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Nation’s Capital Swim Club Earns #1 Club Ranking For 4th Straight Year

Braden Keith
by Braden Keith 27

December 18th, 2017 Club, News

Press Release courtesy of USA Swimming

Nation’s Capital Swim Club of the Washington, D.C., area continues its reign as the top performing club earning the No. 1 spot in the USA Swimming Club Excellence program for the fourth year in a row. Each year, the Club Excellence program recognizes the organization’s highest-performing clubs in the development of athletes 18 years and younger.

NCAP, whose top athletes include National Team member Cassidy Bayer, plus National Junior Team member Sam Pomajevich tallied 91,597 points, finishing more than 30,000 points ahead of second-place finisher SwimMAC Carolina. Carmel Swim Club advanced one spot to claim the third-place rank.

“Nation’s Capital Swim Club is blessed with so many talented young athletes and coaches that make it possible for us to achieve this standard of excellence for the fourth year in a row. Being named the No. 1 team in Club Excellence is a goal we strive for every year,” said Tom Ugast, NCAP Chief Executive Officer. “I would like to thank the coaches, parents and 18 & under athletes that are dedicated to their sport and recognized by USA Swimming. I would also like to thank the other Clubs that participate in this program. It is hard work and makes all of us better at achieving excellence.”

In its 17th year, the Club Excellence program identifies clubs that execute strong, well-rounded programs to produce elite 18-and-under athletes. The top 20 clubs earn Gold level ranking and those rated 21-100 are designated as Silver honorees. The next 100 clubs are recognized at the Bronze level.

“Earning a Gold, Silver or Bronze ranking is a reflection of the hard work and time invested by athletes and coaches and has become a highly coveted honor for our teams. To see new clubs earn a spot on this list is exciting and a testament that the future of club swimming continues to be bright,” said Pat Hogan, USA Swimming’s Club Development Managing Director. “On behalf of USA Swimming, I want to congratulate each of the 200 clubs that have earned a ranking in the 2018 program.”

Each team’s ranking score is based on the FINA Points Table, a power point rating system that assigns point values to swimming performances based on the Gold, Silver or Bronze time standard. Starting with the 2017 Club Excellence rankings, Gold swims were multiplied by a factor of 2.0; points for Silver level swims were increased by a factor of 1.5.

The following clubs achieved the Gold Medal ranking for 2018, with Local Swimming Committee (LSC) designation. Sixteen different LSCs are represented in the Gold Medal level.

Club LSC Points
1. Nation’s Capital Swim Club Potomac Valley 91,597
2. SwimMAC Carolina North Carolina 59,673
3. Carmel Swim Club Indiana 40,745
4. Sandpipers of Nevada Southern California 36,808
5. Marlins of Raleigh North Carolina 35,932
6. Irvine Novaquatics Southern California 31,749
7. Long Island Aquatic Club Metropolitan Swimming 31,621
8. Mason Manta Rays Ohio 30,256
9. Swim Atlanta Georgia 29,705
10. Scottsdale Aquatic Club Arizona 28,035
11. Nitro Swimming South Texas 28,008
12. Magnolia Aquatic Club Gulf Swimming 27,181
13. Mission Viejo Nadadores Southern California 26,951
14. Virginia Gators Virginia 26,507
15. Club Wolverine Michigan 26,317
16. Fort Collins Area Swim Team Colorado 25,325
17. Sarasota YMCA Sharks Florida 25,292
18. Austin Swim Club South Texas 25,201
19. Lakeside Aquatic Club North Texas 25,172
20. Pleasanton Seahawks Pacific 24,561

Click here to view the complete 2018 Club Excellence Program results.

Mason Manta Rays, Magnolia Aquatic Club, Virginia Gators and Austin Swim Club all achieved a Gold Medal ranking for the first time. Since the inception of this program, 83 different clubs have earned Gold Medal ranking at least once.

Out of the 200 clubs recognized as Gold, Silver and Bronze programs, Middle Atlantic led all LSCs with 12 clubs recognized, followed by Southern California Swimming and Florida at 11 clubs represented.

In addition to recognizing high-performing teams, the program provides grant funding that enable clubs to expand and enhance the services already provided to athletes. A total of $400,000 in grants will be distributed to the 100 Gold- and Silver-level clubs.

