Ledecky wins first Grand Prix gold

After missing Winter Nationals due to illness, Curl-Burke swimmer and Olympic hopeful Katie Ledecky needed race experience in the long course format. She got her chance over the weekend at the 2012 Missouri Grand Prix, in Columbia. The 14-year-old has burst onto the national scene over the last six months as one of America’s premier female distance freestylers.

Ledecky swam three events during the three day meet, and seemed to get stronger and more confident with each race. On Day One, the high school freshman finished fifth in the women’s 200-meter freestyle in 2:00.01, in a personal-best time. The next morning Ledecky qualified first in the 400 freestyle, but would drop one spot during the night final, finishing second in 4:09.30, another personal best.

She saved her best for last. In the women’s 800 freestyle timed final, Ledecky set the pace from the start, going out in 2:04.86, less than five seconds off her personal best in the 200 freestyle event, set two days before. She would continue to pull away from the rest of the field to finish nine seconds ahead of second place in 8:30.14, beating 16-year-old Leah Smith (8:39.52) and Olympic open water swimmer Chloe Sutton (8:41.65), who finished second and third.

The time was good enough for fourth best in the world this year, and it was the second fastest time by a 13-14 year-old in history, just missing the National Age Group record set by Cynthia “Sippy” Woodhead in 1978, with a time of 8:29.35. Ledecky owns the NAG records in the 500 and 1,000-yard freestyle events, set in November.

Great Britain’s Rebecca Adlington (8:22.35), the 2008 Olympic Gold medalist in the 800 and 400m freestyle, Denmark’s Lotte Friis (8:27.93), the event’s bronze medalist, and Great Britain’s Eleanor Faulkner (8:29.70) hold the top three spots in the world, currently.

While the time ranks Ledecky as the fastest American in the event this year, she will have stiff competition next June at Olympic Trials from Olympians Sutton, Kate Ziegler, Katie Hoff, and Allison Schmitt.

Conger, Gonzaga excel at Metros [Updated w/ Video Highlights]

At what was one of the fastest Wash. Metro Interscholastic championship meets in recent memory, 13 meet records were broken, as well as a slew of participating teams’ league and team records.

Gonzaga rolled to a team scoring record in the boys’ meet, while MCPS rivals Churchill and Whitman battled each other till the end in the girls’ meet. Churchill started the swimming portion of the championship meet with a 54 point lead, thanks to a dominant performance by the Bulldog divers.

Whitman tried its best to make up the difference with top finishes in nearly every girls event, but Churchill was able to hold them off. Saving the win for the Bulldogs was senior Natalya Ares, who picked up big points for her team by winning the 100 butterfly and later staving off Sarah Haase in the girls’ 400 freestyle relay, to pick up vital second-place points for Churchill to seal the victory.

While Good Counsel fell behind in the team competition, its leaders, Jack Conger and Haase, provided some of the best highlights of the year with their swims in the boys’ 500 freestyle and girls’ 100 breaststroke, both Independent High School National Records.

Read more from the 2012 Metro Swimming & Diving Championship here [highlight videos within].

Rosenburg, Doyle shine among area teams at Va. AA/A state championship meet [updated to include Tuscarora High School]

Northern Virginia teams traveled to the Virginia AA/A Swimming and Diving championship meet, held at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center in Christiansburg, Va., on Friday to go up against the best AA and A schools from across the state. Brentsville District finished seventh in the boys’ competition, just ahead of ninth place Potomac Falls. On the girls’ side, Potomac Falls was seventh; Dominion ninth; Tuscarora tenth.

Top performers from area teams were Kaleigh Rosenburg (Heritage) and Justin Doyle (Brentsville District), who collected am individual state title each.

Rosenburg won the girls’ 100 breaststroke in 1:03.21. She was also fourth in the 200 individual medley (2:06.55).

Kayleigh Rosenburg swimming to a state title in the 100 breaststroke. (Photo provided by Gemma Rosenburg)

Doyle was the big winner in the boys’ 50 freestyle, finishing in 21.76. He would follow that performance up with a third in the boys’ 100 freestyle (48.19). Brentsville teammate Ben Cumberland was eighth in 50 freestyle in 22.31.

Rosenburg and Doyle were the lone state champions for the teams from Prince William and Loudoun counties, but area swimmers were in abundance in the top heats all night.

William Lin (Potomac Falls) was fourth in the boy’s 200 individual medley (1:58.19).

In the boys’ 100 butterfly, Brennan Maxwell (Briar Woods) was fifth in 53.67. Jake Koenig (Loudoun County High School) was eighth in 54.89.

Aidan O’Hara (Dominion) placed sixth in the boys’ 500 freestyle with a time of 4:52.90. O’Hara was sixth (55.41)  in the 100 backstroke as well, ahead of Lucas Cherry (George Mason) who finished eighth (55.76).

On the girls’ side, Sophie Newton (Loudoun County) was third in the 50 freestyle in 24.63. Newton was also fifth in the girls’ 100 butterfly (58.54), ahead of Rachel Williams (Dominion), who was seventh in 1:00.15.

Another fifth-seventh finish came in the girls’ 500 freestyle, where Lizzie Mittan (Briar Woods) in 5:16.89, two spots ahead of Jalyn Marks (Dominion) in 5:21.50.

Amanda Presgraves was fifth behind Rosenburg in the girls’ 100 breaststroke, finishing in a time of 1:06.82.

Osbourn Park repeats as Northwest Region champs

Osbourn Park boys’ and girls’ swim teams successfully defended their AAA Northwestern Region Championship titles on Friday at the Freedom Aquatics Center in Manassas. The Yellow Jacket girls scored 319 points, finishing ahead of runner-up Albermarle (256) and third-place Stafford (230.50). Osbourn Park’s boys compiled 334 points to finish more than 100 points ahead of runner-up Albemarle (238.50) and third-place Mountain View (202).

