THE GAZETTE
Page B-4
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 p
County swimmers go the distance for victories at Junior Nationals Georgetown Prep junior sets individual, relay meet records at junior nationals n
BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER
Swimming the mile — 1,500 meters — is incredibly taxing, both physically and mentally. Watching someone swim the event, which takes about 15 or 16 minutes at the highest level of high-school aged swimming, can also feel that way for the average spectator. Time constraints prevent the longer distances from being contested during high school competition, former longtime Our Lady of Good Counsel coach Dave Crocker of the Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club. Those are the events, the 1,500- and 800-meter freestyle races, in which Good Counsel senior Brady Welch, of Olney, excels the most. The closest distance to that in high school swimming, which is shortcourse yards to be-
RAPHAEL TALISMAN/FOR THE GAZETTE
Georgetown Prep junior Carsten Vissering swims the breaststroke leg of the 200-yard medley relay at the 2013 Washington Metropolitan Prep School Swim Dive League Championships. gin with, is the 500-yard freestyle. That event has been dominated by recent Good Counsel graduate and University of Texas recruit Jack Conger, who in 2013 snapped a 30-year national high school record.
Distance swimmers, because of the length of their races and time it takes to incorporate them Crocker said, don’t have many opportunities to showcase their talent. But Welch and a contingent of Montgomery County
long distance swimmers from both RMSC and Nation’s Capital Swim Club were able to do just that at the Speedo Junior National Championships held Aug. 5-9 in Irvine, Calif. The event features some of the best high school aged talent and is just under the highest level of national competition. Five of the top seven finishers in the 2013 Metros 500-yard freestyle were in Irvine, including Chevy Chase resident Gavin Springer, Georgetown Prep junior Joey Snodderly and Montgomery Blair junior Brian Tsau. Tsau (13th) and Welch (16th) led the way in the 1,500-meter race in California. Tsau and Springer earned top 20 finishes in the 800-meter freestyle. Georgetown Prep junior and two-time defending Metros 100-yard breaststroke champion Carsten Vissering also got to show his strength in longer distance races. He set meet and age group records en route to winning the 200-meter breaststroke and swam the breaststroke leg of NCAP’s winning 400-meter medley relay that also set a new
meet mark. Bethesda-Chevy Chase senior Graham Baird was also on that squad along with two Virginia-based swimmers, John Shebat and Andrew Seliskar. “[Speedo Junior Nationals] is definitely a step up from [a typical local meet]. It’s a much more competitive atmosphere. You get there and you see all these Speedo banners and advertisements, it’s a different atmosphere. [The meet] was definitely a stepping stone, positive results [there] help me move forward in my career,” Vissering said. The Washington metropolitan area’s swimming community is extremely tight knit, Crocker said. Vissering said it was nice to see his peers shine in the distance swimming events that are often overlooked. “A lot of people who specialize in the 800 and 1,500 don’t get to showcase their talent as much in the shorter distances in high school,” Vissering said. “It was nice to see them do well.” Distance swimming is something that is discovered as young swimmers move along in their
tenures, Crocker said. “When you’re 14-under, you’re not a distance swimmer, a butterflier, a breaststroker, you’re just a swimmer. We want those kids to experience as many things as they can and then it evolves, it’s a discovery process,” Crocker said. Welch was 12 years old the first time he swam the mile, and terrified. But something special was uncovered. “[For people who think distance swimming is boring] I would just stress the amount of strategy and the dynamics of each race. With distance swimming there are a lot of different factors, strategies and techniques involved. [The mile] is a difficult race, you don’t know if you’re going to have enough energy to finish that last 200 meters or if you’re going to completely die off. I think that struggle we all go through can be entertaining to watch,” Welch said. jbeekman@gazette.net
Holy Cross’ Ries resigns, helps start new Elite lacrosse club BY
KENT ZAKOUR STAFF WRITER
When Jennifer Palmiere moved to Montgomery County several years ago, she was shocked at the relatively low level of competition within Montgomery County’s youth, club and high school girls’ lacrosse programs. Growing up, she was an accomplished midfielder at Lenape High School in Southern New Jersey and eventually started for four years at James Madison University, where she earned All-Colonial Athletic Association first team honors. In college, several of her teammates, friends and potential Dukes’ recruits came from Northern Virginia or the Baltimore area. So, naturally, she assumed the entire Washington, D.C. region consistently pro-
duced high level lacrosse players. It wasn’t and has not been the case. Former Academy of the Holy Cross athletic director and lacrosse coach Jenna Ries, who resigned in April, but finished the school year, has also been attempting to help change that. With Palmiere’s daughters playing the sport and coming up through local recreational programs, she eventually became connected with Mary McCormick, the director of the Rockville Girls Lacrosse Club, and began coaching in the organization, which fields middle school-aged teams. As Palmiere’s daughters, Katie, a sophomore at Quince Orchard High School, and Ellen, a seventh grader at Lakelands Park Middle, grew, she also began to search for elite level high schoolaged club teams. “It got to the point where my daughters were getting older and we began looking, but there was nothing within the county that was really offered at the level we
FILE PHOTO
Longtime area high school, club and youth girls’ lacrosse coach Jenna Ries gives instructions to players during a 2012 game when she coached at Academy of the Holy Cross.
and Champions of Tomorrow. The resignation was confirmed by Holy Cross President Katy Prebble. Former Holy Cross as-
sistant Corey Samperton, who also coaches with the Jackals and MC Elite, is the Tartans’ new coach. Quince Orchard coach and MC Elite goalie and 2015 team coach Jennifer Holliday-Mohr believes the growth of MC Elite and other local youth clubs and recreational teams will eventually allow the area’s high school teams to compete with the rest of the state on an annual basis. This spring, Sherwood became the first county representative to win a state semifinal game. “Getting girls to play club is very important,” said HollidayMohr, who played at Quince Orchard in the early 2000s. “It’s also important for the parents to see the benefit of having their kids start playing [at a young age] and [have quality instruction]. “Last year, I didn’t have many girls play club [at Quince Orchard]. The competition level is completely different. Sherwood, which has a lot of club players, we can contend with
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in the preseason, but in the season it was completely different. ... This summer, my girls got on club teams so the difference next year, I think, is going to be huge.” MC Elite is scheduled to begin its second season of existence this fall. Ries said MC Elite wants to become the girls lacrosse version of the Bethesda Soccer Club, which routinely sends players to national teams’ events and top college programs. In addition to preparing girls for the next level of lacrosse, Palmiere and Ries agreed that MC Elite will compare itself to the Maryland and District of Columbia Lacrosse Club, which consistently wins and fares well at national tournaments during the summer. “We need to develop and get in the position to beat the best club teams like M&D’s Black teams,” Palmiere said. “That’s the ultimate objective.” kzakour@gazette.net 1890471
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wanted. ... I didn’t understand why I had to drive out to [a place like Howard County].” So, last year, she, along with McCormick, and the help of several other area high school lacrosse coaches, founded MC Elite Lacrosse, a countybased organization specifically designed to raise the level of lacrosse in the county by attracting and developing the area’s top talent and compete with the nation’s best club teams. MC Elite, which is officially affiliated with some of the county’s other youth lacrosse clubs, including Rockville and the Jackals, has three core objectives, according to its website, player development, college recruiting and superior coaching. “Everything is designed to be at a very, elite, high level,” said Ries, MC Elite’s director of college recruiting and the Jackals director of coaching and player development. Ries said she left the Tartans to focus more on her club lacrosse ventures with MC Elite, the Jackals
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