Alexandria’s Summer Swim Team Chinquapin Wahoos Win Their First Home Meet!
Chinquapin Wahoos swim to decisive home opener victory
(Photo credit: Judy Davis)
ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Chinquapin Wahoos defeated the Saratoga Stingrays 323.5 to 103.5 at the Old Town Pool on June 25. The Wahoos led the meet from start to finish, advancing Alexandria’s only public swim team to a 2-0 record in the Colonial Swim League (CSL).
The tone was set in the first race as Jonathan Ramsdell, Jolan Foronda, Madison Schang and Isabel Matorana won the 200-yard mixed age/sex medley relay by eight seconds with a time of 2:07.35.
Head Coach Dennis Burstein said several swimmers had “breakthrough meets” and noted the close races in the boys 13-14 age group.
Ramsdell won the boys 50-yard freestyle by less than .2 seconds with a time of 25.06, while in breaststroke he snatched victory by .03 seconds, hitting the wall at 30.90.
Ramsdell secured his third win in the 50-yard backstroke (29.62) ahead of Alex Wittmer (32.40).
Wittmer also powered to second in the 50-yard butterfly by .1 seconds with a time of 32.27.
Willem Schultz placed third in the freestyle (29.25) and joined Ramsdell, Wittmer and Eddy Paz to win the 200-yard medley relay in 2:18.33.
The 13-14 girls celebrated a first-place win for Bella McLemore in the 50-yard backstroke (35.63).
Camila Zuniga turned in three third place finishes in 50-yard backstroke (37.12), butterfly (36.03) and a tie with Sarasota swimmer Izzy Turingan in freestyle at 31.09 seconds.
Zuniga joined McLemore, Natasha Yoo and Jacari Jahi to place second in the medley relay with a time of 2:31.05.
The boys 15-18 squad again proved dominant with a sweep of all four strokes for the second week in a row. In his final season of eligibility, Ronan Lauinger won the 50-yard breaststroke in 29.04 seconds, just beating Foronda at 29.19 seconds. Bodie Lauinger (32.86) took third, touching hundredths of a second ahead of Mikal Helms (32.95).
Emil LaSida won the 50-yard freestyle (22.76), as the Lauinger brothers Ronan (23.45) and Bodie (23.85) battled to go 2-3.
LaSida also won the 50-yard butterfly (25.00), touching ahead of Foronda (26.25), Ronan Lauinger (26.59) and Blake Conjura (28.53).
In the 50-yard backstroke, LaSida won in 24.63 seconds over Foronda (28.71), Bodie Lauinger (28.93) and Conjura (30.38). The Wahoos boys 15-18 bench is so deep that Paris Johnson, Tristan McCallister, Seamus Greiner and Jose Alex Paz were invited to swim an exhibition heat in the backstroke event and Johnson’s time of 30.75 seconds was the fifth fastest of the day.
LaSida, Foronda, Ronan and Bodie Lauiner won the 200-yard medley relay in 1:42.25, but came up short in their attempt to break the CLS relay record.
The 15-18 girls also produced sweeps in the 50-yard freestyle and backstroke before taking the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:09.44 seconds.
Elisabeth Caroll won the freestyle in 27.50 seconds ahead of Catherine Salomons (29.12) and Maria McLemore (29.18).
In backstroke, Caroll (31.41) outswam Salomons (32.44) and Abbie Altenburg (32.66).
Caroll also won the breaststroke in 36.17 seconds with McLemore second (38.27).
Salomons (31.28) and McLemore (31.88) pushed each other to place first and second in the 50-yard butterfly.
In a further show of backstroke prowess, the 8 and under girls swept the 25-yard race. For the second week in a row, Ryan Shaw (26.53) and Cecila Frisk (27.27) touched first and second. Greta O’Hara placed third (32.37) in her debut meet.
Shaw also won the 25-yard freestyle in 21.57 seconds. Teammate Khloe Granzow made her Wahoos debut with a third-place finish in 27.34 seconds.
The 8 and under boys started strong with first and third place finishes in the 25-yard freestyle by Max Kessler-Gowell (19.40) and Mateo Lorenzen-Schmidt (23.06).
