RSTA: Two Teams Remain Undefeated

At the midway point in the RSTA summer season, two teams are tied for first place: defending champions Lake Audubon and 2012 champions Lake Newport, each with 3-0 records.

North Hills is close behind with a 3-1-0 record. These perennial powerhouses are often at the top of the rankings, but a closer look at the age group standings reveals teams with strengths that sometimes go unremarked.

The Ridge Heights Sharks are undefeated in the 15-18 age group, while the North Hills Hurricanes are undefeated in both 9-10 and 11-12 age groups. The Glade Gators rank first in both the 8 and under and 13-14 age groups. Autumnwood’s 9-10 year olds rank second in the league, as do Lake Anne’s 15-18 year olds.

“We’re very fortunate to have more than a few 15-18s who really enjoy swimming and competing together,” said Frank Sogandares, Ridge Heights manager. “We’re very proud of the progress made by all our swimmers. Everyone really seems to enjoy practicing and competing together; our coaches have done a great job keeping everyone focused on improvement without underwhelming expectations for summer swim knuckleheadedness too much.”

Records Set

In individual stand-out performances at meets on June 28, Lake Anne’s Darius Truong set a new team record in the 11-12 50-meter butterfly, crushing a record of 34.09 set in 1993 with a new time of 32.66. Emily Meilus broke her own team record from earlier this season in the 15-18 50-meter backstroke with a new time of 30.84.

Ridge Heights’ Hailey Brown set a new team record in the 8 and under 25-meter backstroke with a time of 21.89.

Click through to see team reports.

Newbridge Dolphins 636, Glade Gators 407

Triple event winners for Newbridge were Niki Chava, Ryan Ha, Abby Panneck, and Joseph Sgambati. Double event winners were Elijah Bishop, Missy Ford, Elle Fremerman, Jean-Claude Guill, Colin Huddleston, Laela Huddleston, Erin Irlan, Sam Joyner, Christopher Mathias, Daevin Oey, Faith Richardson, and Bradley Torrington.

For Glade, triple event winners were Mackenzie Evans, Amelia Flavin, Madeline LaPorte, and Kaitlin Mahon. Double event winners were Meghan Benedetto, Ryan Chou, John Clarke, Tor Davidsen, Zachary Hartke, Joseph Letteri, Kellie McCrea, Karan Murari, and Reagan Tobias.

North Hills Hurricanes 574, Ridge Heights Sharks 514

Triple event winners for North Hills were Marlee Czarny, Piper Luczak, and Emily Ren. Double event winners were Brenna Emery, Ana Escamilla, Albert Huang, Benjamin Livaudais, Ryan Luczak, Kayla Lundberg, Lindsey Rogers, Renzo Sanio, Joseph Sciortino, Samantha Sciortino, and Miles Yang.

For Ridge Heights, triple event winners were Hailey Brown, Ian Champney, Remington Curren, Armen Dorosheff, Mac Sogandares, and Paige Sogandares. Double event winners were Edith Chaddock, Derek Liu, Connor Pierce, Grace Qian, Ryan Vanderhoof, and Hailey Wang.

Lake Anne Stingrays 546, Autumnwood Piranhas 459

Triple event winners for Lake Anne were Joanne Fu, Hannah Lane, Emily Meilus, Emmalina Sjapeki, Darius Truong, Devin Truong, Fred Zhang, and Hanna Ziaii. Double event winners were Adrianna Barkhordari, Sophie Barkhordari, Joseph Dealey, Patrick Dealey, Francisco Espinoza, Colin Hagerup, Frank Keusenkothen, Neil Kumar, Maxwell Mescall, Tope Oladimeji, and Laura Shang.

For Autumnwood, the triple event winner was Luke McDermott. Double event winners were Joanie Belo, Julia Cartwright, Ryan Gray, Mikayla Kirr, Anna Nielsen, Andrey Smiryagin, Jason Valenzuela, Manda Xie, Danielle Yakubisin, Karina Yakubisin.

Lake Audubon Barracudas 597, Hunters Woods Blue Marlins 518

Triple event winners for Lake Audubon were Emily Fritz, Sabrina Groves, Suya Haering, John Hughes, and Sophia Sobenes. Double event winners were Sydney Cook, Robby Cordts, Max Daum, Alya Giavis, Kaliyana Haering, Juana Hernandez, Nicolas Hernandez, Aidan Scanlan, Griffin Scanlan, and Sarah Wolfe.

For Hunters Woods, triple event winners were John Byron, Nolan Dunkel, Jack Hamm, Daniel Li, Ryleigh Line, and Ashley Turner. Double event winners were Willa Foxen, William Harvey, Jordan Lee, Lena Song, Ashley Thai, Liam Tolbert, Katie Vintimilla, and Timothy Vu.

— Stories and photos submitted by Lyn Fiscus Cordts