Swim Ninja

With the completion of the 2018 NVSL regular season, the time has come for announcing our All swim Ninja team. Using best times from this season, we have composed 1st and 2nd Team, as well as Honorable Mention, selections for each age group and gender. While many athletes who made our preseason list performed up to expectation, we were excited to see several new names make the final team selection. Because summer swimming is a true team sport, we thought it was important to make our selections based on how athletes performed during the regular season where they competed to score points to win meets. We want to congratulate all the athletes for working hard and making our job of creating these lists a difficult process!

See which athletes landed on our NVSL All Swim Ninja team and why below:

Boys

First Team:

• Andy Li (Kent Gardens): Andy was not only the fastest 8-Under swimmer (boys or girls) in free, back and fly in meters, but he also set the fastest free and breast yard times as well. Additionally, he broke the 25m league fly record with a time of 16.37s and the 25y breast record, going 17.37s (see vid below)

• Cooper Roberts (Dowden Terrace): Cooper finished in the top 10 for all four strokes, landing 2nd in 25m free (.05s behind Andy), 10th in back, 3rd in breast, and 2nd in fly
• Sullivan Portner (Overlee): Sully had three top 10 times, finishing 4th in free (see his season-best 16.94 swim below), 3rd in back, and 4th in fly

• Bennett Steele (Hamlet): Bennet finished 2018 with the fastest 25m breast time of 21.38–he also was the 3rd fastest freestyler in the age group and 11th fastest flyer

Second Team

• Wyatt Davis (Hunt Valley): Wyatt had three top 10 times in 2018, finishing 5th in free, 4th in back, and 5th in fly (see his best swim from the season below)

• Quinn Zenyuh (Pleasant Valley): Quinn finished 8th in back and 6th in fly overall in 2018
• Aden Travers (High Point): Aden finished 5th in breast (see best swim below–wins it from lane 5) and 7th in free

• Nicholas Harris (Virginia Run): Nicholas finished 3rd in fly (see swim below) and 9th in free

• Wyatt Nicholson (Fairfax): Wyatt had the 2nd fastest 25m back time at 19.99–just over half a second behind top ranked Andy Li

Honorable Mention

• Josiah Sturgill (High Point): Josiah had the 10th fastest 25m free and 8th fastest 25m fly
• Huey McFalls (Tuckahoe): Huey had the 3rd fastest 25m breast
• Gabriel Hanson (Kent Gardens): Gabriel had the 5th fastest 25m back

Girls

First Team

• Anne O’Shaughnessy (Highlands): Anne had 3 top 10 times, finishing 1st in 25m breast, 2nd in 25m back, and 3rd in 25m free
• McKenzie Cory (Chesterbrook): McKenzie finished the regular season 1st in 25m back (see the swim below) and 2nd in 25m free

• Brianna Fleming (Daventry): Brianna had 3 top 10 times, finishing 2nd in 25m breast, 4th in 25m fly, and 9th in 25m back
• Annabelle Francis (Chesterbrook): Annabelle had 3 top 10 times, posting the 3rd fastest 25m fly, 4th fastest 25m breast (see the swim below), and 6th fastest 25m free

• Mary McNichols (Virginia Hills): Mary had 3 top 10 times, finishing 8th in 25m free, 4th in 25m back, and 6th in 25m fly
• Hazel Gramlich (Dunn Loring): Hazel was the fastest 25m flyer and 10th fastest in 25m free
• Eleanor Wetzler (Donaldson Run): Eleanor was the fastest 8-u girls 25m free swimmer going 16.50, .90s faster than the 2nd fastest time

Second Team

• Cally Coding (Fairfax): Cally finished with the 2nd fastest 25m fly and 6th fastest 25m back
• Jayla Ho (Little Rocky Run): Jayla tied Brianna Fleming at 4th fastest in 25m fly and had the 7th fastest 25m back

Honorable Mention

• Carly Schweers (Vienna Woods): Carly finished as the 9th fastest in breast and fly in 2018
• Melissa Paradise (Brandywine): Melissa had the 3rd fastest 25m back
• Lauren Smith (Wakefield Chapel): Lauren had the 3rd fastest 25m breast