In conjunction with the USA Swimming Club Excellence program, USA Swimming will induct four members into the 2018 Podium Club. Each team achieving a Gold Medal ranking for four consecutive years will be named to the Podium Club. In addition to earning Gold grant dollars, Podium Club members will receive a financial bonus from a pool of dollars to be divided equally among the number of teams in the Podium Club each year.

Congratulations to the following four teams that were inducted into the Podium Club for 2018:

  • Carmel Swim Club
  • Nation’s Capital Swim Club
  • Nitro Swimming
  • Sarasota YMCA Sharks

For more information about the Club Excellence program visit www.usaswimming.org.

About USA Swimming

As the National Governing Body for the sport of swimming in the United States, USA Swimming is a 400,000-member service organization that promotes the culture of swimming by creating opportunities for swimmers and coaches of all backgrounds to participate and advance in the sport through clubs, events and education. Our membership is comprised of swimmers from the age group level to the Olympic Team, as well as coaches and volunteers. USA Swimming is responsible for selecting and training teams for international competition including the Olympic Games, and strives to serve the sport through its core objectives: Build the base, Promote the sport, Achieve competitive success. For more information, visit www.usaswimming.org.

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Pat Sweeney
6 years ago

Big story here is what happened to NBAC? A Gold Medal Club (which is based on the performance of 18 & Unders) for 16 years then boom, bottom half of silver.

Justkeepswimming
Reply to  Pat Sweeney
6 years ago

A LOT of swimmers left due to the coach that was there prior to Paul Yetter. Much smaller group but still a lot of talent. Sometimes a forest must burn before it can grow. They’ll be back.

Swimmom
Reply to  Justkeepswimming
6 years ago

Yep. They’ll be back. NBAC has always been on the smaller side. They have a significant amount of depth and talent, but they have a little over 200 swimmers.

Clark
6 years ago

Why is Dynamo listed as Silver Club even they got 30,000+ points? Is it a mistake?

NEWTOSWIMSWAM
Reply to  Clark
6 years ago

It must have at least one swimmer with gold medal cut which is no slower than world’s top 200th for men and top150th for women in prior year.

completelyconquered
6 years ago

Magnolia Aquatic Club is part of Gulf Swimming, not Gulf Coast. It on the Gulf Coast, it’s just not called that in regards to the USA Swimming LSC map.

Carol Glover
6 years ago

Congrats to GNST!

Snarky
6 years ago

Club Excellence favors mega clubs, period. And are a few HUGE multisite clubs that are barely Bronze. Is it fair to reward 1000-2000 member clubs with a Bronze medal when some truly tiny clubs are developing Jr. National finalists? If USAS really wants to reward the coaches and teams that are doing the best job developing athletes the program needs to be based upon team size.

Dan
Reply to  Snarky
6 years ago

There are plenty of small clubs that achieve Bronze and even Silver medal status. A team only needs 1 fast swimmer to earn Bronze status and can get to Silver with 4 or 5 swimmers.

David Berkoff
Reply to  Dan
6 years ago

And a mega club with 2000 swimmers can have 1999 average swimmers and one star and achieve the same thing? I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Having a large pool to draw from makes it a of a lot easier to achieve a club excellence ranking than having to develop talent from 100 swimmers in a small rural area.

Ervin
6 years ago

In the DC area alone, almost all of the clubs are “mega-clubs” with multiple sites…..Machine, FISH, York, AAC, Potomac Marlins, RMSC…just to name a few. Quit hatin

David Berkoff
Reply to  Ervin
6 years ago

York Y? 80 swimmers is a mega club?

Ervin
Reply to  David Berkoff
6 years ago

I’ve never heard of York Y in the DC area…I’m referring to York Swim Club that has close to 300 swimmers

PVSFree
Reply to  Ervin
6 years ago

Pool time in PVS is hard to get so it’s mostly out of necessity and just how widespread swimming is in the DC area

Sprintlord
6 years ago

Where’s canyons???

Ervin
Reply to  Sprintlord
6 years ago

not on the list

mikeh
6 years ago

Congrats to NCAP. Well earned! I would not have thought they would be so dominant one Ms. Ledecky left the team.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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