By Marisha Goldhamer
ALEXANDRIA, VA-Kyle Gadsby of the Armfield Farm Stingrays broke three league records in the boys 13-14 age division on June 15 at the Old Town Pool. He led a strong Stingrays lineup as they beat Alexandria’s Chinquapin Wahoos in the first Colonial Swim League (CSL) meet of the 2024 season.
The Wahoos – the only public swim team in the league – won 19 races, but Alexandria’s swimmers were outmatched in the relays and the Stingrays won the meet 262 to 177 points.
Old Town is one of the few CSL pools where swimmers compete in yards rather than meters, so the opportunity to break the league’s yards records are scarce for swimmers on visiting teams.
Stingrays coach Cameron Lai-Harris said seeing Gadsby topple the backstroke, butterfly and individual medley records in the same meet was “definitely a rare thing. Great for the whole team.”
Gadsby’s record-setting day started with a 24.36 second swim in the 50-yard backstroke, more than a second faster than the mark set by former Wahoo Emil LaSida in 2018.
After hitting his second record with a 24.23 second swim in the 50-yard butterfly Gadsby said he was “excited and happy” to see his hard work practicing five days a week pay off. He completed the day by shaving more than a second off the 100-yard IM record, touching in 55.35 seconds. Both of those marks had stood since 2013.
In addition to Gadsby, Armfield had three additional triple stroke winners – Kate Li in the 9-10 girls, Jason Xin in the 15-18 boys and Emma Cigna in the 15-18 girls.
The Wahoos had two triple winners. Lawson Blais topped the boys 8 and under 25-yard freestyle (23.33 seconds), backstroke (25.68 seconds) and breaststroke (35.97 seconds), while Bennett Sherry swam to the top spot in the 9-10 boys 50-yard freestyle (31.60 seconds), backstroke (37.17 seconds) and breaststroke (43.51 seconds).
The 9-10 Wahoos squad also saw a key performance from Max Kessler-Gowell who won the 25-yard butterfly in 17.68 seconds and placed second in the 50-yard freestyle (33.53 seconds) and backstroke (40.63 seconds) races.
Derrick Grajokwski touched third in the 9-10 25-yard butterfly (21.63) before joining Sherry, Kessler-Gowell and Mateo Lorenzen-Schmidt to win the 100-yard medley relay with a time of 1 minute 17.22 seconds.
The youngest Wahoos boys took first in every stroke with Kieran Leddy winning the 8 and under 25-yard butterfly in 40.81 seconds. There was an exciting Wahoos 1-2-3 sweep in freestyle with Dean Hutter (23.68 seconds) and Tristan Babineaux (25.34 seconds) joining Blais on the podium.
The Wahoos girls 8 and under squad was led by Ottilie Lakshas with a first place in the 25-yard freestyle (18.90 seconds). Victoria Randall fought for third place, touching in 20.08 seconds, just 1.02 seconds off of Armfield’s Allison Wang. Rose Sparrow took second in the 25-yard butterfly (29.03 seconds) while Katherine League snagged third place in the 25-yard backstroke (26.65 seconds).
The Wahoos 9-10 girls were led by Sophie Wharton who won the 50-yard breaststroke in 47.71 seconds. Teammate Charlotte Reyna took third place in the 50-yard backstroke with a time of 46.22 seconds.
“This was a great start to the season,” said Wahoos head coach Dennis Burstein, “as the coaching staff is working with many young swimmers to be legal in all four strokes.”
The 11-12 50-yard backstroke saw a rematch of the 2023 All Stars race which was decided by 0.19 seconds, but this year it was Wahoo Karon Moten who topped Stingray Jake Sim by 0.27 seconds, with a personal best time of 29.32 seconds. Wahoo Ethan Sparrow touched third in 39.07 seconds.
Moten was also second in the 50-yard freestyle (27.50 seconds) and the 50-yard butterfly (30.72 seconds) while teammate Sawyer Blais snagged a second place in the breaststroke (42.59) with Sparrow in third (46.94 seconds).
The 11-12 girls saw a standout win in the 50-yard butterfly by Micaela Zuniga (34.06 seconds). Zuniga also took second in the freestyle (32.12 seconds), followed by teammate Eloise Sumner (32.69 seconds), and third in the backstroke (38.04 seconds).
The Wahoos also picked up points for third in the 13-14 division as Christopher Billips came in at 37.68 seconds in the breaststroke and Dominic Grajkowski finished backstroke in 34.75 seconds.
Grace Wittmer led the Wahoos 13-14 girls with first place in freestyle (29.15 seconds), third place in backstroke (36.00 seconds) and third place in the butterfly (34.43 seconds). Emma Boyd added a point with her third place finish in the breaststroke (46.47 seconds).
15-18 Squad Shines
Both of the Wahoos 15-18 squads shut out the Stingrays in the 50-yard breaststroke.
Jolan Foronda touched in 29.62 seconds just 0.2 seconds ahead of Jonathan Ramsdell with Bodie Lauinger third in 33.25 seconds and Seamus Greiner fourth in 34.47 seconds.
For the girls, Elisabeth Carroll won in 35.75 seconds followed by Maria McLemore (36.59 seconds) and Olivia-Grace Boyd (41.40 seconds).
Carroll also snagged two second places, kicking off the morning with a 27.16 second 50-yard freestyle, followed by teammate McLemore in third at 28.82 seconds and turning in a 31.22 second 50-yard backstroke. Abigail Altenburg was third in backstroke (33.47 seconds).
In the butterfly event, Bella McLemore was second (31.35), just edging her sister Maria (31.44).
The Wahoos boys were neck-and-neck in every race with Lauinger (23.91 seconds) and Ramsdell (24.78 seconds) 2-3 in freestyle, Ramsdell (27.54 seconds) and Foronda (28.68 seconds) 2-3 in backstroke and Foronda (26.15 seconds) and Blake Conjura (27.18 seconds) 2-3 in butterfly.
The oldest Wahoos also dominated the 200-yard medley relays. Ramsdell, Foronda, Conjura and Lauinger won by nearly 17 seconds with a time of 1 minute 50.61 seconds.
For the girls Altenburg led off followed by Carroll, Bella and Maria McLemore who closed more than 15 seconds ahead of the Armfield squad in 2 minutes 6.93 seconds.
The Wahoos will travel to face the South Riding Stingrays on June 22.
