RMSC Achieves USA Swimming Safe Sport Club Recognition

The Rockville Montgomery Swim Club is proud to announce it is now a USA Swimming Safe Sport Recognized Club.  The Safe Sport Club Recognition program allows RMSC to demonstrate its commitment to creating a healthy and positive environment free from abuse for all its members through the development and implementation of club governance measures, Safe Sport policies and reporting mechanisms, Safe Sport best practices, and training to athletes and parents.  As a USA Swimming member club, it is important to RMSC to continue to partner with USA Swimming’s Safe Sport efforts.  This is a monumental achievement for our team, and it represents our unwavering commitment to creating a safe, supportive, and empowering environment for every athlete, free from abuse and negativity.

Becoming Safe Sport Recognized was no small feat, as it took hard work, dedication, and the collective effort of everyone involved.  Hundreds of our swimmers, coaches, and parents participated in various trainings and seminars provided by USA Swimming in order for our Club to earn this certification.  Whether you completed the Safe Sport training this summer or supported others in the process, your commitment to this mission is what makes RMSC a leader in fostering a positive and healthy team culture.  A heartfelt thank you to each and every one in the RMSC family who played a part in this journey.  In particular, we would like to thank RMSC swimmer Jonathan Lei, our PVS SafeSport Committee Athlete Representative, who has been instrumental in spearheading our club’s efforts in getting certified.  

For our new athletes and parents, or for anyone who missed our online or in-person training, we’ve made it easy for you to get certified.  Please visit our RMSC Safe Sport page: rmscswimming.com/safesport.  It is packed with essential policies, reporting contacts, and other valuable resources. 

We are incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished together.  Together, we’re making RMSC a place where athletes can thrive, feel supported, and succeed—not just in the pool, but in their overall well-being.

RMSC Wins Titles at Eastern Zone Senior LC Championships!

RMSC Wins Titles at Eastern Zone Senior LC Championships!

A team of 24 RMSC swimmers travel to Buffalo, NY to compete in the Eastern Zone Senior Longcourse Championships, held August 7-10.  The meet featured almost 60 teams from all over the Eastern Zone (Maine through Virginia).  Our team had been close to winning the meet in the past, most notably with a runner-up finish in 2021.  But this year, RMSC broke through and took the Boys, Girls, and Combined Team titles with many outstanding performances, and all 24 of the athletes contributing to the victory.  The Boys won with 404 points, finishing 34 ahead of Team Pittsburgh Elite Aquatics.  The Girls finished with 581 points, 176 clear of the host club, Star Swimming of Buffalo.  And our combined total of 985 was almost 300 ahead of Star Swimming.  We had several swimmers who scored for the team by placing in the top 16 in their events, and incredibly, every single swimmer on the trip qualified for finals by placing in the top 32 in at least one of their events!

Brig Barnett was our team's leading scorer at the meet with 75 points.  He finished 2nd in 50 back (27.52), was top 8 in 200 free, 100 back, 200 back, and 200 IM, and top 16 in 400 free.  Mara Ahearn was the girls' leading scorer with 68 points, and our only individual event winner with her 1st place in 1500 free (17:30.50).  She was also 3rd in 200 free (2:07.78) and 800 free (9:21.94), was top 8 in 400 free, and top 16 in 100 free.  Justin Jarczynski had top 8 finishes in 400 free, 1500 free, 200 fly, and 400 IM, and a 9th in 800 free.  Skylar Dean took 3rd in 400 IM (5:13.93), top 8 in 800 and 1500 free, and top 16 in 400 free and 200 back.  Taisiya Ivanovskaya was top 8 in 400 free, 800 free, and 1500 free, and top 16 in 200 free.  Ella Crown had top 16 finishes in 200 back, 100 fly, 200 fly, 200 IM, and 400 IM.  Maeve Cutter placed top 8 in 1500 free and 400 IM, top 16 in 800 free, and top 24 in 200 free and 400 free.  Kevin Lee finished top 8 in 200 free and 400 IM, top 16 in 100 back and 200 IM, and top 24 in 400 free and 200 back.  Michael Kueh was top 8 in 100 fly and 200 fly, top 16 in 50 fly, and top 24 in 100 free.  Samantha Arias placed top 8 in 100 breast and 200 breast, top 16 in 200 IM, and top 24 in 100 fly.  Elizabeth Chen finished top 16 in 200 free, 100 back, and 200 back, and top 24 in 100 free.  Annie Tansey was top 8 in 50 free, top 16 in 50 breast, and top 24 in 100 breast and 200 breast.  Ethan Hua finished top 16 in 50 breast, 100 breast, and 200 breast, and top 24 in 400 IM.  Mia Fecko was top 16 in 200 free, 400 free, and 1500 free, and top 24 in 200 breast.  Elle Floyd finished top 8 in 1500 free, top 16 in 400 IM, and top 24 in 400 free and 200 fly.  Gracie Schur was top 16 in 50 free, 200 back, and 200 fly, and top 24 in 100 free, 100 back, 50 fly, and 100 fly.  Jeremiah Germosen finished top 16 in 50 free and 50 fly, and top 24 in 100 free, 100 fly, and 200 fly.  Also finishing in the top 24 and 32 at the meet were: Alex Chandran, Jason Cobb, Padraig Conley, Dominik Dolezel, Patrick Fisher, Piper Long, and Shawn Mashburn.

