The Ninjas have gotten together to create our preseason All-Swim Ninja team, comprised of the top returning athletes in each age group. Using solely 2017 times as our predictor, we created the 1st team, 2nd team, and honorable mention lists. We are excited to see great competition this coming summer, and expect to see a few names left off the preseason list make our postseason All-Swim Ninja team–so go out and swim hard!
See the boys and girls teams and our reasoning below!
*Due to athletes switching pools before the start of the season/no longer competing updates will be made to this post*
Click to see 8-Under NVSL Preseason All-Swim Ninja Team
The 9-10s are also a difficult group to make a read on–given that half the age group has no comparable times other than the 25 fly to the rest of their competition, we had to work hard make these predictions:
Boys
First Team:
- Blake Madsen (Poplar Tree): Blake enters the 2018 season hot off a dominant 9-year-old campaign where he finished 5th overall in the back and breast, and 3rd in the fly. He looks to be the fastest returning swimmer in each event to start the year, so watch out for this young superstar
- Charlie Palma (Hamlet): Charlie had a great showing in 2017, finishing 7th in the 50 back and only a few tenths behind Blake in the event. He was also 22nd in 50 free with a solid 33.96 in the event
- Hunter Zipperer (Waynewood): Hunter is the fastest returning freestyler after finishing with the 11th best time last season at 32.53
- Brandon Lesser (Daventry): Brandon finished 9th in 50 breast last season and also had impressive performances in the 50 free (20th) and 25 fly (32) making him a very interesting athlete to watch this summer
- Bruno Haggard (Tuckahoe): Bruno is a very impressive all-around swimmer, entering the season as the third fastest returning boy in free, back, and breast, which he finished in 15th, 11th, and 13th respectively last season. He also has a very solid 25 fly which was the 41st fastest time for the age group overall in 2017
Second Team:
- Ocean Lan (Greenbrier): Ocean was the 14th fastest 9-10 boy in the 25 fly a season ago, and also finished near the top in back (22nd) and free (39th)
- Colin Francis (Chesterbrook): Only .15 seconds slower than Hunter last season in the 50 free (12th), Colin should compete for one of the top spots in the event this season. Colin was also the 37th fastest backstroker and 35th fastest flyer in the age group at 9
Honorable Mention:
- Alexander Andrews (Hamlet): Alexander was only .01 seconds slower than his teammate Charlie Palma in the 50 free (23rd overall) 2017–the two should provide their team with a lot of depth in the age group
- Roman Dembicki (Fairfax): Roman was 28th in 50 breast in 2017
Girls
First Team:
- Morgan Kass (Hamlet): At 9, Morgan was the 8th fastest backstroker and 5th fastest flyer in the age group–she also was 27th overall in 50 free, and only .79 seconds behind the fastest returning swimmer for the event
- Gloria Kuang (Mosby Woods): Gloria finished with the 17th fastest time in 50 free last season, and the fastest overall for 9-year-olds–she also was dominant in back, finishing 11th in the event
- Catherine Fleck (Lakeview): Catherine demonstrated her all-around talent while at the bottom of the age group in 2017, finishing 7th in 50 breast, 21st in 50 free and 28th in 25 fly. She was just .16 seconds slower than Gloria in free, so look for Catherine to be at the top of leaderboards this season
- Emma Watts (Cardinal Hill): Emma is the second fastest returning backstroker and breaststroker this season after finishing 10th and 9th overall last season. She also posted the 37th fastest time in free in 2017, and should be formidable in 2018
- Katherine Mcarthur (Sully Station): Katherine had the 6th fastest 25 fly time in 2017 and was 26th in 50 back–she should be competitive with the rest of this group in those events in 2018
2nd Team
- Esther Swanson (Fox Mill Woods): Esther finished with the 13th fastest time in 25 fly last season, only half a second behind Morgan Kass and Katherine Mcarthur. She also was 29th overall in breast and 23rd in free–with a great 2018 campaign Esther could crack the first team by the end of the season
- Charis Roundtree (Virginia Run): The only rising 9-year-old to make this list, Charis dominated as an 8-under, winning the 25 fly title with a time that would have cracked the top 15 for the 9-10 girls a season ago
- Kathy Nie (Poplar Tree): Kathy finished with the 15th fastest time in 50 breast in 2017
- Aliyah Majeed-Hall (Chesterbrook): Aliyah had the 16th fastest 25 fly and 18th fastest 50 breast in a very deep field of 9 y/o girls
Honorable Mention:
- Emerson Hart (Overlee): Emerson finished 20th overall in 50 breast
- Katherine Pascual (Country Club Hills): Katherine had the 22nd fastest 50 free
- Claire Dobrydney (Fairfax): Claire finished 28th in free, 30th in back, and 32nd in fly
- Sophie Fredericks (Shouse Village): Sophie had the 20th fastest fly and 32nd fastest back in 2017
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