James Wood, Sherando boys tie for City-County Sprints swimming title

WINCHESTER — Prior to Saturday’s City-County Sprints swim meet, Sherando senior captain Kyra Schultz announced over the public address system that all competing swimmers would be wearing temporary tattoos of cancer ribbons to support James Wood senior swimmer Brian Hua, who is currently unable to compete with the Colonels because of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Once the meet started, the Colonels delivered a performance that would have made the 2018 Class 4 state qualifier and area’s best butterfly swimmer proud.

James Wood tied Sherando for the boys’ team title with 150 points on Saturday at Jim Barnett Park’s War Memorial Building pool. The Warriors won last year’s City-County Sprints — a competition where each event is half the length it would be at a normal swim meet — by 61 points. This is the first time in the five-year history of the format that the Warriors did not win the title outright.

Because of the shortened distances and because of the absence of some swimmers for various reasons, Saturday’s meet didn’t paint a full picture of the area swimming scene. Several swimmers were competing in USA Swimming at the H2Okie Swim and Tri Winter Invite in Christiansburg. And Sherando didn’t have Mathew Pham, one of the team’s best swimmers, because of an academic engagement at Virginia Commonwealth University.

But for a James Wood team that placed sixth out of seven teams at last year’s Class 4 Northwestern District meet, sharing the title at the City-County Sprints was definitely a sign of progress.

Sherando won six events to James Wood’s one (senior David Dorsey captured the 25-meter freestyle in 14.72 seconds). But with 19 boys, James Wood has the most male swimmers among the area high schools, and the Colonels used those numbers to their advantage on Saturday.

“A lot of kids stepped up,” James Wood second-year head coach Alan Cavanagh said. “We have more depth this year. Those thirds and fourths really help.”

Dorsey also took third in the 200 free (2:19.16). Other top performances for the Colonel boys came from freshman Brenden Cassidy (second in the 100 IM, 1:16.37, third in the 50 fly, 32.13), senior Drew Tanger (second in the 50 backstroke, 35.39), senior Zach Stautzenbach (third in the 25 free, 16.50) and junior Drew Reese (third in the 50 breaststroke, 43.15).

James Wood also took second and third place in the 100 free relay, with Cassidy swimming on the second-place team and Stautzenbach —a first-year swimmer for the Colonels — contributing to the third-place team.

“We’ve got a lot more people and a lot more relays,” said Dorsey, who won the 25 free by 1.55 seconds. “We’ve got some really good newcomers. I think it’s going to be good for the team both this year and in the future.”

James Wood’s co-championship added to a day in which the area swim community came together for Hua, who did not attend Saturday’s meet. Cavanagh said Hua might be able to swim for the team after Christmas break.

The idea for the temporary tattoos — which read #Huastrong — came from Schultz.

Hua is a cousin of Sherando’s Mathew and Peter Pham, but Schultz is one of the many area swimmers who are friends with Hua. Warriors coach Joe Knight said he’s been swimming with the Sherando Sharks summer league team since he was 7 or 8 years old. Schultz said she and Hua spent about eight years together as teammates on the Sherando Sharks and also Valley Swim Team Phoenix.

Schultz said after talking with Wendi Bauer — the mother of Warrior junior swimmer Josh Bauer — she brought up the tattoo idea at the team’s captains meeting on Tuesday. Schultz and fellow captain Anne Restrepo then reached out to the other three schools to gauge their interest so they can make enough tattoos for everybody. Knight said Wendi Bauer made the tattoos and distributed them to the swimmers on Saturday.

“It was really cool to see [the tattoos] today,” Schultz said.

Cavanagh said it meant a lot to James Wood, and Peter Pham said it meant a lot to him, too.

“It was very nice for the swimming teams and the community to honor Brian,” he said. “We hope he can get better. We all hope for him to get in the pool in a few weeks.”

Peter Pham had a standout performance in the pool on Saturday. He was the only boys’ swimmer to win two individual events (he captured the 50 butterfly by three seconds in 28.87 and the 200 free by eight seconds in 2:11.64). He also helped the 100 medley team of Michael Leckie (the 50 breaststroke winner by two seconds in 39.40), Trevor Cram (the 100 individual medley winner by almost three seconds in 1:13.53) and Dylan Cadd to victory by 1.53 seconds with a time of 1:03.26.

“Overall, I gave it my best effort,” Peter Pham said. “Hopefully I can improve upon some things with starts and turns. I think the IM and butterfly will be my strongest events this year. Those were the events I was closest to for states last year, and hopefully, I can improve on those.”

The Warriors were also led on Saturday by Leckie (second in the 100 free, 1:09.76), Ashraf Ibrahim (second in the 25 free, 16.37), the 100 free relay team of Ben Jensen, Brenden Johnson, Bauer and Cadd (first in 1:01.38 to edge James Wood by 0.03) and the 200 free relay team (second in 1:59.75).

“The boys swam really well. We’re just a little shy on depth on the boys’ side,” Knight said. “We missed Mathew today, but I’ve got to give credit to the James Wood boys. They swam extremely well today, too.”

The Millbrook boys received individual wins from freshman Aidan Post, who won the 100 free out of the slower heat by five seconds with a time of 1:04.10, and sophomore Timothy McCarthy, who won the 50 freestyle by 0.14 over sophomore teammate Ben Rayburn. (Rayburn, the son of Loudoun County football coach and former Handley coach Tony Rayburn, also took second in the 200 free in 2:19.15) McCarthy, Post, Michael Olejarz, and Rayburn teamed to win the 200 free relay by 0.20 in 1:59.55.

Handley was led by Mercer Love, who won the 50 backstroke by two seconds in 33.68; Brian Tufts (second in the 50 butterfly, 31.85); and Ethan Moss (second in the 50 breast, 41.47).

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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