Much of our team scoring came in relays, where RMSC swam particularly well. In fact, each and every one of our Girls and Boys A and B relays scored by placing in the top 16!  Our lone relay victory was in the girls 800 free (Dean, Cutter, Ivanovskaya, Ahearn), in which our B also placed 3rd (Chen, Fecko, Floyd, Crown).  Our depth was also great in the Girls 400 medley, where we finished 2nd (Dean, Arias, Crown, Ahearn) and 3rd (Chen, Fecko, Schur, Tansey).  Our Boys’ top finish was a 2nd in the 400 medley (Barnett, Hua, Kueh, Germosen).  The Girls 400 free also took 2nd (Ahearn, Chen, Schur, Cutter) and 4th (Ivanovskaya, Tansey, Floyd, Dean).  The Boys 800 free finished 3rd (Kueh, Barnett, Lee, Jarczynski), while the Boys 400 free took 4th (Barnett, Kueh, Germosen, Cobb).  Both the Boys 200 free (Germosen, Fisher, Barnett, Dolezel) and Girls 200 free (Chen, Schur, Tansey, Ahearn) placed 5th.  Conley, Chandran, and Mashburn also contributed to top 16 scoring relays at the meet. 

Congratulations to the 2025 Senior Zone Team, and we’ll enjoy the Championship plaques to commemorate the victory (pictured)!

RMSC National Team Swims Fast at Summer Championship Meets Across the Country

This Summer, our National Team trained hard, not only at their sites each morning, but also together at combined longcourse practices twice per week. Their competition was split between three different Junior National level Championship meets that occurred at the end of July. Though the team was split, we managed many impressive results both individually and in team scoring. Here is a recap of those results:

USA Swimming Futures – Greensboro, NC, July 23-26

RMSC had 13 swimmers compete in this meet, which was one of four Regional Futures meets held simultaneously around the Country. Greensboro was perhaps the most competitive, as over 75 teams from the East were in attendance. The top 32 swimmers qualified for finals.

Celia Watkins had our top finish with a 20th in 50 back (30.48). Colton Mettler had a top 32 finish and a 15-16 Team record in 50 fly in 25.54. Charlie Begin finished top 32 in 200 free, 400 free, and 800 free. Michael Kueh was top 32 in 200 fly, Seamus Rooney finished top 32 in 200 back, while Viona Sunjaya finished top 32 in 200 breast.

Several of our relays finished in top 24 positions, including the men’s 200 and 400 free (Mettler, Rooney, Begin, GG Ancheta), and women’s 200 medley (Anika Cai, Sunjaya, Gabriela Kaiser, Anna Nishnianidze) and 400 medley (Watkins, Sunjaya, Cai, Nishnianidze). Kyle Lakhe also contributed on two men’s top 32 relays.

NCSA Summer Championships – Huntsville, AL, July 25-29

19 RMSC swimmers traveled to this meet, which featured around 1200 swimmers from over 50 teams from all over the Country. Since the events were highly contested, 40 swimmers made it back to finals, with the top 24 scoring points for the team.

We had four individual point scorers at the meet. Trevor Donley had a top 24 in 800 free (8:30.79) and 400 IM (4:36.29), and added a top 32 in 400 free and a top 40 in 200 IM. Maximus Devinney was top 24 in 200 breast (2:26.49) and 200 IM (2:10.09), and added a top 32 in 100 free. Gabby Day finished top 24 in 50 free (26.90), and was top 40 in 100 free and 100 breast. Alex Jungbluth finished top 24 in 200 fly (2:07.82), and was also top 32 in 50 fly and top 40 in 100 fly and 200 IM. Also making finals appearances with top 40 finishes were: Jack Dawson in 50, 100, and 200 breast, Deren Akselioglu in 200 fly and 1500 free, Roman Drews in 200 fly, and Lucas Kim in 200 fly.

We had many excellent team performances in relays as well. Our top relay was a top 24 in men’s 800 free (Donley, Kim, Akselioglu, Devinney). Also contributing to top 40 relays were: Mckenna Carswell, Dawson, Day, Nyah Frantz, Jungbluth, Kellie Kincaid, Andrew Kissel, JT Lakso, James Lawrence, Ethan Lee, Oliver Lutz, Ethan McCurdy, and Isaac Soles.

USA Swimming Junior Nationals - Irvine, CA, July 28-August 3

Our final Junior National meet was the most competitive, with the top 18&Unders in the Country descending on Irvine. The team had a great experience and swam at a very high level, not to mention they enjoyed the weather (and sunsets, and shopping, and In-N-Out). The top 32 swimmers qualified for finals at the meet, with the top 16 scoring for the team.

