Subject
title
Certificate of Recognition Presented to the Richard Montgomery High School’s 2024 State Championship Girls Swim Team
end
Department
City Clerk/Director of Council Operations Office
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Mayor and Council read and present a Certificate of Recognition to the Richard Montgomery High School Girls Swim & Dive team, Coach Akshay Gandhi, and Principal Alicia Morales Deeny.
Discussion
On Saturday, February 24, 2024, the Richard Montgomery High School Girls’ Swim & Dive team followed up their first ever Metros win with their first ever State Championship.
Over the past few weeks, the RM girls and the Walter Johnson High School girls have been competing energetically. Two weeks ago, at the prestigious Washington Metropolitan Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championship, commonly called “Metros,” the RM Girls traded the lead in a back-and-forth manner with WJ. There was a tie between the two teams heading into the final event, the 400 Freestyle Relay. In the final leg of the race, the RM Girls pulled away and secured the win.
At Metros, Sarah Eliason (Senior) earned a 1st place in both the 200 IM and 100 Butterfly events. In addition, Livia Venditti (Senior) secured a 2nd place in the 200 Freestyle and a 3rd place in the 100 Backstroke. Together they were joined by Julie Schwieters (Junior) and Lauren Gotting (Junior) to win the 200 Freestyle Relay. Anna Mitchum (Junior) joined the 400 Freestyle relay that eventually won the meet. Other standout performances for the RM Girls came from Abby Yo (Senior), Natalia Evans-Gibson (Senior), Jordan Johnson (Junior), Arina Bouvier (Junior - Diver), Kiana Alguard (Junior), and Nyah Frantz (Freshman).
The following week at the 4A3A West Regional Meet, the WJ girls took the lead over RM and never looked back. They secured the win led by Healey Morgan (Senior), Madeleine Simmons (Junior), Isla Bartholomew (Junior), Zoe McGee (Junior), Anne Mulkey (Sophomore), Elanor Saybolt (Freshman), Addie Pollitt (Junior), Pearl Shelton (Junior), and Emma Burlina (Senior).
Those same RM and WJ girls, who provided the intense back and forth during Metros and Regionals, duked it out for a third weekend in a row at the 4A3A State Championship Meet this past Saturday at the University of Maryland. At the final showdown between the teams, the RM and WJ girls both swam tremendously with the RM girls eventually coming away with the win and their first ever State Championship.
RM Coach Akshay Gandhi and WJ Coach Jamie Grimes both indicated that their favorite race was the girls 200 IM where WJ’s Madeleine Simmons edged out RM’s Sarah Eliason by 0.01 seconds to claim the victory at States after Sarah had won at Metros. Their racing was representative of all the close racing that the teams did this last month.
General facts / info / Season Recap:
A brief recap of the Girls championship and activity:
• Metros is the pinnacle of all High School swimming in the DMV Area. Private schools and public schools go head-to-head in a battle for the top spot. This meet has gone on for 59 years. World champions, world record holders, Olympic gold medalists have all competed at this meet, including Katie Ledecky, Jack Conger, and Mike Barrowman. The Richard Montgomery High School Girls stand among the champions forever. We are the first public-school girls team to win in since Sherwood in the late 2010s. Historically, it has mostly been dominated by private schools. Tied with Walter Johnson going into the last relay…we left no doubt and came out on top.
• The Girls team followed this up with a definitive win at the Public School 4A/3A State Championship Meet two weeks later with many wins, top 8 finishes, and best times.
• Last year at States, the entire team was voted to be the MPSSAA Dr. Douglass Sutherland Sportsmanship Award winners by displaying unprecedented spirit and athletic virtue.
• Team overall has 82 members, with 51 girls and 31 boys.
• We held multiple practices per week, many also participate on club teams for additional training.
• We held team dinners every Friday night and countless lunch events during the school year.
