Oakton's girls repeated as Concorde District champions on Saturday night, Jan. 28, at Cub Run RECenter. Led by sophomore Janet Hu, Oakton's girls did not let runner-up Chantilly get even close, winning 483 to 371.5. Complete results and times available here.
The Cougar boys were even more dominant, racking up 506 points over the Chargers. Chantilly finished second with 412 points. Westfield was third on boy sides with 334.5 (girls) and 332.5 (boys) points. Their top end talent will be hard for the likes of Woodson and Madison to compete with next week at the regional championship.
It was automatic for Hu, who won convincingly in the girls' 200 IM (2:02.79) and 100 backstroke (55.17). She is the defending state champion in the 200 IM and 50 freestyle, and also the Northern Region record holder in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke.
Logan Coulson-Moore blew away the field in the 200 freestyle, winning by nearly five seconds, in 1:55.51. She finished second to Hu in the 100 backstroke in 58.66.
Carli Molano made a case for why she is the area's best sprinter. The Westfield senior won the 50 freestyle in 23.94 and the 100 freestyle in 52.19, surging ahead of runner-up Laura Branton, who finished in 24.63 and 53.93, respectively.
Rachel Anderson (Chantily) got the win in the 100 butterfly (59.11) over Oakton's Gillian Crews (59.41). Crews teammates, Julia Capobianco and Gabriela Galvez, would clean of the top four in 1:00.22 and 1:01.43.
It was that kind of night for Oakton's girls, who did a great job on Friday night of placing their swimmers in the top heats on Saturday.
In one of the few races that didn't feature an Oakton swimmer, the girls' 500 freestyle came down to the wire between Chantilly's Maggie Shaw and Robinson‘s Kathleen Dodson. Shaw would best Dodson by less than half a second, winning 5:15.41 to 5:15.80.
Finishing up the individual events was Jenna Van Camp (Herndon). The Olympic Trials qualifier finished in 1:03.89. She is in a league of her own in the breaststroke event this year.
Oakton's boys were bolstered by wins in the 200 medley (1:38.04) and 200 freestyle (1:29.90) relays. They would disqualify in the 400 freestyle relay, where they would most likely have finished second to Chantilly's winning squad of William Schulte, Evan Baker, Christopher Grimmett-Norris, and Brian Rothschild, who finished in 3:15.41.
Chantilly may have come up short in the team competition, but junior Grimmett-Norris did not leave empty handed. He took first in the boys' 200 freestyle (1:42.26), beating out Oakton's Philip Hu (1:43.79).
While the top-dogs fought for first, the race for third was even more thrilling. Conor Cudahy (Herndon) touched first, just ahead of Oakton's Brian Phillips (1:46.96) and teammate Johnathan Nguyen (1:47.08), to take third in 1:46.81.
Grimmett-Norris had a much closer race in the 500 freestyle, as Phillips refused to shrink from the competition. Grimmett-Norris got the win in 4:42.10, just ahead of Phillips in 4:42.83. Cudahy finished third in 4:45.55.
Hu showed Robinson's Matthew Jones and Westfield's Richard Xue why he's still one of the best butterfliers in the region, winning the 100 butterfly event in a blazing 50.58. Jones finished second in 52.10; Xue was third in 53.50.
Xue was the big winner in the boys' 200 IM (1:56.85), in a close race with Oakton's Denny Nguyen (1:56.94). Rothschild faded to third in 1:58.28.
Xue's teammate Brandon Fiala continued to impress winning both the 50 freestyle in 21.47 and the 100 breaststroke in a blistering 57.78. It was not even close. Jones was second in 22.05, just .04 seconds ahead of Carter Sharer (Oakton) in third.
Sharer got the win in the 100 freestyle with a 48.28. His only challenger was teammate Conor Murphy, who took second in 48.45.
Murphy would take first later in the meet, winning the 100 backstroke by a wide margin, with a time of 52.73. Matthew Glowacki was second in 55.71.
The AAA Northern Region championship meet gets started on Tuesday, Jan. 31, with boys’ diving. Girls’ diving will follow the next night, Feb. 1. Swimming relims this year will be split up, with the boys on Thursday and the girls on Friday. Finals will take place Saturday night with two heats in each event.
Read more about the 2012 High School Championship meet season here.