Griffin Oehler led the team with 21 individual points. He made the podium with an 8th place finish in 100 back in 56.69. He also finalled in four other events, scoring with a 10th in 200 IM in a 15-16 Team record 2:03.83, finishing top 24 in 50 back in a 15-16 Team record 26.27 and in 200 back in 2:04.31, and top 32 in 400 IM in a 15-16 Team record 4:28.27. Nick Liberty also was a scorer and record breaker, finishing 15th in 1500 free in a 15-16 Team record 15:47.28. Angela Kadoorie scored with a 15th in 200 breast in 2:34.27. Josh Lopez finished top 24 in 200 fly in 2:02.79, while Cooper Zakorchemny had a top 24 finish in 400 free in 3:59.67. Andrea Dworak finished top 32 in 200 free in 2:02.81 and 800 free in 9:01.10, while Maria Webb was top 32 in 200 fly in 2:16.91.

For the first time in many years at a meet this level, we had four men and four women qualify, which means the team could field relays! Our top relay finish was a 14th in men’s 800 free relay, with Zakorchemny, Oehler, Liberty, and Lopez scoring in 7:40.77, and all four boys recording many best time splits over the week. The women’s teams of Dworak, Webb, Kadoorie, and Viona Sunjaya also swam very well in relays with many best time splits, turning in top 24 finishes in the 400 and 800 free relays, and top 32 finishes in 200 free and 400 medley relays.

RMSC Swimmers Go the Distance at Open Water Nationals

Team Featured on the Local News

Six RMSC swimmers travelled to Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida from April 4-6 to compete in the USA Swimming Open Water National and Junior National Championships.   Swimmers qualified for this meet with their 1000 and 1650 yard pool times, but competed in 5K, 7.5K, or 10K open water races based on their Age Groups.  There was some very tough competition, which featured not only the top American Open Water swimmers, but also swimmers from Canada, Australia, and Japan.  In addition to that, there were some high winds and currents this year that the swimmers didn’t have to contend with last year.  Despite all of this, our swimmers swam well over the long distances.

Before the competition, Cooper Zakorchemny was one of 12 18&U swimmers in the Country invited to the USA Swimming Open Water Performance Camp, where he trained and learned Open Water tactics.  At the meet, Cooper became our first swimmer to tackle the Senior Nationals 10K.  He finished in 38th place in 2:03:32, despite being one of the youngest competitors in the race.  Two days later, Cooper was our top finisher in the Senior Nationals 5K, taking 30th in 1:01:30.  Close behind were Charlie Begin, finishing 33rd in 1:01:36 in his first Open Water competition, and Alex Nguyen, finishing 39th in 1:02:37.  In the Women's Senior Nationals 5K, Andrea Dworak, also competing in her first Open Water meet, had an excellent finish taking 15th place in 1:05:39.

In the Junior Nationals part of the competition, Trevor Donley provided the team its highest finish, taking 9th in the 16-17 7.5K in 1:34:55.  Mara Ahearn was one of the youngest at the entire meet, competing in the 15&U 5K at age 13.  She finished 31st in 1:10:36, in her first time ever competing that distance.   

All of our swimmers exhibited tremendous toughness and stamina to compete at such long distances at such a high level, and once again, the team had a great experience on the trip.  The team was so impressive that the local ABC News affiliate in Sarasota interviewed our swimmers, and featured it on TV that evening (here is the link):

US Open water championships held in Sarasota

Congratulations to our Open Water National Team!

RMSC Secures 8th Place Finish at NCSA Junior Nationals

Andrea Dworak and Griffin Oehler Earn Spots on All-Star Team Trip to London!!

RMSC’s National Team travelled to the NCSA Spring Championships (Junior Nationals) on March 18-22 in Orlando, Florida.  The meet featured over 1200 of the fastest 18&Under swimmers from all across the country, representing over 100 clubs. RMSC finished 8th in combined scoring to improve upon last year’s 4th place finish; separately the Boys and the Girls each finished 9th.  The top 24 finishers in each event scored points for the club, while the top 40 made it back to finals.  In addition, this meet was a selection meet, as two of the top eligible finishers in each event qualified to represent Team USA on the NCSA All-Star team that will compete at the Adam Peaty Race Invitational in London, England this May, against an international field of top swimmers.

Andrea Dworak was our team’s leading scorer with 110 points.  She qualified for the London trip with her 1st place finish in 200 free, in a Team record 1:46.56.  She was also 4th in 500 free, 6th in 100 free, 8th in 1000 free, top 24 in 50 free, and top 32 in 200 back.  Griffin Oehler led our Boys with 99 points.  He qualified for London with a 3rd place finishes in 200 back (1:43.03) and 200 IM (1:47.70).  He also broke the Team record in 200 free with a 1:36.93, finishing 9th, added a 9th place in 100 back, and a top 24 in 100 fly.  We wish Andrea and Griffin the best as they train for London!

