SMAC shines in pair of meet

The annual QDD Fall Festival swim meet, hosted by the QDD swim team, was held at George Mason University’s Freedom Aquatic Center on Oct. 17 and 18. SMAC swimmers, who had been fighting the H1N1 flu the week prior, took 12 athletes to the meet.

Waynesboro High School senior Katie Keefer took home top honors in the senior 100-yard backstroke, 1000-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, and 500-yard freestyle. Anna Corley took home top honors in the 13 to 14 100-yard backstroke, while Alex Rayle took home top honors in the 13 to 14 400-yard individual medley. Remedy Rule took home top honors as well, finishing first in the 13-14 200-yard freestyle.

Other SMAC swimmers achieving top-5 finishes include Keegan Abar, Matt Bihl, Lexi Campbell and Robby Turner. Tim Bihl, Lindsey Carter, Jack Cronk, Scout McDevitt and Carly Witt also made the trip to Manassas and posted a combined 11 lifetime best times.

The Gator Halloween Meet, hosted by Virginia Gator swimming, was held the weekend of Oct. 23, at the Gator Aquatic Center in Roanoke. Twenty seven SMAC athletes represented the team well by posting 132 top-10 finishes.

Top-place finishers from SMAC included Jessie Arnold, Olivia Heeb, Zakkary Hodge, Norah Hunt, Hunter McMillon, Jordan Miller, Brazil Rule and Gannon Willcutts. Olivia Heeb broke the SMAC record in the 200 breastroke with a time of 2:46.57. The record was set last year by teammate Jessie Arnold.

Athletes posting top-10 finishes included Alexis Brooks, Peyton Brooks, Bobby Carey, Jesse Dugan, Margot Flanders, Alex Flowers, Riley Gildea, Maeve Hayden, Caleb Johnson, Nick Keen, Alex Randolph, Teryn Ratcliffe, Savannah Scarbrough, Annelise Stacey, Elizabeth Terrell, Logan Terrell, Benton Turner, Averi Witt and Emma Woodworth.

Competing in her first competition for SMAC, Isabel Woodworth recorded two top-20 finishes.