Two years ago, the Richard Montgomery boys swim and dive team had a taste of victory as they placed first at the Maryland 4A3A swim and dive state championships, effectively crowning them as the best public school team in all of Maryland. Unfortunately history could not be repeated the following year, as mistakes and dismal performances lead to only a second place finish.
This was not the case for today however, as the boys swim and dive team once again took home the state title, with a score of 319 points.
The same could not be said for the girls team which fell short with 131 points, resulting in an 8th place finish. Despite the overall score, many phenomenal performances were still seen from top swimmers such as Audrey Richter and Kelsey Song.
Taking place at the University of Maryland, College Park, Epley Center the meet officially began at 10:00 AM starting with the boys 200 yard medley relay. On the Rockets side, the relay consisted of juniors Matt Nguyen, Greg and Kenny Afolabi-Brown, and senior captain Bouke Edskes. The relay’s seed time was a 1:37:84 which placed them three seconds faster than the rest of competition. When Greg Afolabi-Brown’s hand touched the wall however, the time on the scoreboard read a stunning 1:34:57, effectively breaking the previous state record which was set by Quince Orchard high school back in 2013. The highly successful race set the tone for the rest of the meet, as an additional two more state records would be broken by RM.
Following the relay came the 200 yard freestyle event. Although RM’s swimmers placed 6th and 7th in the event, it was swam by none other than freshman Connor Din and John Clado, foreshadowing a bright future for RM swim and dive. Din also set a new school record with his time of 1:45:41.
The next event was the boys 200 yard individual medley, in which Edskes broke a three year old state record previously set by Jack Foster of Montgomery Blair high school. Edskes would also go on to take first place in the mens 200 yard butterfly, falling short of the record by only half a second.
The next first place finish for the Rockets wouldn’t come until the boys 200 yard freestyle relay took place, which consisted of both Afolabi-Brown brothers, junior Simon Li, and Edskes once again. The flawless race translated into a third broken state record previously set by Churchill high school three years ago.
The rest of the meet continued just as smoothly as additional points were scored for the Rockets by sophomore Nathan Kim, juniors Jonathan Mendley and Jack Rose, and senior David Zhang. By the end of the meet, the Rockets had finished in first out of 24 high schools with 319 points, successfully ending their season with an 8-1 record. The second closest team was Winston Churchill with 265.5 points followed by Bethesda Chevy-Chase with 208 points.
“We had a great states meet with all of our guys stepping up,” said senior captain Eli Samuelson who showed up to support the team. “[Din] breaking the record really shows what a future RM has in swimming and diving.”
Although the girls team fell short with scoring, it was clear that the team still did an amazing job keeping up with the pace. Beginning Friday night, junior diver Kamryn Umbel finished in 6th place. Also on the girls side, exceptional performances were seen from senior captain Audrey Richter who scored 28 points individually and senior Kelsey Song who scored 20 points individually.
The 200 yard freestyle relay, which consisted of Song, juniors Grace Sun and Kellie Zhang, and Richter placed 4th as well, bringing in another 30 points.
Additionally, great races could be seen from other swimmers including Nefret and Sophie El-Masry, senior captain Helen Kent, Grace Sun, and Lauren Zhou.
“Everyone swam fast,” remarked Kent. “There were a lot of best times, lots of people placed in the top 8. All around it was a great meet for us.”