Two others joined Dworak and Oehler as medalists with top 8 finishes.  Quinn Marchionini took 6th in 50 back, was top 16 in 100 back, top 24 in 50 fly, 100 fly, and 200 IM.  Angela Kadoorie was 7th in 200 breast, top 16 in 200 IM and 400 IM, and top 24 in 100 breast and 200 fly.

A host of other RMSC swimmers made finals appearances.  Cooper Zakorchemny finished top 16 in 1000 free and 1650 free, and top 24 in 500 free.  Charlie Begin had a top 16 in 200 back, top 24 in 100 back, top 32 in 500 free, and top 40 in 200 free and 50 back.  Josh Lopez was top 16 in 1000 free, top 24 in 500 free and 200 fly, and top 32 in 200 free.  Maximus Devinney was top 16 in 200 IM and top 24 in 400 IM.  Viona Sunjaya placed top 16 in 200 breast, top 32 in 100 breast, and top 40 in 50 breast.  Maria Webb was top 16 in 200 fly and top 32 in 400 IM. Alex Nguyen finished top 24 in 500 free and 1000 free, and was top 32 in 1650 free.  Nick Liberty was top 24 in 1650 free and top 32 in 1000 free.  Alex Jungbluth was top 32 in 50 fly and 200 fly, and top 40 in 100 fly and 400 IM.  Gigi Ancheta finished top 32 in 50 back, Isla Bartholomew was top 32 in 200 breast, while Anna Nishnianidze was top 32 in 50 free.  Also adding top 40 finishes were: Deren Akselioglu, Mckenna Carswell, Gabby Day, Trevor Donley, Grant Haley, Colton Mettler, Seamus Rooney, and Celia Watkins.

Many of our best swims and much of our scoring in this team effort came on relays.  Our top finish was a 6th in the Boys’ 400 free relay of Griffin Oehler, Quinn Marchionini, Tyler Coapstick, and Josh Lopez.  Two other relays made the podium with top 8 finishes: the Girls’ 400 free relay of Gabby Day, Andrea Dworak, Maria Webb, and Anna Nishnianidze, and the Boys’ 800 free relay of Oehler, Lopez, Charlie Begin, and Cooper Zakorchemny.  The Girls also had three other top 16 and two other top 24 finishes, while the boys had two other top 16 and one other top 24 finish, all of which scored for the team.  Additional contributors to these relays included: Isla Bartholomew, Anika Cai, Mckenna Carswell, Alex Jungbluth, Angela Kadoorie, Gabi Kaiser, Kellie Kincaid, Mimi Moore, Seamus Rooney, Viona Sunjaya, and Celia Watkins.

Congratulations to our National Team!  They will be in action again this Summer at a host of competitions, including Senior Nationals in Indianapolis, IN, USA Junior Nationals in Irvine, CA, and NCSA Summer Junior Nationals in Huntsville, AL.

RMSC Dominates Team Scoring at NCSA Age Group Championships

RMSC performed excellently at the recent NCSA Age Group Championships! The following RMSC swimmers put up particularly outstanding results

Sara Young - Won FIVE of her individual events!

Brian Sunjaya - Won all three of his individual Breast Stroke events

RMSC scored the most points in both Boys and Girls!

Amazing work from swimmers of all teams!

SwimSwam - Rockville Montgomery Swim Club Dominates Team Scoring at NCSA Age Group Championships

RMSC Breaking Records at REHI

RMSC broke several records at the REHI this year. Congratulations to all these swimmers and their amazing accomplishments!

Breaking the National Age Group Record from 2014!

200 Free Relay - Jason Xu, Alexander Romero-Zermeno, Wes Begin, and Marcus Li

Also breaking numerous meet records!

100 Free - Andrea Dworak

200 Free - Andrea Dworak

200 Backstroke - Andrea Dworak

200 Breaststroke - Angela Kadoorie

200 Butterfly - Maria Webb

Also congratulations to FISH swimmer Henry Rossman for setting a new meet record in the 500 Free!

Rockville-Montgomery 10 & Under Boys swim past NAG 200 Free Relay mark

RMSC Sets Age Group Relay Record at Riley Eaton Invitational – ReachForTheWall

RMSC Named USA Swimming Gold Medal Club For Second Straight Year!!

USA Swimming has announced the results of the 2024 Club Excellence Program, and  RMSC has achieved Gold Medal Club status for the second consecutive season.  Our score of 39,620 points once again ranked RMSC in the top 10 out of USA Swimming’s over 2800 registered clubs, and was an improvement of over 3000 points from last year! 

The Club Excellence Program is designed “to recognize and promote the development of strong, well rounded age group and senior programs that produce elite 18&Under athletes.”  Our Club’s points were accumulated by our 18&Under swimmers recording times in Long Course meters that fell into Gold (World-ranked swims), Silver (Senior National), or Bronze (Junior National) standards, as well as our performances in Open Water Nationals and Junior Nationals.  For the second consecutive year, RMSC had more swimmers achieve these standards than in any year in recent history. 

