The West Potomac boys and girls swim and dive teams both kicked off the 2018-2019 season with wins against T.C. Williams Friday night Nov. 30 at the Mount Vernon Rec Center. The Wolverine boys outscored the Titans 201-114, and the Wolverine girls won 179-124.
Senior standout Sean Jansen and freshman Matthew Morris led the West Potomac boys’ effort, each winning two individual events and helping the Wolverines to victory in two out of the three relays. Jansen raced to first place in the 200y freestyle in a Regional qualifying 1:48.75. He followed that up with a win in the 100y breaststroke in a personal best 1:02.14. Morris made a spectacular high school debut, winning the 100y butterfly in 55.26 and the 100y backstroke in a personal best and State meet qualifying time of 54.02.
Jansen and Morris teamed with seniors Will Klima and team captain Cole Miller to win the 200y medley relay in 1:40.49, and combined with Miller and sophomore Clark Bayer to win the 400y freestyle relay in 3:28.23. The Wolverine boys won the only other relay of the night, the 200y freestyle relay, as Klima, Bayer, junior team captain Hain Henderson, and senior team captain Sean Murphy swam 1:37.49 to finish first.
Several other West Potomac boys swam to first place finishes in their events. Bayer won the 50y freestyle in 22.68. He was also third in the 100y backstroke in a personal best 1:00.02. Sophomore Kevin Dinkel was first in the 1m dive event with 173.65 points. Miller won the 100y freestyle in 51.56, and swam to third place in the 50y freestyle in 23.57.
Other Wolverine boys finishing in the top three in their events included Klima, who was third in both the 200y freestyle (2:02.61) and the 100y butterfly (57.31) and Murphy, third in the 200y individual medley in a personal best 2:15.73, and third in the 100y freestyle in another personal best 54.37. Sophomore Sammy Nelson had the biggest time drop of the night for the Wolverines, taking more than 5 seconds off his 500y freestyle while finishing third in 6:04.62.
Several other West Potomac boys swam personal best times, including Henderson in both the 200y freestyle and 100y freestyle, junior Adrien Aguilar in the 50y freestyle, junior team captain Camden Mounts in the 100y butterfly, freshman Martin Ramos in the 100y freestyle, and junior Wesley Uhrin and freshman Sean Finn in the 100y breaststroke.
In the girls meet, junior team captain Sheridan Phalen led the way with her two individual wins and strong swims on two of the three winning relays. Phalen won the 200y individual medley in 2:20.32 and the 100y freestyle in 56.94. Phalen and junior teammates Olivia Petretich and Gabrielle Greszler and sophomore Julianna Skopp-Cardillo swam to victory in the 200y medley relay in 1:58.97. Phalen, Greszler, Petretich, and Skopp-Cardillo won the 400y freestyle relay in 3:55.34. The Wolverine girls won the third relay of the night as well, the 200y freestyle relay, as Senior team captain Carly Shawn, juniors Kelly Bodner and Maeve Gilmartin and sophomore Winnie Mikulski swam 1:51.69 to win.
Three other West Potomac girls won individual events. Greszler won the 50y freestyle in 26.35. She was also second in the 200y freestyle in 2:09.37. Mikulski won the 1m dive event with 128.90 points. Petretich won the 100y butterfly in 1:06.34, leading a 1-2-3-4 sweep of the event by the Wolverines. Freshmen Shannon Coffee (1:17.09), Fiona Houlgate (1:18.57) and Macy Lindblom (1:20.90) were second, third, and fourth, respectively, all achieving personal best times. Petretich was also second in the 100y backstroke in 1:05.61.
The Wolverine girls had one more second place finisher, as senior Lilly Harris was second in the 500y freestyle in 5:56.26. Third place finishers for West Potomac included freshman Erin Althouse, who was third in both the 200y freestyle in a personal best time of 2:10.34 and the 100y freestyle in a personal best 1:00.02; Gilmartin, third in the 50y freestyle in a personal best 26.69; freshman Juliette Fore, third in the 100y backstroke in a personal best 1:07.65; and Skopp-Cardillo, third in the 100y breaststroke.
Several other West Potomac girls swam to personal best times. Senior team captain Erica Martin had the biggest time drop of the night for the girls as she dropped more than 4 seconds from her 200y individual medley time. Mikulski had a personal best in the 200y freestyle, sophomore Callie Stinson achieved a personal best in the 100y freestyle, and freshman Ella Stolarz swam to a personal best time in the 100y backstroke.
The Wolverines return to the pool on Friday, as they face McLean High School at the Mt. Vernon Rec Center on Friday, Dec. 7.