Bennett Sherry and Kessler-Gowell went 1-2 in both the 25-yard backstroke (22.34 and 26.01) and 25-yard butterfly (25.02 and 27.07), while Sherry won the breaststroke in 26.01 seconds with teammate Daniel Freinberg touching third in 32.53 seconds.
In the 100-yard medley relay, Sherry’s opening backstroke put the Wahoos ahead by half a lap. Freinberg, Kessler-Gowell and Lorenzen-Schmidt held on to the lead for a 1:57.75 win.
Tyler Turner was the standout in the 9-10 boys division, winning first place in the 50-yard freestyle (32.68), 50-yard breaststroke (46.03) and 25-yard butterfly (16.64).
Ethan Sherry turned in two second place finishes in freestyle (35.18) and backstroke (40.19) while Sawyer Blais scored third place points in backstroke (49.37), breaststroke (50.56) and butterfly (21.36).
The 9-10 girls also swept the backstroke with Ridley Hearding (47.94) winning the 50-yard race over Micaela Zuniga (49.98) and Isabel Matorana (50.84).
Zuniga also won the 25-yard butterfly (19.75) and placed second in the 50-yard freestyle (37.47).
Freya Montes de Oca was the only 9-10 girl on either team to swim a legal stroke, winning the 50-yard breaststroke in 50.78 seconds. She joined Zuniga, Matorana and Hearding to win the 100-yard medley relay in 1:25.97.
Alex Guevara and Madison Schang both captured three first place finishes for the 11-12 squad.
Guevara led a sweep of the boys 50-yard freestyle finishing in 29.37 seconds ahead of Amir Smith (31.40) and Chris Paz (32.99). Guevara (40.62) and Smith (42.93) finished 1-2 in the 50-yard breaststroke before Guevara (34.88) and Paz (38.31) went 1-2 in the 50-yard butterfly.
In the 50-yard backstroke, Luca Lorenzen-Schmidt touched first in 37.62 seconds. Paz took third with a time of 44.03 seconds.
The combined efforts of Lorenzen-Schmidt, Smith, Guevara and Rodney Garner won the 200-yard medley relay in 2:35.29.
Schang topped the girls 50-yard backstroke with a time of 35.49, followed by Julia Davis in second at 39.40 seconds. It was Schang (36.70) and Davis (45.36) 1-2 again in the 50-yard breaststroke before Schang led a sweep of the 50-yard butterfly. Her time of 36.62 seconds beat Grace Wittmer (38.18) and Roxie Yoo (43.64).
Davis (33.12) and Wittmer (33.93) also took first and second place in 50-yard freestyle before joining Schang and Yoo to win the 200-yard medley relay in 2:33.35.
The Wahoos closed out the meet with two exciting mixed age freestyle relay wins. Boys Ethan Sherry, Alex Guevara, Eddie Paz and Emil LaSida pulled out another come-from-behind win in 1:58.06. While girls Julia Davis, Micaela Zuinga, Bella McLemore and Elisabeth Carroll won in 2:11.26.
The Wahoos will face the Chase Club Sharks — the only other undefeated team in the CSL blue division — on July 2 in Fairfax.
ABOUT THE WAHOOS: The Sports Recreation Department is a partner with the Chinquapin Park Recreation Center Aquatics Division in providing the Wahoo Swim Program staff support, enthusiasm, responsiveness, and involvement in the planning and implementation of the program. The Wahoos swim team is part of the Colonial Swim League (CSL), which was founded in 1962 to sponsor competitive swimming among community swimming organizations in Northern Virginia. The CSL currently consists of 24 swim teams divided into four divisions based on competitive strength. The Wahoos compete against other teams in the Gold division at Saturday “A” or dual meets. Wahoo swimmers also compete in “B” or developmental meets on Wednesday evenings. Some meets will be at our pool (home) and some will be at other pools (away). The mission of the Wahoos swim team is to encourage participation, fitness, health and the lifelong pursuit of excellence through competitive swimming.
