The undefeated South Lakes High School girls basketball team will travel to the Boo Williams Classic in Hampton, Va., Thursday where the Seahawks will play St. Francis Academy in the opening round at 6 p.m..
South Lakes is 7-0 and is ranked No. 6 by the Washington Post. The girls are coming off a 71-27 thrashing of Herndon last week. Three players scored in double figures for the Seahawks — Abigail Rendle (15), Natalie Toma (12) and Princess Aghayere (11).
South Lakes has held opponents to an average of 29 points per game so far this season.
The 2-4 boys team will play Centreville at the Wakefield Holiday Tournament at 2:45 p.m. Thursday.
Swimming — The South Lakes girls swim team defeated Fairfax on Dec. 20 186-129. The boys team lost to Fairfax 156.5-152.5.
South Lakes won both the boys and girls 200 yard Medley Relay. Mac Sogandares, Benjamin Gryski, Dylan Hawley, and Tyler Hutson swam for the boys. Natalie Obando, Sabrina Groves, Emily Landeryou, and Kaylyn Macaluso swam for the girls. South Lakes also won both 400 yard Freestyle Relays, with Tyler Ellis, Hawley, Gryski, and Sogandares swimming for the boys and Groves, Madeleine Daum, Landeryou, and Obando swimming for the girls.
South Lakes girls won all but three of their events. Highlights included:
• Emily Landeryou achieved a State time with a first place finish in 100yd Butterfly and a Region time in 200 Free.
• Natalie Obando achieved a Region time in 100 Back.
• A one-two finish in 100yd Freestyle for Caitlyn King (first) and Daum, in 100yd Back for Obando (first) and King, and in 100yd Butterfly for Landeryou (first) and Groves.
• First place finish in 200yd Individual Medley for Groves; in Diving for Sarah Wikowske; in 100yd Breast for Macaluso.
Though they couldn’t edge Fairfax for the win, the South Lakes boys had some outstanding swims:
• Mac Sogandares achieved a Region time with a first place finish in 100yd Butterfly.
• Hawley, Hutson and Ellis swept the 50yd Freestyle.
• A one-two finish in 100yd Butterfly for Sogandares (first) and Hawley, and in 200yd Individual Medley for Gryski (first) and Max Onozuka.
Photo of SLHS swimmer Emily Landeryou by David Cordts
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South Lakes High School’s swim team will enter Friday’s meet against James Madison at Oak Marr Rec Center with a 1-0 record after topping Stone Bridge last weekend.
The girls team defeated Stone Bridge 202-83; the boys team won 193-90.
“It’s a very nice opening meet with a lot of good swims,” said SLHS coach Scott Brown. “We’ll keep moving people around and see what we can do pressing forward to get people in the best events.”
South Lakes won both the boys and girls 200-yard medley relay, South Lakes placed first. Jair Valenzuela, Tyler Ellis, Bradley Torrington, and Gianmichel D’Alessandro swam for the boys. Natalie Obando, Sabrina Groves, Emily Landeryou, and Caitlyn King swam for the girls.
South Lakes boys swept four events, taking first through third place in the 200 medley relay, the 200 freestyle, the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle.
Other highlights:
- Sabrina Groves (first), Natalie Obando (second) and Malina Stassinos (third) swept the girls 100 butterfly.
- Mac Sogandares won the 100-yard butterfly and 100 breaststroke and anchored the first-place 400 free relay team with Dylan Hawley, Benjamin Gryski, and Johnny Micka.
- Joseph Hosi won the 200-yard freestyle; was second in the 100-yard butterfly, and anchored the first-place 200 freestyle relay team with D’Alessandro, Conor McBride, and Tyler Hutson. Hutson also won the 50 free .
- Sabrina Groves won both the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley as well as the 400 free relay with Malina Stassinos, King, and Landeryou.
- Landeryou won individual events – the 100 back and 50 free, while King won the 100 free.
- Paige Sogandares won the 500 free and was second in the 200 free.
- Kalyn Macaluso placed first in 100 breast and anchored the first-place 200 free relay team with Obando, Stassinos, and Katie Degutis.
Submitted by Lyn Fiscus. Have sports scores to report? Send them to [email protected].
Thousands of spectators lined Reston Town Center’s Market Street Friday for the 23rd annual Reston Holiday Parade.
The day featured marching bands, dancers, local dignitaries, and, of course, Santa.
Photos by Mike Heffner/Vita Images
Written by Nigel Phillips. Submit your letters to the editor to [email protected].
I think all of us are for supporting moves for making sure that the ‘1.1 acres’, as I call the Reston Association land that is up for a swap consideration as part of the Lake Anne redevelopment, is properly managed in its widest sense for the benefit of the community. This is important, because it’s not in the middle of Hunters Wood, it’s going to be in the middle of one gigantic building site before too long. And not just for a few months, but for several years.