RMSC has had an amazing 2024, with many outstanding accomplishments by our swimmers and coaches.  Every member of RMSC should take pride in being a part of maintaining Gold Medal Status.  Some of our accomplishments included:

-Boys’ Team Title, Girls & Combined Runners-up at NCSA Age Group Championships

-Boys’ and Combined Team Titles at Eastern Zone Sectionals

-Combined Team Title at PVS 12&U LC Championships

-Two swimmers and two alumni competed at 2024 US Olympic Team Trials

-One swimmer named to Team USA for Open Water World Junior Championships

-One swimmer named to USA Swimming National Select Camp

-Four swimmers named to Eastern Zone Select Camp

-Eight PVS Outstanding Athlete Award Winners

-Three PVS Outstanding Distance Award Winners

-16 USA Swimming Scholastic All-Americans

-87 PVS Scholar Athlete Award Winners

Congratulations to all of our swimmers, coaches, administrators, and parent support system.  We all play a part in this accomplishment.  Look for the Gold Medal banners at our facilities in 2025!

RMSC Catches "Indiana Fever" at NCSA Summer Championships

Indianapolis, IN, July 24-28

33 RMSC swimmers traveled to Indianapolis for the NCSA Summer Championships (Junior Nationals) at the famous IUPUI Natatorium, which featured over 1000 swimmers from almost 100 teams from all over the Country.  The team finished 7th Combined, with the Boys finishing 7th and the Girls finishing 10th.  Since the events were highly contested, 40 swimmers made it back to finals, with the top 24 scoring points for the team.

Leading the team with 132 points was Andrea Dworak.  Andrea won the 200 free (17-18 and Senior Team record 2:01.06) and 800 free (8:51.17), she was 2nd in 400 free, 7th in 100 free, and top 16 in 200 back (17-18 and Senior Team record 2:15.94).  Cooper Zakorchemny led the boys with 93 points.  He won the 800 free (15-16 and Senior Team Record 8:07.02), was 3rd in 400 free (15-16 Team record 3:57.00), was 8th in 1500 free, top 16 in 200 free, and top 32 in 400 IM.  Angela Kadoorie finished 2nd in 200 breast (15-16 and Senior Team record 2:32.18), 5th in 400 IM, top 16 in 100 breast, and top 24 in 200 fly and 200 IM.  Griffin Oehler was 6th in 200 IM, 7th in 100 back, top 16 in 200 back, and top 32 in 200 free (15-16Team record 1:54.14) and 100 fly.  Josh Lopez was 6th in 200 fly, top 16 in 200 free, top 24 in 800 free, and top 32 in 400 free.  Maria Webb was 8th in 200 fly, and finished top 40 in 50 fly, 100 fly, and 400 IM.  Alex Nguyen placed top 16 in 1500 free, and top 24 in 400 and 800 free.  Alex Jungbluth finished top 16 in 200 fly, and top 24 in 100 fly, while Brian Wilbur finished top 16 in 50 breast and top 24 in 100 breast.  Tyler Coapstick was top 16 in 50 free, while Gabby Day was top 24 in 50 free and 100 free.  Nick Liberty was top 24 in 1500 free and top 40 in 800 free, while Daniel Prins added a top 24 in 200 fly.  Also making finals appearances with top 40 finishes were: Charlie Begin, Anika Cai, Roman Drews, Natalia Evans-Gibson, Chase Keeler, Kellie Kincaid, Lizzie Linck, Mimi Moore, Seamus Rooney, and Viona Sunjaya.

We had many excellent team performances in relays as well.  Our top relay was the Boys 800 Free relay team of Josh Lopez, Cooper Zakorchemny, Griffin Oehler, and Alex Nguyen, who finished 4th.  Our top Girls’ finish was 9th in the 800 free relay by Andrea Dworak, Maria Webb, Gabby Day, and Kellie Kincaid, which broke the Team record (8:28.57).  The Boys team of Griffin Oehler, Brian Wilbur, Alex Jungbluth, and Tyler Coapstick also finished 9th in both 200 and 400 medley relays.  Also contributing to top 40 relays were: Linus Ament, Guillermo Ancheta, Charlie Begin, Anika Cai, Jack Dawson, Angela Kadoorie, Chase Keeler, Nick Liberty, Lizzie Linck, Zoe McGee, Mimi Moore, Daniel Prins, Seamus Rooney, Lukas Shafer, Viona Sunjaya, and Celia Watkins

RMSC Swimmers Compete at U.S. Olympic Team Trials

The fastest meet in the Country took place from June 15-23 in Indianapolis, as the Nation’s fastest swimmers gathered at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium.  Holding a swim meet in an NFL stadium was quite an experience, as over 20000 spectators were in attendance daily. 

Sharing the deck with Ledecky, Dressel, and the other top American swimmers were two current RMSC swimmers.  Adriano Arioti finished 55th in 200 back (2:03.56) and 82nd in 200 IM (2:05.37).  Evan Mackesy finished 58th in 400 IM (4:27.79).  These two swimmers recently graduated high school, and will continue their swimming careers at Harvard University and Purdue University, respectively. 

