By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam
West Results Recap
Bellevue earned the girls’ trophy at the 2024 Winter Juniors Championship — West. It was a full-team effort for the squad; eight of the nine girls scored points individually, and the one who didn’t score individually contributed on the relays.
The team earned 452 points, with Beach Cities Swimming taking second with 320 points. The Bellevue girls have been climbing the standings since the championships returned in 2021 after a one-year hiatus. Bellevue was seventh at that first Winter Juniors since the pandemic but lept to third in 2022. Last year, they were the runners-up behind Crow Canyon, finishing 39 points out of first place.
17-year-old Kamryn Meskillwas the team’s high point scorer. The UNC commit earned 53 points from swimming in three ‘A’ finals and two ‘B’ finals. The sprint freestyle events were where she shined, as her sixth-place finishes in the 50/100 freestyle (22.39/49.28) were her best at the meet. She also took eighth in the 200 IM (2:00.64), won the 100 fly ‘B’ final (53.22), and was tenth in the 100 back (53.14).
Sophia Sunwoojoined Meskill in both sprint freestyle ‘A’ finals. The Princeton commit finished third in the 50 freestyle (22.26), then took eighth in the 100 free (49.54). She scored 34 individual points, one behind Alexa McDevitt’s 35 points from two ‘A’ final and two ‘B’ final appearances.
Sprint freestyle was a team-wide strength for Bellevue, as they won the 200 and 400 freestyle relay. Meskill combined with Sophia Sunwoo, Heather White, and Gracyn Kehoe to win the 200 freestyle relay by .08 seconds over the Mission Viejo Nadadores (1:29.84). The team replaced Kehoe with McDevitt on the 400 freestyle relay. They had more room to breathe in this relay, clocking 3:16.84 for the win. Mission Viejo touched second again, this time .31 seconds behind.
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Bellevue Girls’ Roster: Sutton Forbis, Cecilia Howard, Gracyn Kehoe, Alex McDevitt, Kamryn Meskill, Sophie Segerson, Sophia Sunwoo, Clare Watson, Heather White
Aided by a dominant outing from Maximus Williamson, the Lakeside Aquatic boys claimed their third-straight Winter Juniors – West title. Lakeside earned 358 points, beating runners-up Aquajets by more than 100 points. Williamson earned the boys’ high point award with 116 points; no other male swimmer crossed the 100-point threshold. Alone, Williamson’s individual points would’ve finished 10th overall. He won the 50 free (19.29), 200 free (1:32.24), 100 back (46.70), 100 free (41.96), and 200 fly (1:42.17). He also added a third place in the 200 IM (1:44.22).
The Lakeside boys won four of the five relays, which helped them separate themselves from the other teams in the standings. After a fourth-place finish in the opening 200-medley relay, the team went on a relay win streak, touching first in the meet’s last four relays. Williamson, Maxwell Stanislaus, Aubrey Jaya, and Luke Garrettsecured the 800 free relay win, swimming 6:22.48 to win by more than four seconds over the Sandpipers of Nevada (6:26.65).
Williamson and Stanislaus teamed with Dallas Jonesand Riccardo Osioto win the 200 medley relay (3:13.38). Osio, Stanislaus, Williamson, and Garrett sped away in the 200 freestyle relay, clocking 1:19.34. They were the only quartet sub-1:20 at the meet, with Quicksilver swimming 1:20.12 for second place. Across the two championships—West and East—only the Lakeside and Bolles School boys broke 1:20.
The team fielded Stanislaus, Garrett, Jaya, and Williamson in the 400 freestyle relay to close the meet. Once again, the team won handily, as they had been doing with a variety of lineups since the 800 freestyle relay on the competition’s first day. The team touched in 2:54.12 for the win.
The Lakeside boys brought 11 to the meet, four of whom scored individual points. In addition to the strength of Williamson and the relays, Stanislaus gave the squad a 1-2 finish in the 200 free as he took second behind Williamson (1:34.97).