• I personally have been coaching the team for 4 years and been teaching at the school for 6. I previously coached the Annapolis High School team where I also taught. I have coached multiple summer and USA Swimming Club teams and continue to do so. I was named the MCPS Swim/Dive Allan Murray Coach of the Year this year.
GIRLS Specifics:
• Girls Record 5-0 dual meets for both of the last two years.
• Girls repeated as 1st in Divisionals.
• Girls WON Metros after being 4th last year.
• Girls were 2nd at Regionals after 3rd last year.
• Girls WON States after 3rd last year.
• Athletes who competed for the team at our Championship Meets this year (many more on the team overall):
o Arina Bouvier (Captain), Livia Venditti (Captain), Abby Yo (Captain), Kiana Alguard, Callie Deng, Sarah Eliason, Natalia Evans-Gibson, Nyah Frantz, Lauren Gotting, Jordan Johnson, Aleah Lacson, Netta Lizak, Anna Mitchum, Victoria Moore, and Julie Schwieters
• Girls Records / Highlights
o Sarah Eliason rebroke her own team record in the 200 IM with an All-American Consideration time that is now 5th MCPS All-Time. Maintains 3rd All-Time in 100 Fly and re-earned an All-American Automatic time in the event! She was named to the All-MCPS team for both events.
o Livia Venditti re-earned an All-American Consideration time in the 100 Backstroke and maintains her 6th MCPS All-Time standing in the event! She was named to the ALL-MCPS team for 200 Free and 100 Back.
o Julie Schwieters was named to the ALL-MCPS team for the 50 Freestyle.
o Livia, Lauren Gotting, Julie, and Sarah broke the team record at Metros in the 200 Free Relay in an All-American Automatic time that is now 2nd MCPS All-Time. They were named to the ALL-MCPS team for the relay.
o Livia, Anna, Julie, and Sarah broke the team record at Metros in the 400 Free Relay in an All-American Automatic time that is now 2nd MCPS All-Time. They were named to the ALL-MCPS team for the relay. These four were also named to the ALL-MCPS team for the 200 Medley relay.
o Livia will be going to swim at Brown. Natalia will be going to swim at Carnegie Mellon, and Sarah will be going to swim at BYU.
BOYS Specifics:
• Boys Record 3-2 after being 2-3 last year.
• Boys were 1st at Divisionals after 4th last year.
• Boys improved to 6th at Metros after 21st last year.
• Boys were 4th at Regionals after 10th last year.
• Boys were 5th at States after 14th last year.
• Athletes who competed for the team at our Championship Meets this year (many more on the team overall):
o Shad Frantz (Captain), Nicolo Schultz (Captain), Padraig Conley, Kevin Doan, Charlie Finnegan, Tyler Kim, Elliot Lee, Kevin Lee, Wesley Leeroy, Matthew Lyons-Bennington, Josiah Main, Alex Nguyen, and Graham Stelzer.
• Boys Records / Highlights
o Elliot Lee - Team records in 200 IM and the 50 Freestyle. 6th MCPS All-Time in the 200 Freestyle, 5th MCPS All-Time in the 100 Free, 2nd in the 200 IM, 2nd in the 50 Free, and 2nd MCPS All-Time in the 100 Fly. All done in one season. All-American Consideration Times in the 50, 100, and 200 Freestyles with All-American Automatic Times in the 200 IM and 100 Fly. Elliot was named to the ALL-MCPS team in the 200 IM and 100 Fly.
o Alex Nguyen - Broke his own team record in the 500 Freestyle and is now ranked 9th MCPS All-Time and earned his All-American Consideration in the event as well. He was named to the ALL-MCPS team for this event!
o Elliot, Alex, Shad Frantz, and Tyler Kim were named to the ALL-MCPS team for both the 200 and 400 Freestyle relays this year!
o Elliot will be going to swim at Yale. Shad will be going to swim at Salisbury. And junior Alex has committed to go to Northwestern after his senior year.
