Girls 3rd, Boys 5th in DC private school swim relays

Defending relay champion girls earn a 3rd in Relay Carnival kicking off the 2014-15 swim season.

The swim and dive meet season began Saturday and the Cardinals recorded a strong start with a dozen teams gathering for the metro private schools annual relay carnival. The Bishop Ireton girls, defending champions, battled Holy Cross and Good Counsel before finishing third, while the boys were edged by St Albans for 4th place. Holy Cross won the girls’ event while Georgetown Prep squeaked by Gonzaga for the boys’ crown.

The Ireton girls finished second in four of the eight events while garnering thirds in two others to finish six points behind second place Good Counsel. Emma Klein, Anna Shumate, Anna Fracasso, and Hayley Snell completed the 200 yard medley relay in 2:00.36, good for second place. Ireton grabbed a second in the 200 yard freestyle relay in 1:47.71, just more than a second behind Holy Cross on the performance of Snell, Abigail Grillo, Clara Boggs, and Anney Matlock.

Lori Abbed, Kate Murray, Margaret Virostek, Maddie Sanasack and Angie Arquette Overman won a thrilling second over Good Counsel by .21 seconds in the 200 yard backstroke relay for the redbirds third second-place finish in the meet’s first three events. Snell, Shumate, Klein, and Grillo completed the 400 yard medley relay in a time of 4:28.03, good for a third place. Kaitlin Nguyen, Sarah Chopko, Sanasack, Natalie Nguyen, and Grace McCaffrey covered the 200 yard breaststroke relay in a 2:29.38 for a fifth place.

Ireton earned a third in the longest distance relay, the 500 yard freestyle, in a 5:11.87. Carrying the Cardinals were Abbed, Boggs, Matlock, Fracasso, and Natalie Nguyen. Julianne Sampaio joined Abbed, Fracasso, Matlock, and Sanasack in the 4th place finish in the meet’s 200 yard butterfly. The girls covered the distance in 2:09.73, just .03 behind third place National Cathedral School. The meet’s final event, the 400 yard freestyle relay was another thriller, with Holy Cross denying Ireton the final six points that would propel them into a second place tie when they nosed out Klein, Boggs, Shumate, and Grillo for the win in just .5 of a second.

The Cardinals’ boys team scored in seven of the eight relays enroute to a 5th place finish, but suffered a disqualification in the 200 yard breaststroke relays. AJ Salvatori, Jared Steen, Jimmy Grant, and Michael Morrison turned in a 1:48.99 time in the opening relay, the 200 medley, good for a 4th place. Junior Sam Price replaced Steen in the 200 free relay and their 1:35.54 performance was good for a third behind Prep and Gonzaga. Grant, Price, Steen and senior Dylan Louison snared a 5th place in the 400 medley. The Cardinals earned another 5th in the 200 backstroke behind a strong effort from Jermaine Thompson, Jeffrey Reichelt, Edward Crandall, and Carter Rostron in a time of 2:05.18.

Price, Steen, Louison, and Grant recorded a time of 4:12.01 in completing the 400 medley relay. The 500 freestyle relay saw Reichelt, Louison, Thompson, Rostron, and Sam Holcomb earn a 6th place in a time of 5:13.62 while Peter Smearman joined Rostron, Thompson, and Louison to claim a 5th in the 200 butterfly relay. The meet’s final event, the 40o freestyle saw Salvatori, Steen, Morrison, and Price race to a 4th place for the Cardinals in a time of 3:35.98.

Team Results:

Boys Girls

Georgetown Prep 300 Holy Cross 306

Gonzaga 290 Good Counsel 264

Good Counsel 240 BISHOP IRETON 258

St Albans 218 Bishop O’Connell 230

BISHOP IRETON 202 Georgetown Visitation 216

Sidwell Friends 180 Sidwell Friends 198

Georgetown Day 110 Georgetown Day 164

Bishop O’Connell 82 National Cathedral 112

The Bullis School 70 The Bullis School 106

Edmund Burke 60 Oakcrest 98