Trees have a nasty habit of disappearing when construction starts on any building site, especially when they’re right in the middle of things. When the building is complete this ‘1.1 acres’ is definitely going to be in the middle of an urban center. I know many Restonians (can I use that term?) like to think they live in a forest. I’ve a slightly different take on this.
The reality is that the trees essentially provide barriers between the many diverse centers of activity (housing clusters, commercial centers, recreational sites, schools, places of worship, parks, etc.) and in many cases follow terrain that is of low value or not commercially viable (ravines, the sides of roads, the backs of developments). As an example, the walk up to the Town Center from Lake Anne is typical; it’s at the bottom of a ravine or the backs of housing clusters. And how many forests have asphalt paved paths! Now that definitely is a hallmark of urbanization.
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Written by Guy Rando. Submit your letters to the editor to [email protected].
As someone who was involved in the design of Lake Anne, especially the open space plan, I strongly support the plan for the revitalization of Lake Anne. However, I do not support Reston Association trading away a parcel of mature upland forest for the purposes of building a parking lot.
As you will see from the attached drawings, there are other options for needed parking at Lake Anne. I believe RA should insist the developer use these options in order to preserve a valuable RA natural area. Do not be the RA Board that “paved paradise and put in a parking lot” because, truly, “you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.”
There are only two world class elements in Reston: Washington Plaza and RA open space and natural areas. It would be possible for Lake Anne Development partners to place approximately 200 parking spaces on the Crescent property along North Shore Drive with pedestrian access to the Plaza via Chimney House which would provide direct pedestrian access to the historic Plaza and to our current Lake Anne merchants.
Also the other and best alternative is to eliminate the proposed circular Village Plaza and repeat the mixed use that has been proposed on the east side also to the west side. Consequently, all the parking will be where it is now above and below ground, closer to the world class historic Washington Plaza. The developer also has the opportunity for greater densities and higher profits. There is no need to build another plaza to compete with the beautiful historic plaza we’ve got, which is also preserved for future generations to come.
The current merchants must have parking before, during and after the revitalization. Either of the above alternatives would fulfill this requirement.
Our open space is the birthright of our children and future generations.
“We do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them from us? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining needle, every sandy shore, every humming insect is holy in the memory of and experience of my people. We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes what he need. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it he moves on. He leaves his fathers’ graves and his children’s birthright is forgotten.” — Chief Seattle in a letter to President Franklin Pierce
Please, let’s leave open space and trees to our children, not a parking garage.
Guy Rando is a longtime Reston landscape architect and urban planner. He will present his alternative plan to the RA Board of Directors at Thursday’s meeting, where they are set to vote on the proposed land swap.
(Sketch of alternative plan courtesy of Guy Rando)
Written by Cheryl Terio-Simon. Submit your letters to the editor to [email protected].
Five years ago, Reston Association’s initial efforts to restore the streams and watershed damaged by erosion met with irate concern from many about the loss of trees necessitated by that project. Today, it is generally acknowledged that the short-term loss of some trees was necessary to benefit the greater system, and the project areas are deemed beautiful.
The Lake Anne community redevelopment project has a similar goal, the long-term restoration of Reston’s first — and some say only — village center.
Lake Anne Village Center is symbolic of the vision that created Reston. Bob Simon’s seven goals describe a balance of the need for housing for all, diversity within a community, amenities, and beauty–structural and natural.
Lake Anne Development Partners has been selected to lead this redevelopment at least in part because of the sensitivity that they and their architects have shown to the original vision. Its plan provides for much needed diversity in housing as well as the promise of revitalization of the Village’s retail and commercial base. In a truly mixed-use community the commercial and residential sectors are interdependent.
Looking at the total site, the unused and neglected 1.01-acre RA parcel under consideration by this RA Board is essential to make this redevelopment work. No other parking site will sensibly benefit the existing and new portions of the plaza with so little disruption to the residential community.
Reston Association owns and maintains 1,350 acres of open space, one-seventh of the total land in Reston. This controversial 1.01 acre, which is hardly the gem of RA’s properties, is 0.0751 percent of the total acreage. And this percentage is not lost in the exchange; a slightly larger parcel is being swapped which will provide a needed green buffer next to Baron Cameron at the Crescent property. Additionally, not all the trees on this site will be removed for the parking structure, and RA will be receiving other significant proffers in the exchange.
I hope we all can achieve some perspective about what is important here.
While we can all agree that the preservation of natural beauty has made Reston a unique place to live work and play, what is at stake here is an opportunity to restore the total Reston vision.
I hope we can see the community for the trees.
Cheryl Terio-Simon is a Lake Anne resident and the wife of Reston founder Robert E. Simon.