Lakeside also won the combined standings at the West championships. The girls’ and boys’ teams scored 609 points each and were in full control of the race for the combined trophy, beating Bellevue by 151 points.
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Lakeside Boys’ Roster: Eason Cormack, Luke Garrett, Jack Hernandez, Adam Huynh, Aubrey Jaya, Dallas Jones, Riccardo Osio, Maxwell Stanislaus, Cash Strickland, Maximus Williamson, Ethan Zhou
Lakeside Girls’ Roster: Lily Andruss, Emma Bibza, Marin Clem, Avery Collins, Olivia Colombo, Chloe Corbin, Mackenzie Corbin, Ellen Garritson, Ella McWhorter, Natalie Schneider, Kennedi Southern, Georgia Wimberly
Teagan O’Dell won the girls’ high point award at the West championships. O’Dell scored 114 points, beating Pikes Peak’s Madi Mintenkoby 13. The two were the only girls to crack 100 points, as Grace Rabb took third in the rankings with 96 points. Behind Williamson in the boys’ rankings, Rowan Cox’s 81 points and Campbell McKean’s 60 points rounded out the top three.
Winter Juniors – West Top 10 Girls Teams
- Bellevue Club Swim Team – 452
- Beach Cities Swimming – 320
- Crow Canyon Sharks – 289
- Academy Bullets Swim Club – 270
- Mission Viejo Nadadores – 269
- Lakeside Aquatic Club – 251
- Irvine Novaquatics – 15
- Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club – 116
- Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics – 115
- Schroeder YMCA Swim Team – 112
Winter Juniors – West Top 10 Boys Teams
- Lakeside Aquatic Club – 358
- Aquajets Swim Team – 243
- Irvine Novaquatics – 201.5
- Scottsdale Aquatic Club – 188.5
- Texas Ford Aquatics – 183
- Sandpipers of Nevada – 163
- Olympus Aquatics – 160
- Longhorn Aquatics – 146
- Waterloo Swimming – 127
- Fox Valley Swim Team – 109
Winter Juniors – West Top 10 Combined Teams
- Lakeside Aquatic Club – 609
- Bellevue Club Swim Team – 458
- Irvine Novaquatics – 356.5
- Crow Canyon Sharks – 291
- Mission Viejo Nadadores – 280
- Academy Bullets Swim Club – 273
- Aquajets Swim Team – 269
- Longhorn Aquatics – 242
- Texas Ford Aquatics – 197
- Scottsdale Aquatic Club – 196.5
East Results Recap
The SwimMAC Carolina girls came out on top at the 2024 Winter Junior Championships — East, scoring 436.50 points to beat the second-place TAC Titans by 90.5 points. The team’s win snaps a three-year win streak by the Carmel girls, who had won the last three editions of this meet after it was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19.
SwimMAC has consistently been among the top five teams at the East championships but has been rising over the last three years. The team finished fourth in 2021, third in 2022, and second in 2023. Last year, they finished 177 points behind Carmel to earn the runners-up trophy.
They made up that deficit and then some this year. SwimMAC brought 16 girls to the championships, ten of whom contributed individual points. The team’s highest scorer was Elle Scott, a senior committed to Cal, who scored 69.5 points. Scott won the 100 breaststroke (59.13), took second in the 200 IM (1:56.25) and 200 breaststroke (2:08.62), fifth in the 100 fly (52.41), and fifteenth in the 50 freestyle (23.07).
Avery Klamfoth, 17, swam in four individual ‘A’ finals for the team, with her highest finishing coming in the 400 IM with a fifth-place finish (4:13.91). Scott and Klamfoth were the two SwimMAC swimmers to earn over 40 individual points, as Caroline Mallardand Emma Grace Richardson also hit double-digits in individual points for the team.
In addition to Scott’s 100 breaststroke win, the quartet of Karina Plaza, Scott, Mallard, and Bree Smithwon the girls’ 4×100 medley relay. All of SwimMAC’s relays finished in the top five—their lowest-placed relay was the 800 freestyle relay that finished fifth—boosting their ascent to the top of the standings.