Sports
UPCOMING EVENTS
07
26 2021
GRAL swimming: Champs at SwimRVA 9 a.m.
07
27 2021
GRAL swimming: Champs at SwimRVA 9 a.m.
| Youth, High School, College, Recreational & Professional
GRAL regular season gets stormy finish By Dave Lawrence and Rob Witham Mechanicsville Local MECHANICSVILLE – Wednesday night was supposed to be the final night of the Greater Richmond Aquatic League regular season. For some teams, the weather had other plans. And other teams avoided the weather problem entirely by moving their meets up a night. But all the competitions managed to end. Teams finished up their Champs lists, and now the focus is on preparing for the big event of the season. Among the early birds was Burkwood, in a virtual meet with Church Run, and Battlefield Green and Bell Creek, in a virtual meet with each other. Burkwood swamped Church Run 1,964.5-1,544.5 in points, but for the Buccaneers, the most important takeaway was that they qualified 99 swimmers for Champs – a team record. “As the season goes on it’s harder to drop time,” said Burkwood head coach Karen Seeber. “So we’re just ecstatic that we got how many we you know got to. We were adding at each meet. We’re excited.” Burkwood was led by three quadruple winners Katie Carroll, Tyler Caten and Morgan Pittman. The Buccaneers also had a host of triple winners: Connor Austin, Alex Broaddus, Alden Croxton, Dylan Croxton, Caroline Early, Andrew Eisele, Grayson
22
Dave Lawrence/The Local
Burkwood’s Tyler Caten (foreground), Sam Castle, Russell Odor and Bryce Newton swim in echelon formation in the 15-18 boys 100-meter butterfly in a Greater Richmond Aquatic League virtual meet with Church Run Tuesday. Caten and Castle finished first and second, respectively, in the varsity division. Odor and Newton finished first and third, respectively, in the junior varsity division.
Joel Klein for The Local
Atlee Recreation Association triple winner Avery Jenkins wins the 15-18 girls 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:05.69 in a face-to-face meet against Rockville-Dolphin Club Wednesday.
Fitch, Ryleigh Houchins, Anna Morrison, Caroline Reynold, Paige Siegman, Charlie Welsh and Ashley Zicafoose. Bell Creek’s Barracudas
The Mechanicsville Local
July 21, 2021
defeated Battlefield Green’s Ferocious Frogs 690-536. The Barracudas were led by quad winners Jewel Basilan, Ryan Angelo Basilan, Peyton
Beardslee, Olivia Mayton and Brayden Mullenaux; and by triple winners Macy BumgardnerGalarneau, Alyssa Mayton, Kai Smith, Tristan Smith and Kellan Timm. The Ferocious Frogs were led by a pair of quad winners – Lewis Mason and Kira Wood – and triple winners Riley Funnell, Devin George, Claire Grant, Tabitha Hudgins, Norah Lauterbach, Levi Robinson and Ariel Salas. “The meet went well,” said Battlefield Green head coach Kellie Brown. “We had one more swimmer qualify for Champs, and going into
Champs we have 10 individual swimmers, three of which are 8-and-under, which has never happened before, and we have 25 swimmers going total, which has also never happened before. It’s the most we’ve ever had, so we’re super excited.” While the Tuesday meets went without a hitch, the Wednesday meets ran into weather – or, more accurate, had weather run into them. Thunderstorms coming up from the southwest produced enough sound and light such that many meets were forced to delay their starts, or get out of the pool shortly after they
started. The Federal Club at Old Church was one of the latter. They managed to restart just before 8 p.m., and they got most of the way through the meet before more lighting in the sky put a halt to the proceedings for the night. The meet, which had begun as a face-to-face meet Wednesday, finished as a virtual meet Thursday. The Federal Club outscored Old Church 975-744, but both teams had plenty of success. Quad winners Ainsley Agee, Brannan Agee, Amanda Barnard, Charlotte, Bruning and Cati Callihan led The Federal Club. The Eagles also had triple winners William Barnard III, Taylor Olivia Brown, Caroline Bruning, Lily Gordon, Madelyn Gunderson, Molly Hoben, Maggie McClintock, Ayden McKenna, Aidan Nickels, Macey Smith, Ford Sprouse, and Cooper Waldron. Old Church was led by quad winners Henry Atkinson, Connor Brooks, Julia see GRAL, pg. 23
