Sherando girls continue unbeaten season with district swim title

WARRENTON — When the Sherando girls won the 2020 Class 4 Northwestern District swimming meet title for their first postseason championship in seven years, the makeup of their roster suggested they could rule the district for a long time to come.

The Warriors didn’t get to defend their title last year, but they’ve certainly been reminding everyone just how talented, determined and cohesive they are throughout the 2021-22 season.

Sherando continued its undefeated season by winning Saturday’s seven-team district meet at the Warrenton Aquatic & Recreation Facility with 145 points, 31 more than runner-up Kettle Run.

Sherando won all three relays and received individual event wins from junior Taylor Smith (200-yard individual medley, 100 butterfly) and sophomore Madelynn Twigg (100 backstroke). The Warriors placed at least one person in the top five in each of the eight individual events, including a sweep of second through fourth in the 100 free and grabbing the top two spots in the 100 back.

“This is super exciting,” said Smith, who swam legs on two of the winning relays. “I thought we all did very well. Our hard work is definitely showing up, and I think it’s really exciting to see everyone dropping time.”

Smith pointed out the significant cheering that the Warriors do for each other during meets. Sherando senior captain Natalee Tusing said Sherando is definitely a tight-knit group. Tusing is one of several remaining key contributors from the 2020 title team and swam for the Warriors last year when Frederick County held its season after the Virginia High School League season.

“Most of us have been swimming together for over 10 years,” Tusing said. “We’re always supportive with one another, and we’re always encouraging each other to get our [qualifying] cuts and just do better every single time we swim.”

Despite Sherando’s success during the regular season, Warriors coach Joe Knight still wasn’t sure how things would play out, mainly because the district meet was postponed six days due to inclement weather. After gearing his team’s training to do its best on Jan. 29, Knight didn’t know how the delay would affect his team.

“You never how the kids are going to react to something like that, but they swam lights out,” Knight said. “I couldn’t be happier. They were a lot of individual successes, a lot of personal-bests from all of our swimmers. I’m just really proud of a whole bunch of kids.”

Propelled by two event wins from senior Paige Simko, James Wood placed third with 79 points. Double winner and sophomore Grace Morgan led Handley to fourth (57), and Millbrook placed fifth (56). The top eight individuals and top four relays in each event from Friday, as well as anyone with qualifying times, advance to the Region 4C meet that will take place on Saturday at the Claude Moore Recreation Center in Sterling.

The only person to capture first place in every event she entered on Friday will have decisions to make as to what individual events she wants to swim the rest of the postseason.

In an interview on Jan. 27, Smith said she was leaning toward competing in the 100 fly (she won that in 58.88 seconds to beat James Wood junior Lauren Masters’ time of 59.26 on Friday) and the 100 breast at the Class 4 state meet. But on Friday, she broke 2020 graduate and George Mason University swimmer Emma De Jong’s 200 individual medley record by nearly two seconds by recording a 2:10.21 (3.4 seconds ahead of Masters’ 2:13.61).

“I’m just super proud of myself,” Smith said. “My hard work is definitely showing up.”

Smith also began the meet by teaming with Twigg, Tusing and junior Chelsey Jones to win the 200 medley in 1:50.88 (2.12 seconds ahead of Kettle Run) and and ended the meet by combining with Tusing, Twigg and junior Lexee Schellhammer to win the 400 free relay in 3:41.15 (2.54 better than Kettle Run). That time obliterated the school record of 3:47.46 set in 2020. Tusing and Smith were also on that 2020 400 free relay team.

“It just brings me so much that we can break that record,” said Tusing, who also expressed her pride in Smith for breaking De Jong’s IM record.

Twigg won the 100 back in 1:00.84, with Jones second in 1:02.57. Jones and Schellhammer teamed with sophomore Madison Reed and freshman Gracie Defibaugh to capture the 200 free relay in 1:45.63, 0.72 ahead of James Wood’s 1:46.35 (freshman Annie Hua, Simko, freshman Kallie Gyurison and Masters swam for the Colonels).

