Gemmell Powers Stone Ridge Girls to Metros Team Title; Churchill Boys Go Back-to-Back

2023 METRO Championships

• Feb. 7-11, 2023
• Boyds, MD
• SCY (25 yards)
• Complete girls results here
• Complete boys results here
• Team scores here

The Washington, DC area “Metros” championship meet was held Saturday night. But to label this contest just a “meet” is an understatement on par with calling the Sistine Chapel just a “building.”

Metros brings out extraordinary performances in swimmers, thanks in part to the cacophonous host facility that has become a shrine to water-based wonders. Multiple national high school records have been set at Metros, by swimmers like Phoebe Bacon, Jack Conger, and Katie Ledecky. All three became Olympians, and Ledecky has won six individual gold medals, while shattering world records along the way. (Ledecky actually swam at Metros after having won a gold medal in 2012.)

The newest incarnation of an aquatic Michelangelo is Erin Gemmell. The University of Texas commit is one of the country’s top high school swimmers and she showed off her masterful strokes on Saturday night – winning the 100 free (48.19 – race here) and 200 free (1:43.45 – race here), with the former breaking a Metros record Caroline McTaggart had set in 2015. (Gemmell spoke with SwimSwam after the meet – see the interview here.)

Gemmell’s Stone Ridge teammates also delivered – Eleanor Sun, a Princeton commit, finished second in both the 200 IM and the 100 fly – and they won both the 200 free relay (1:33.75, with 22.3 anchor by Gemmell – race here) and the 400 free relay (3:22.97 – race here). Both set new Metros records. The team area featured a life-sized cardboard cutout of Bacon and Ledecky bearing mustaches (a symbol of the team’s “we’re cooking” theme), and it was occasionally held aloft during the meet by the team’s animated members.

Predictably, Stone Ridge won the Metros team title, with 385 points (see the celebration here), though Bethesda-Chevy Chase was not far behind, with 365 points. Nina Allen, a Yale commit, played a big part in BCC’s strong showing, winning the 50 free (23.07 – video here) for the second consecutive year, and finishing second to Gemmell in the 100 free.

BCC also received a command performance by a precocious freshman, Virginia Hinds, who won the 100 back (54.79 – race here) and finished second to Hinds in the 50 (23.56). Hinds also delivered a sizzling start to the 200 medley relay, splitting a 25.42 – more than a second faster than any other backstroker.

The boys team title went to Churchill, for the second consecutive year (celebration here). It was led by Kyle Wang, a junior who won the 200 free (1:39.63 – race here). That race was emblematic of Churchill’s depth, as the team had three others in the 200 final, and they placed second (Brady Begin), fourth (Samir Elkassem), and sixth (Ethan Fu). After being declared winners of the meet, Churchill’s boys gathered around one member, who delivered a high-energy review of the race-by-race achievements – an inspiring display of team spirit that every swim fan should see.

Gonzaga, a perennial Metros power, finished second overall among the boys. Aiden Bond won the 100 free (45.43 – race here) and he anchored the winning 200 free relay (1:23.27 – race here) and the 400 free relay (3:02.85 – race here), which broke a Metros record Gonzaga set last year.

There was three other double winners in individual events. One was Adriano Arioti of Georgetown Day, a gentlemanly junior who has already given an oral commitment to Harvard. Powered by extraordinary underwaters and picture-perfect technique, he won the 100 back (47.15 – race here) and the 100 fly (47.32 – race here), the latter being a new Metros record. (His back time would have placed second in the 2022 Ivy League championships and his fly time eighth.)

Sienna Karp of Walter Johnson won the 200 IM (1:57.70 – race here) and the 100 breast (1:01.25 – race here) and Toby Barnett of Rockville, an Indiana commit, won the 200 IM (1:46.21 – race here) and the 500 free (4:26.60).

There were several other standout swims among both the girls and the boys:

• Sara Eliason of Montgomery won the 100 fly (54.00 – race here).
• Jed Garner of Clarksburg won the 100 breast (54.21 – race here).
• Whitman won the 200 medley relay, with a very speedy fly leg (21.49) by Kris Lawson (1:31.84 – race here).
• Andrea Dwork of Blake won the 500 free (4:46.77).
• Owen Watkins of Good Counsel (Conger’s alma mater) won the 50 free (20.49 – race here).