On a night where few races were won without achieving an All-American cut time, Oakton‘s boys' and girls' teams outlasted the competition to once again stand tall as the AAA Northern Region champions. Oakton's boys beat Woodson, 281.5 to 250, at Oakmarr RECenter, despite not winning a single event until the final relay of the night.
The girls' side was more decisive, Oakton's girls pulling away from a top-loaded West Potomac team to win 245 to 190. They were led by sophomore Janet Hu, who set two new regional records in the 100-yard freestyle (49.52 seconds) and 100 backstroke (53.76 seconds), both in Automatic All-American times, before delivering a come from behind victory in the girls' 400 freestyle relay.
Where Hu was impressive, no one could outshine the duo of Seliskar brothers from Thomas Jefferson.
Freshman Andrew Seliksar finished with four All-American cuts – three Automatic – and a regional record.
A. Seliskar first AAA cut came in the boys' 200 medley relay, where he and his brother, senior, Stephen Seliskar, delivered key legs to take first in a time of 1:35.01, along with Reese Frerichs and Miles Oakley. The brothers would achieve an All-American Consideration cut in the 200 freestyle relay, as well.
“I didn't expect to swim like this,” said A. Seliskar. “It's really great that I get to swim alongside my brother and the rest of the [Jefferson] team. We're all pumped to go to states in a couple weeks and compete.”
Individually, A. Seliskar outpaced the field in the boys' 200 individual medley, where he set a new regional record of 1:50.14, and the 100 butterfly (49.71), both in AAA cut time.. Stephen ended the impressive night for the siblings with an AAA cut in the 100 backstroke, winning in 50.05.
Also setting a new regional record was the West Potomac team of Reanna Dona, Maxine Clifford, Sara Bertram, and Hellen Moffitt in the girls' 200 medley, with a time of 1:46.19, in an AAA cut. Oakton had the early lead thanks to Hu, but after that it was a dog-fight between West Potomac and Woodson. Moffitt provided the knockout punch for the Wolverines to beat out Woodson, both in AAC qualifying times.
Other AAA swims came from Brandon Fiala in the boys' 200 IM (1:51.52), finishing second to A. Seliskar, Abi Speers (Langley) in the girls' 50 freestyle (23.32) and Jenna Van Camp in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.21). Speers would also get her AAC cut in the 100 freestyle behind Hu, finishing second in 51.55.
No less impressive were the number of All-American Consideration qualifying swimmers. Including, Cyrus Hashemi, winner in the 200 freestyle (1:40.09) and 100 freestyle (45.85), Falls Church's Laura Schwartz in the 200 IM (2:03.93) and 500 freestyle (4:57.80), Chantilly's Chris Grimmett-Norris behind Cyrus in the 200 freestyle in 1:40.85, Oakton's Laura Branton in the 100 freestyle in 56.49, Carli Molano in the 50 freestyle, despite falling to second behind Speers, finishing in 23.80, Langley's Ryan Natal in the 100 butterfly (50.47), Philip Hu in the 100 backstroke (50.78), as well as Michael Herrman (South County) in 51.16, Moffitt in the 100 backstroke (55.96), and Bo Ilgenfrtiz (57.20), Brandon Fiala (57.54), and Rachel Canty (1:04.98) in the 100 breaststroke, not to mention the many relays that achieved their AAC times as well.
Check back for complete results.