At National meets like Olympic Trials, swimmers currently competing in college have the option of dual representation, where they can represent both their college team and their club team.  Two of our recent graduates honored their years with the club by exercising this option.  Toby Barnett, a rising sophomore at Indiana University, finished 50th in 400 IM (4:26.80) and 73rd in 200 IM (2:04.45).  Jed Garner, a rising sophomore at the University of Tennessee, finished 31st in 200 breast (2:14.53).

 All of our swimmers and coaches had a great experience at the meet.  We’re looking forward to training more RMSC swimmers for 2028!

RMSC Swimmers Return to Open Water Nationals With Outstanding Results!!!!

Nick Liberty Qualifies for World Juniors!

Five RMSC swimmers travelled to Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida from May 3-5 to compete in the USA Swimming Open Water National Championships.   Swimmers qualified for this meet with their 1000 and 1650 yard pool times, but competed in 5K or 7.5K open water races based on their Age Groups. 

Our two youngest swimmers at the competition had amazing results in Saturday’s 15&Under Junior National 5K competition.  In his first open water race ever, Nick Liberty finished 2nd in 58:20, which qualified him to represent Team USA at the World Junior Open Water Championships this September in Alghero, Italy.  Just behind him in 1:00:20 was Trevor Donley, who finished 5th, joining Nick on the medal stand.  We look forward to more great results from these two 14 year-olds as they gain experience at the National level.

The following day, we had three swimmers compete in the 16-17 year-old Junior National 7.5K event.  All three had competed last year as well, and each one of them improved on both their times and places.  In the boys’ race, Cooper Zakorchemny finished 6th in 1:28:42, earning a medal and dropping over three minutes from last year.  Alex Nguyen finished 16th in 1:29:27, almost two minutes faster than last year.  In the girls’ race, Maria Webb also earned a medal with an 8th place finish in 1:36:35, which was also almost two minutes faster than she went last year.  All three swimmers benefitted from their experience, not to mention the hard work in training that they have put in over the past year. 

All of our swimmers exhibited tremendous toughness and stamina to compete at such long distances at such a high level, once again, the team had a great experience on the trip.  In between meet sessions, the competitors were even treated to a special USA Swimming advanced screening of the soon-to-be-released Disney movie “Young Woman and the Sea,” which is the story of the first woman to swim the English Channel. 

Congratulations to our Open Water National Team!

RMSC Takes Second Place at Age Group NCSA’s!

RMSC’s 14 and Under Swimmers traveled to Orlando for Age Group NCSA’s on March 27-30, 2024 and placed SECOND overall as a team!  Teams are also recognized for their achievement by gender at this meet.  RMSC’s boys topped the rest of the boys’ field placing FIRST in that half of the competition.  RMSC’s girls placed SECOND in this portion of the meet.

It was an exciting meet that featured over 1000 swimmers from across the nation.  RMSC entered the meet as a sizable underdog to Long Island Aquatic Club (LIAC).  Over the course of the week, we slowly chipped away at our projected deficit and entered finals on the last day of competition with a legitimate shot to win the meet.  RMSC athletes swam an incredible last finals session, but we fell just a bit short.  No less, it was a valiant and spirited effort and we’re proud of our kids!

RMSC’s relays certainly contributed to our positive outcome.  RMSC gained ground against the entire field during each relay portion of the meet.  Almost all of our 32 entered relays finished in scoring position and several finished in first place.  Our 11-12 Boys relays finished first in the 200 Medley Relay (Jack Gravell, Peter Guo, Tripp Thomas, Selim Ericson), 200 Free Relay (Jack Gravell, Nickolas Nishnianidze, Tripp Thomas, Selim Ericson) and 400 Medley Relay (Jack Gravell, Brian Sunjaya, Tripp Thomas, Selim Ericson).  Our 13-14 Girls finished first in the 200 Medley Relay (Elizabeth Chen, Viona Sunjaya, Anika Cai, Gabrielle Day), 200 Free Relay (Anika Cai, Marion Hooker, Harper Bartholomew, Gabrielle Day) and 400 Medley Relay (Harper Bartholomew, Viona Sunjaya, Anika Cai, Gabrielle Day).

