Girls' City-County Wwimming

WINCHESTER — The De Jong and Esslinger family names continue to leave their mark on the area swimming scene.

Sherando sophomore Emma De Jong won two individual events and swam on two victorious relays to help the Warrior girls cruise to their fourth straight City-County Sprints championship, and Millbrook freshman Lyddie Esslinger took first in the 100-meter freestyle to help the Pioneers to second place on Saturday at the War Memorial building in Jim Barnett Park.

Sherando scored 235 points to win the meet, which features races that are half the distance of the ones in a normal competition. Millbrook scored 119, James Wood was third with 96 and Handley was fourth with 58. James Wood sophomore Kimberly Warnagiris — The Winchester Star Girls’ Swimmer of the Year in 2018 — was among the swimmers who were not present because of the H2Okie Swim and Tri Winter Invite for USA Swimming in Christiansburg.

De Jong and Esslinger are the younger sisters of three swimmers who combined to win five Winchester Star Swimmer of the Year awards from 2010-17. Megan De Jong (former swimmer at George Mason University) won in 2010 and 2011, younger brother Morgan (U.S. Naval Academy) won in 2011, and Abbey Esslinger won in 2016 and 2017.

De Jong established herself as an elite swimmer last year by placing 11th in Class 4 in the 100 breaststroke and winning a Class 4 Northwestern District championship in the 100 freestyle last year.

On Saturday, she continued her strong start to her season. De Jong is now undefeated in six individual races after winning the 100 individual medley by five seconds in 1:15.35 and the 200 freestyle by three seconds in 2:20.59.

“I felt sore today, but I’m feeling pretty good,” De Jong said. “I had a USA meet last weekend in Warrenton where I was improving, so I’m glad for that. On Saturday I was tired because we had two high school meets [on Thursday and Friday] before that. But on Sunday I kind of gave it all I got to make it to finals and did personal-bests in the 100 breast and the 100 free. So I was happy with that.”

Sherando coach Joe Knight said before the season that he hoped the fact that De Jong is close to several school records held by her older sister will spur her to numerous state-qualifying times. De Jong said Megan’s success definitely serves as motivation.

“I am going after her old times,” De Jong said. “I got her 100 breast last year. I’m hoping to get more soon.”

De Jong also helped the 100 medley relay team that included Jordyn Jones, Kyra Schultz, and Natalee Tusing win by five seconds in 1:04.94 and the 200 free relay team that also featured Gracie Twigg, Tusing and Schultz win by seven seconds in 2:03.83.

Also for Sherando, Jones won the 50 free by 1.26 seconds with a time of 30.82 and took second in the 25 free (15.68), Hannah Starustka won the 50 breast by 0.72 with a time of 40.70, Tusing won the 50 butterfly by 0.44 with a time of 34.59 and was second in the 50 breaststroke (41.42), Schultz was second in the 100 free (1:07.64) and 50 backstroke (34.94), Lindley Armel was second in the 100 IM (1:20.02) and Twigg was second in the 50 free (32.08). The 100 free relay team of Maggie Ubert, Caitlyn Mayo, Anne Restrepo and Hannah Motley beat Millbrook by 0.56 to win with a time of 1:03.35.

“We’ve been working on a lot of really small technical aspects about swimming,” Knight said. “Our starts, tight swim lines, fast turns, fast finishes. This kind of venue, this kind of meet really helps us do that. [Assistant coach] Krista Gass and I were really overall pleased with the result today. The things that we’re really stressing in practice showed up today.”

Esslinger didn’t have a seed time for the 100 free at the start of the meet, so so she was placed in the slower heat. Esslinger wasn’t pushed in her race, but she managed to push herself to a time that was four seconds better than anyone in the fast heat.

“I really liked what I did in the 100 free,” said Esslinger, who was less than six-tenths of a second off a state qualifying time. “Hopefully the 100 backstroke or the 50 free will be my strongest events. I’m trying to make states in those.”

Esslinger’s older sister Abbey was a regular at the state meet who set multiple school records at Millbrook. Like De Jong, Lyddie is also motivated by Abbey’s success.

“I have really big shoes to fill, but I’m going to try and beat most of her times,” said Esslinger, who also took third in the 200 freestyle in 2:24.62. “That’s my goal.”

Fellow Millbrook freshman Tara Soden also won her event despite not competing in the fast heat, recording a time of 15.63 seconds to win by 0.05 in the 25 free. Freshman Olivia Webster took second in the 50 fly (35.03).

“Just a really great effort from everybody,” said Millbrook coach Priscilla Elliott about both of her girls’ and boys’ teams. “My favorite part was that we had a lot of swimmers who swam things they don’t usually swim. We tried some new things and got a little bit of variety. They all worked really hard.”

The James Wood girls were led by Leah Snapp (third in the 100 IM, 1:23.69, and 50 fly (35.27), Keilena Burch (third in the 50 free, 34.02) and Eleanor Armel (third in the 50 breast 44.84).

Handley was led by senior Kenzi Fergus, who edged out Sherando’s Schultz to win the 50 backstroke by 0.13 with a time of 34.81 and also took second to De Jong in the 200 free in 2:23.18.

Fergus is still rounding into form after not being able to swim much over the summer because of a stress fracture in her hip that she suffered during track season.

“I felt good,” Fergus said. “I definitely have a lot of work to do, but I feel good about where I’m at right now. I think the 100 backstroke is going to be my strongest event. That’s normally my strongest. I’m trying the 200 freestyle. I normally don’t swim that, but I’ll see how that turns out.”

Hannah Stewart — a former Judges assistant coach who volunteered to step in for Tag Grove since he was coaching the Winchester Swim Team in Christiansburg — said she liked what she saw from both teams.

“The kids that we have are great swimmers,” Stewart said. “We have a small team, but if they work hard in practice I feel like by the end of the season they’ll do pretty well.”

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