Sportsmanship Rules Duel in the Pool

Good sportsmanship was the order of the day as RSTA’s two undefeated teams went head to head in last Saturday’s meet.  As evenly matched as they were, the lead went back and forth and the outcome wasn’t determined until the very end when Lake Audubon emerged victorious over Lake Newport, 594–582.

“The great part about a meet like today is that everyone can make a direct impact to the outcome,” said Keith Jacobson, Lake Newport parent. “This is not a league where only the A level swimmers count; even the new kids swimming in C have as much of a direct impact as year-round A swimmers!”

Swimmers from both teams prepared for what they knew would be a meet that could go either way.  “It was fun seeing the kids gear up to swim against swimmers who have previously just been a name on the top times list,” said Lisa Fritz, Lake Audubon manager.

The competitive nature of the meet stayed positive as swimmers stayed in the pool to shake hands and parents applauded good effort on both sides. “At the end of the relays, the whole crowd applauded both A teams for what was a really exciting race and then kept cheering as the last kid finished—really summed up the feeling of the whole meet," said Mike Collins, Lake Newport parent.

“What I love about RSTA and this meet in particular was the obvious support for all swimmers,” said Blake Kohn, Lake Newport parent. “At the end of relays and an extremely competitive meet, the round of applause was the loudest I've ever heard. Everyone was proud of all the kids on both teams."

Record Setting Swims

The competitive spirit was strong at other meets as well, as several swimmers set new team and league records:

• Darius Truong continued his record-setting streak with new Lake Anne records in Boys 11–12 50-meter Breaststroke (36.73) and 50-meter Butterfly (30.77), replacing his own records from just last week. The Butterfly time also established a new RSTA league record.

• Two swimmers for Glade bested team records set by older siblings, with Clara Landeryou setting a new record in the Girls 8 & Under 25-meter Butterfly with a time of 19.01, besting her sister’s record from 2011 of 19.02, and Hunter Ellis besting his brother’s time of 29.38 in the Boys 11-12 50-meter Freestyle with a new time of 29.03.

• Hunter Ellis also set a new Glade record in the Boys 11-12 50-meter Butterfly with a new time of 31.53, beating his own record set earlier this season.

• Not to be outdone, Tyler Ellis set two new records of his own, breaking an RSTA league record set in 1979 by John Fedak in Boys 13-14 50-meter Freestyle with a new time of 25.60, and a new league record in the Boys 13-14 50-meter Butterfly with a time of 27.58.

• Siblings were on a streak Saturday, with five members of the Redican family of Lake Newport all participating in record-setting swims. The Lightning’s mixed age relay team of Vania Zeledon, Mara Redican, Anna Redican, and Emi Redican set a new league record with a time of 2:05.16 in the 200-meter Freestyle Relay, while the Boys 8 & Under 100-meter Freestyle relay team of Sean Redican, Michael Zhou, Joseph Redican, and Robbie Keys set a new Lake Newport team record with a time of 1:22.02.

• Hailey Brown set a new Ridge Heights team record in the Girls 8 & under 25-meter Backstroke with a time of 21.88, beating her own record from earlier this season.

• Hunters Wood’s Jack Ham set a new team record in the Boys 13–14 50-meter Backstroke with a time of 31.01.

Lake Anne Stingrays 568; Hunters Woods Blue Marlins 522

Triple event winners for Lake Anne were Joanne Fu, Andrea Griffith, Hannah Lane, Emily Meilus, Darius Truong, and Hannah Ziaii.  Double event winners were Ben Dealey, Camille Denny, Jason Fu, Emmalina Sjapeki, and Devin Truong.

For Hunters Woods, double event winners were Matthew Beach, Christopher Byron, Justin Chen, Sylvia Cheng, Nolan Dunkel, Jack Ham, Jacob Ham, Marissa Jerome, Melissa Le, Amber Li, Logan Nasr, Gwyneth Wagner, Chris Yang, William Yao, and Roger Zeng.

Lake Audubon Barracudas 594; Lake Newport Lightning 582

Triple event winners for Lake Audubon were Ellie Crump, Sabrina Groves, Suya Haering, and Aidan Scanlan. Double event winners were Emily Fritz, Angelika Giavis, Matthew Hughes, Bryce Onozuka, Sasha Osinovsky, Alana Pudner, and Abigail Spigarelli.

For Lake Newport, triple event winners were Jack Edgemond, Anna Redican, Mara Redican, Casey Storch, and Alan Yu.  Double event winners were Amy Edgemond, Dylan Jones, Maggie Karim, Emi Redican, Lauren Spar, Connor Witt, and Amy Zhao.

North Hills Hurricanes 567; Newbridge Dolphins 522

Triple event winners for North Hills were Marlee Czarny, Emily Deker, Brenna Emery, Ryan Luczak, William Xu, and Miles Yang. Double event winners were Allison Boone, Allison Cimino, Gabriel Huang, Jennifer Koppang, Renzo Sanio, Joseph Sciortino, Samantha Sciortino, Grayson Williams, David Wrigley, and Evan Zhang.

For Newbridge, triple event winners were Emma Grossback, Jean-Claude Guill, and Ryan Ha. Double event winners were James Baldwin, Elijah Bishop, Laela Huddleston, Calvin Kalinowski, Eva Lossos, Greg Mayo, Brogan Mutarelli, Faith Richardson, Lily Schaller, Emily Sun, and Dash Teague.

Glade Gators 579; Ridge Heights Sharks 556

Triple event winners for Glade were Hunter Ellis, Tyler Ellis, Clara Landeryou, Emily Landeryou, and Jack Walker. Double event winners were David Clark, Lainie Davison, Ryan Erickson, Sophia Landeryou, Joseph Letteri, Kelliw McCrea, Jem Nims, Webb Nims, and Suraj Pedineedi.

For Ridge Heights, triple event winners were Evan Blase and Hailey Wang.  Double event winners were Edith Chaddock, Peter Dorosheff, Dylan Hawley, Derek Liu, Mackenzie Murray, Connor Pierce, Grace Qian, Marc Sipher, Mac Sogandares, Paige Sogandares, Ryan Vanderhoof, and Aaron Wang.