There were many best times across the board and the following swimmers placed in the top 16 in their individual events thus scoring points for the team.  Every place and point counts!  Mara Ahearn (4 top 16 finishes), Harper Batholomew (2), Lachlan Bartolomew (4), Leah Bartley (2), Anika Cai (7), Sydney Chang (1), Gabrielle Day (3), Julie Diaz (3), Trevor Donley (3), Selim Ericson (7), Rafael Fontana (2), Jeremian Germosen (5), Jack Gravell (10), Peter Guo (4), Jason Hua (1), Brooke Lakso (1), Audrey Lee (1), Joy Liang (1), Elena Lindley (2), Angelina Luo (1), Izabella Mason (1), Nickolas Nishnianidze (1), Meera Patel (2), Grace Peterson (1), Zander Pica (6), Jenna Ryan (9), Elaine Shu (3), Brian Sunjaya (4), Viona Sunjaya (6), Tripp Thomas (9), Irene Tretyakov (1), Ray Wang (1), AJ Windt (2), Sara Young (5)

Finally, congrats to our new RMSC record holders!  Selim Ericson broke the RMSC Team Record in 11-12 Boys 50 Butterfly with a time of 25.27.  Our 13-14 Girls relay teams also broke RMSC Records in the 400 Medley Relay (Harper Bartholomew, Viona Sunjaya, Anika Cai, Gabrielle Day) and 400 Free Relay (Gabrielle Day, Marion Hooker, Anika Cai, Harper Batholomew).

 It was a great meet.  It was a fun and rewarding experience for the entire team.  We’ll get back on top again next year.

RMSC Honors Riley Eaton

RMSC is celebrating the lifelong commitment of J. Riley Eaton to the swimming community. As an RMSC swim coach for 35 years, he coached thousands of young people, many of whom grew to love the sport as much as he did and have gone on to their own careers in coaching, including current RMSC coaches who swam under Riley. On a national level, he served for nearly 20 years as a founding member on the Board of Directors for the National Club Swimming Association. In the Potomac Valley LSC, Riley served as an HOD at-large delegate, senior chairman, and general chairman. In 2014, Riley was presented with a USA Swimming Life Membership for his years of dedicated and exemplary service to the LSC and most importantly the athletes. After retiring from coaching, Riley was the Holiday Invitational announcer for many years and could always be found with tootsie pops on his table. Out of the pool, Riley taught at Hyattsville Middle School for 26 years. His principle "It's all about the kids", is truly reflected in his life work. Riley passed away on August 4, 2023 and will be sorely missed.

We will be honoring Riley this December by renaming the Holiday Invitational meet to the Riley Eaton Holiday Invitational. In doing so, we are giving every registered swimmer a white RMSC silicone cap with his initial JRE. We ask that swimmers participating in any meet this December (Reindeer Mini Meet, Christmas Champs, Turkey Claus, US Open, and our own Riley Eaton Holiday Invitational) wear this swim cap to honor Riley and all his work he did for RMSC over the years.

KSAC NTGs continuing into college

The NTG group at KSAC has seven seniors who will all be continuing their swimming careers in college. From left to right;

Brady Begin-University of North Carolina

Michael Kaiser-Emory University

Samir Elkassem-Duke University

Nasim Elkassem-University of Southern California

Joe Umhofer-Southern Methodist University

Reagan Phillips-University of South Carolina

Emma Lantry-Gettysburg College.

RMSC Caps Off Amazing Year By Being Named USA Swimming Gold Medal Club

RMSC has had an amazing 2023, with many outstanding accomplishments by our swimmers and coaches.  This was confirmed, as USA Swimming has announced the results of the 2023 Club Excellence Program.  After holding Silver Medal Club status for the past ten seasons, RMSC has recaptured Gold Medal Club status for the first time since 2013.  Our score of 36,476 points ranked RMSC in the top 10 out of USA Swimming’s over 2800 registered clubs. 

The Club Excellence Program is designed “to recognize and promote the development of strong, well rounded age group and senior programs that produce elite 18&Under athletes.”  Our Club’s points were accumulated by our 18&Under swimmers recording times in Long Course meters that fell into Gold (World-ranked swims), Silver (Senior National), or Bronze (Junior National) standards, as well as our performances in Open Water Nationals and Junior Nationals.  RMSC had more swimmers achieve these standards this year than in any year in the past decade. 

Every member of RMSC should take pride in being a part of returning our club to Gold Medal Status.  This honor caps an amazing year in which the club saw:

-Combined and Boys’ Team Titles at NCSA Age Group Championships

-Boys’ Team Title at NCSA Junior National Championships

-Combined, Girls’, and Boys’ Team Titles at PVS 12&U LC Championships

-Girls’ Team Title at PVS 14&U SC Championships

-One Swimmer Named to USA Swimming National Junior Team

-Two Swimmers Named to USA Swimming National Select Camp

-16 USA Swimming Scholastic All-Americans

-11 PVS Outstanding Athlete Award Winners

-Three PVS Outstanding Distance Award Winners

Congratulations to all of our swimmers, coaches, administrators, and parent support system.  We all play a part in this accomplishment.  Look for the Gold Medal banner at our facilities in 2024!

RMSC Swimmers named to USA Swimming Scholastic All-America Team

For the second consecutive year, RMSC had an amazing 16 swimmers named to the prestigious USA Swimming Scholastic All-America Team!

Members of the 2022-2023 Team include:  Adriano Arioti, Andrea Dworak, Nasim Elkassem, Samir Elkassem, Aydin Erkan, Angela Kadoorie, Michael Kaiser, Evan Mackesy, Alex Nguyen, Amy Qin, Madison Smith, Joe Umhofer, Livia Venditti, Owen Watkins, Brian Wilbur, and Cooper Zakorchemny.  These swimmers achieved this honor with a combination of high-level success in the classroom and in the pool.  Qualifiers are required to maintain a 3.5 GPA and achieve at least one USA Swimming Winter Junior National qualifying time.