Read more from the 2012 AAA Northwest Region Swimming Championship here.

2008 All-Met Swimmer of the Year Eric Friedland won two Big 12 titles this weekend for Texas. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

The University of Virginia’s men’s team won its third consecutive ACC championship this weekend, totaling 806 points behind top performances from several local products — ahead of second-place UNC (656.5) and Florida State (566.5).

Virginia Tech finished fourth with 417.5 points, while Maryland took eighth with 197 points.

Potomac Falls product Matt McLean took home titles in the 500 freestyle (NCAA ‘B’ standard 4:17.21) and was second in the 200 freestyle with an NCAA ‘B’ standard time of 1:34.76.

McLean took third in the 1650 freestyle with a NCAA ‘B’ standard time of 14:56.91.

Former All-Met Swimmer of the Year Josh Hafkin (Georgetown Prep) finished 20th in the 50 freestyle (20.65), sixth in the 100 backstroke (48.39) and 18th in the 200 backstroke (1:47.87).

Maryland’s Andrew Relihan (Georgetown Prep) finished seventh in the 200 IM (NCAA ‘B’ standard 1:47.69), ninth in the 400 IM (NCAA ‘B’ standard 3:52.88) and 10th in 200 backstroke (1:46.67).

North Carolina’s Andy Brake (Lake Braddock) took 20th in the 200 IM (1:51.05), fourth in the 400 IM (NCAA ‘B’ standard 3:50.75) and 17th in the 200 butterfly (1:49.26).

Among other locals (of which there were many): Boston College’s Sean Heffernan (Gonzaga), N.C. State’s Kevin Vallario (Good Counsel), Maryland’s Sean Stewart (Wootton), North Carolina’s Brock Park (Landon) and Robert Grimmett-Norris (Georgetown Prep), Virginia Tech’s Mikey McDonald (W.T. Woodson), Phil LaRosa (Osbourn) and Logan Shinholser (Paint Branch), U.-Va.’s Briggy Imbriglia (Ireton) and Duke’s Ben Tuben (Jefferson).

Local Longhorns perform well at Big 12s

Several area alums had strong weeks at the Big 12 championships for Texas.

Former Yorktown standout and two-time All-Met Maren Taylor finished fourth in one-meter and three-meter diving and third in platform diving in her first collegiate championships, as the No. 3 Longhorns took second at the meet.

Diving teammate and Whitman alum Matt Cooper finished second in three-meter diving and took the platform diving title with a score of 434.60.

2008 All-Met Swimmer of the Year Eric Friedland (Walter Johnson) also had a standout meet. The sophomore won Big 12 titles in the 100 breaststroke with a NCAA ‘B’ standard time of 53.44 and the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:54.32. He also finished fifth in the 200 IM with a NCAA ‘B’ standard time of 1:46.72.

Friedland’s time in the 200 breast set a new meet record and was the fastest time registered in college swimming this year. The mark broke the previous meet record of 1:54.41 set last season by Texas’ Agustin Magruder.

The two titles were the first of Friedland’s career, as No. 1 Texas claimed its 31st consecutive conference title.

Danner, Knight named CAA’s top championship swimmers

Both 2008 All-Met Swimmer of the Year Ashley Danner (Lake Braddock) and Westfield grad Eric Knight earned CAA Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Championships honors for the second time in their respective careers.

Danner, in addition to her titles in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke, also earned an automatic bid to the NCAA championships with a record-breaking time of 2:08.66 in the 200 breaststroke.

Knight, who took a medical redshirt last season after winning the top honor in 2007-08, finished fourth in the 50 freestyle (20.13) and won titles in the 100 freestyle (record and NCAA ‘B’ standard 44.06), 200 freestyle (record and NCAA ‘B’ standard 1:35.85).

George Mason’s men’s team took second place while the women finished fifth.

Towson’s Meredith Budner (Walter Johnson) equaled Danner’s leading point total on the weekend, while Yorktown grad Katie Radloff was third with 57 points. O’Connell grad Maggie Macedonia was tied for 19th with 34 points.

Mason freshman David Kiss, a two-time All-Met at Edison, finished seventh with 50 points, while Mount Vernon grad Bryan Bahr was 15th with 36.

Oakton’s Pawlowicz up for USA Swimming Race of the Week honors

All-Met Oakton junior Kaitlin Pawlowicz‘s national high-school-record-breaking 200-meter individual medley is up for USA Swimming’s race for the week honors.

You can vote for Pawlowicz here.

Local clubs earn national honors

North Baltimore Aquatic Club, the home of Olympic legend Michael Phelps, was named the 2010 Club Excellence Title by USA Swimming by scoring 56,155 points – just 2,420 points ahead of Swim Atlanta.

Curl-Burke finished sixth with 32,685 points, while Rockville Montgomery Swim Club took 14th with 25,984 points. It was the first time RMSC achieved Gold level.

According to the USA Swimming release, the “2010 program results are based on performances in the 2009 calendar year. Clubs have been selected as Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal clubs according to the following parameters: Gold Level: The top 16 point-scoring clubs eligible for the Gold level. Silver Level: The remaining clubs ranked through #100 and/or not achieving Gold status. Bronze Level: Clubs ranked #101 through #200 and/or not achieving Gold or Silver status.”

The Fish qualified for gold medal status for 2009-10 by having an athlete on the 2008 Olympic team.

QDD Swim Team finished with silver medal status, while Machine Aquatics, Arlington Aquatic Club and Naval Academy Aquatic Club earned bronze medal status.