Other top performances for Sherando were achieved by Twigg (second in the 100 free, 54.43), Jones (third in the 200 IM, 2:16.43), Tusing (third in the 100 free, 56.36; fourth in the 200 free, 2:06.56), Schellhammer (third in the 50 free, 25.68; sixth in the 500 free, 5:48.44), Reed (fourth in the 100 breast, 1:13.61; seventh in the 100 fly, 1:03.80), senior Stella Wallin (fourth in the 100 free, 1:01.55; seventh in the 200 free, 2:16.01), Defibaugh (fifth in the 500 free, 5:47.28; eighth in the 200 IM, 2:23.12), junior Audrey Kauffman (sixth in the 50 free, 28.34), freshman Deanna LaDuca (eighth in the 50 free, 29.63), and sophomore Addy Wallin (eighth in the 100 breast, 1:19.31).

Simko, a Loyola University signee, starred once again in the 100 breast and won that event in 1:06.42 to win by 3.13 seconds. Simko also chose to get some speed work in and was pleased with her 50 free, as she topped her seed time and won that event by 0.18 in 25.47.

“It’s nice to change what you’re doing now and then,” said Simko of the 50 free, adding she’ll likely do the 200 IM and the 100 breast at the state meet. “I couldn’t be more pleased [with the 100 breast]. I’m happy with where I’m going and I think I’ll do very good at states.”

Simko, Masters and Hua teamed with senior Leah Snapp to place third in the 200 medley relay (1:54.92) and qualify for the state meet. James Wood was also led by Snapp in the 500 free (fourth, 5:47.06) and 100 back (sixth, 1:07.15), Gyurisin in the 100 breast (1:17.15), and Hua in the 100 free (seventh, 1:02.19) and 100 breast (seventh, 1:18.23).

“Lauren Masters swam two events that she’s probably not going to swim at states, so for her to come in and take one for the team and swim the events we needed her to help the team score as many points as possible speaks a lot about her,” James Wood coach Jessica Barr said. “She’s a natural competitor, and I love watching her race.

“I also think Leah Snapp did pretty good tonight. She dropped time in both her events, and she’s really kind of trending upward to where she wanted to be at the end of the season.”

Handley coach Tag Grove was plenty pleased with how Morgan swam on Friday, as she beat her seed time by three seconds and won by 2.4 seconds in the 200 free (1:56.65), then won the 500 free handily, recording a time of 5:16.23 to Millbrook senior Lyddie Esslinger’s 5:44.03. But Grove said Morgan aggravated an injury during the 500 free, which resulted in her pulling out of the 200 free relay and 400 free relay.

Other top performances for the Judges came from junior Hailey Brown (fourth in the 200 IM, 2:16.48; fifth in the 100 fly, 1:01.24) and junior Sullivan Morefield (fifth in the 50 free, 27.27, and 100 free, 1:01.78). Morefield and Brown teamed with sophomore Laura Salley and freshman Kelsye Brown to place fourth in the 200 free relay in 1:50.77.

“Sullivan’s turns were better, her starts were better,” Grove said. “Her swimming has always been there, but she’s kind of afraid to push it a little bit on that 100, because she doesn’t want to get tired at the end. But she stepped up on the relay and individually. She was happy and got out smiling.

“I’m real proud of the effort all the kids put in, really this whole season.”

Millbrook coach Will Sigler was particularly pleased with his relays, each of which have regional-qualifying times. The 400 free relay team led the way in placement on Friday, as Esslinger teamed with senior Olivia Webster, senior Avery Sigler and freshman Kiera Webster to place third in 4:05.50.

Other top individual performances came from Esslinger (third in the 100 back, 1:02.76), Kiera Webster (third in the 200 free, 2:02.27; sixth in the 100 fly, 1:03.64), Olivia Webster (seventh in the 200 IM, 2:21.70; eighth in the 100 fly, 1:04.23) and junior Carolina Arias (seventh in the 50 free, 28.83; eighth in the 100 free, 1:07.63).

“Everybody’s effort stood out on this meet,” said Millbrook coach Will Sigler in discussing both his girls’ and boys’ teams. “It was definitely strong.”

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