Congratulations to our outstanding Student Athletes!

For more information on the team, you can visit: Scholastic All-America (usaswimming.org)

RMSC Scores big at annual PVS Outstanding Athlete and Distance Athlete Awards

RMSC took 11 of 19 PVS Outstanding Athlete Awards for 2022-23.

The Outstanding athlete award recognizes one athlete by age and gender ages 9 to 18. It is voted on by the PVS Competiton Committee based on records, national and pvs rankings and meet performance.

Congratulations to Julia Carrick (9 year old girls), Jenna Ryan (11 year old girls), Rafael Fontana (11 year old boys), Jeremiah Germosen (12 year old boys), Angela Kadoorie (15 year old girls), Cooper Zakorchemny (15 year old boys), Andrea Dworak (16 year old girl), Adriano Arioti (16 year old boy), Madison Smith (17 year old girl), Jed Garner (17 year old boy) and Toby Barnett (18 year old boy)

In the PVS Outstanding Distance Award category, which is awarded to the swimmer with the fastest time in the Women's 800m free, Women's 1000y free, Men's 1500m free and Men's 1650y free, RMSC took 3 of 4 awards. Congratulations to Brady Begin for taking the Men's 1650 free and Madison Smith for winning both awards in the Women's 800m free and 1000y free. 

Team Apparel Pick Up - Saturday, October 14th at GISC (7:30 AM - 4:30 PM)

Attention RMSC Families! Cassel’s will be at the October Kick Off Classic on Saturday, October 14th, 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM, at the Germantown Indoor Swim Center.

They will be distributing items that were not picked up during the on-site pick up days.

Arioti, Webb, and Zakorchemny Earn National Honors

Three RMSC swimmers were selected to prestigious National honors this month, based on their performances in the past season:

Adriano Arioti was named to the USA Swimming National Junior Team.  This Team is selected from the fastest 18&Under swimmers all across the Country.  The top two swimmers in each Olympic event are selected, as well as swimmers with times 4% off medal times at World Championships.  Adriano was selected based on his 200 backstroke time of 1:59.58, which is an Olympic Trials standard.  The National Junior Team participates in a training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs, and will compete in an international meet in 2024.

Maria Webb and Cooper Zakorchemny were selected for the USA Swimming National Select Camp.  48 Boys ages 15-16 and 48 Girls ages 14-15 are selected for this Camp.  Swimmers qualify by being in the top three Nationally in each Olympic event, or having one of the next six highest IMX scores.  The Boys’ Camp is October 12-15, and the Girls’ Camp is October 26-29, both held at the U.S. Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs.

Congratulations to Adriano, Maria, and Cooper for representing RMSC on the National stage!

Eastern Zone Senior Long Course Championships – Buffalo, NY, August 3-6

RMSC had a team of 30 swimmers travel to and compete at Senior Zones, a Sectional-level meet that featured almost 80 teams from all over the Eastern Zone (Maine to Virginia).  RMSC finished 11th Combined, with our boys and girls each finishing 10th.  The top 32 swimmers qualified for finals, with the top 16 scoring for the team.

Nicholas Liberty led the team with 28 points.  He took 2nd in 1500 free in a Junior National cut of 16:34.70, was 8th in 800 free, and added 2 other top 32 finishes.  Justin Jarczynski finished 4th in 1500 free, and was top 16 in 400 free and 800 free.  Anna Nishnianidze also made a Junior National cut with a 9th in 50 free in 27.16, and she added another top 32 finish.  Skylar Dean finished top 16 in 800 free and 1500 free, and added 3 other top 32 finishes.  Natalia Evans-Gibson was top 16 in 200 fly and added another top 32 finish.  Jason Doan was top 16 in 200 fly.  Also making finals appearances with top 32 finishes were: Guillermo Ancheta, Ella Crown, Roman Drews, Alara Erkan, Shad Frantz, Josh Hernandez, Nikolai Kalinin, Rachel Katz, Ethan Lee, Jack Tovornik, Jordan Webster, Giselle Yanes, and Abigail Yo.

Much of our team scoring came from relays, where many swimmers contributed lifetime bests on their splits.  Our top finish was a 4th in the Girls 400 Medley relay by Skylar Dean, Giselle Yanes, Natalia Evans-Gibson, and Anna Nishnianidze.  Dean, Maggie Rose Rook, Nishnianidze, and Jingjing Wu also finished 8th in the 800 Free relay.  Also contributing to top 16 scoring relays were: Guillermo Ancheta, Ella Crown, Shad Frantz, Josh Hernandez, Nikolai Kalinin, Rachel Katz, Tyler Kim, Shawn Mashburn, Ray Mukoyama, Lukas Shafer, Jordan Webster, and Abigail Yo.