Hawthorne wins county swim meet title
Hawthorne wins county swim championships; Smallwood takes second, Westlake finishes third
One day after many of the participants had competed in their final Prince-Mont Swim League dual meets for the summer season, the five league teams from Charles County gathered at Hawthorne Country Club in La Plata on Sunday morning for the annual Charles County Swim Championships.
After enjoying a perfect run through the Division B schedule of Prince-Mont, Hawthorne emerged best on Sunday by accumulating 442 points to claim the title, finishing well clear of runner-up Smallwood (373) which easily earned the runner-up honors over Westlake (154), Indian Head (119) and Bannister (82).
Hawthorne swimmers combined to capture 32 of the 49 events, including four of the five relays. Among the seven swimmers who recorded triples, Hawthorne had four of them.
Clinton Cupples won the 10-and-Under boys 25-meter butterfly in 17.28 seconds followed by the 25 breaststroke (22.38) and 25 backstroke (21.40). Addy Donnick took the 11- to 12-year-old girls 50 fly (34.87), 50 freestyle (31.25) and 50 back (37.53). Esther Dugan won the 13-14 girls 50 free (29.57), 50 breast (37.69) and 100 individual medley (1 minute 12.60 seconds). Conor Vienneau captured the 15-18 boys 100 free (56.81), 50 back (29.96) and 100 IM (1:06.31).
“I was really hoping to come here and win three events and continue to drop time,” said Conor Vienneau, who set a new Charles County championships record in the 100 free and was part of the Gators’ 18-U boys 200 medley relay with Kristopher Schueller, Mikel Reyes and Liam Vienneau who opened the meet with a victory in a record time of 1:58.87. “We just had a meet yesterday (a 300-275 win over MVP Dolphins of Washington, D.C.), so I was still a little tired from that. But I thought I did well today. I was glad to win all three events and help my team keep winning.”
Schueller also captured the 15-18 boys 50 breast (32.16) to establish a new pool record for that event.
Dugan won the 13-14 girls 100 IM by more than 11 full seconds and Donnick started her morning by winning the 11-12 girls 50 fly by nearly two seconds over teammate Kaeleigh Cupples, who rebounded to win two events, despite a modest equipment failure.
“I didn’t set any records, but in the fly I lost my cap,” said Donnick, a rising sixth-grader at Milton Somers Middle School. “It came off in the second lap, so I couldn’t just go back and get it. I had to swim the rest of the event without my cap. I thought I did well in the free.”
Dugan, Megan Schueller, Emma French and Chase McClure opened the meet by finishing second in the 18-U girls 200 medley relay (2:17.22)
and later Amy Huynh, Donnick, French and McClure combined to capture the 9-18 girls 200 free relay (2:14.50) by nearly eight seconds. It was a fitting end to the meet for the Gators.
“All season long our relays have been really strong,” said McClure, a rising freshman at the College of Southern Maryland. “We’re hoping to keep having the same success at divisionals and then at all-stars. Both our medley relay at the beginning and our freestyle relay at the end have been really good all summer.”
Smallwood produced the other three triple winners on Sunday morning. Clayton Jameson captured the 11-12 boys 50 fly (33.21), 50 free (29.47) and 100 IM (1:14.63). Justin Truitt prevailed in the 13-14 boys 50 fly (31.22), 50 free (27.47) and 100 IM (1:11.35). Kiera Salazar won the 8-U girls 25 free (20.72), 25 breast (28.29) and 25 back (27.69). Jameson set a new team mark in the 50 free.
Smallwood’s 9-18 boys 200 free relay quartet of Pierce Mussante, Clayton Jameson, Justin Truitt and Kevin Rohrbaugh finished second behind another Gators grouping (2:01.40), but the Marlins set a new team record with their final clocking.
Mya Rivenburg competed in her third swim meet in the last four days, having also participated in a Prince-Mont meet the day before and a club meet two days earlier at Middletown High School in Frederick County. Rivenburg, a rising junior at North Point High School where she swims, runs cross country and outdoor track, anchored the girls 18-U 200 medley relay (2:16.65) that opened the meet with a victory.
“It’s definitely been a very busy weekend for me,” said Rivenburg, who turns 16 on Wednesday. “I thought we did really well today in our events. Our relay was really good and winning that event was so exciting. I was hoping to drop time in my events, but I’m still tried after those other meets. My club team competed at Middletown and that’s a long drive up and back.”
Westlake swimmer Emily Decker, a rising senior at Westlake High School where she swims, plays volleyball and softball for the Wolverines, won the 15-18 girls 50 fly (32.97) and 100 IM (1:14.65) and was foiled in her bid for a triple by settling for second behind Hawthorne’s Megan Schueller in the 50 breast (38.60). Decker, Kerrigan McMillan, Tyra Agnew and Isabella Smith combined for third in the 18-U girls 200 medley relay (2:17.25) but they established a new team record in that event.
“I was happy with all three of my events today,” said Decker, who plans to attend Messiah College (Pa.) in 2018. “We had a meet yesterday (a 305-261 loss to Belair Swim & Racquet of Prince George’s County), so today I was just hoping to maybe drop time in one or two of my events and do whatever I could to help the team. I swam the first Prince-Mont meet, but then I missed two, so I’m interested to see how close those other girls are to me now.”
The Indian Head 18-U boys quartet of Shaun Butler, RG Bolton, Brett Culhane and Bryan Mentzer finished second (2:07) behind the Gators, but their final clocking established a new team mark. Butler was also second behind Vienneau in the 15-18 boys 50 back (32.37).
Bannister was unable to record a first- or second-place finish, but Jonathan Parham finished third in the 10-U boys 25 fly (18.54) and later the quartet of Jonathan Parham, Christopher Brown, Michael Parham and Carl Wachowski combined for third in the 9-18 boys 200 free relay (2:22.57).