Fairfax Girls Tie Robinson To Spice Up 'Border War'

In swimming, every tenth of a second counts, with races often separated by the slimmest of margins, and at last night's Northern Region championship swim meet, that proved to be the case.

In the boys' meet, Robinson held off a late rally from Oakton to edge the Cougars, 282-272.5, for its sixth consecutive region championship. Fairfax and Robinson tied with 294 points to share the girls' championship.

With the win, the Robinson boys now enter next weekend's AAA state meet as the favorite to collect a sixth consecutive title.

"Let's just say that states next weekend is going to be interesting," Robinson Coach Rich Gordon said, laughing. "Our guys swam not so well the first night, and that kind of shook them up for tonight, and this victory tonight hopefully shores up their mental state for next week."

The Rams entered the final boys' event of the night, the 400 freestyle relay, holding a slight advantage. But behind seniors Tim Wingert and Matt Krebs, who stepped into the relay at the last minute, the Rams won the event to cement the victory.

On the girls' side, Fairfax claimed its third consecutive title -- but shared it with a Robinson team that, led by All-Met Amanda Kendall, is eager to climb out of the shadow of the dominant boys' program.

"It's a fun little border war we have," Fairfax Coach Matt Salerno said. "We had to get our girls into position for states next week, just like they did, so it's going to be a nice little battle next week."

Eight records fell during the meet, including some that had stood for more than 20 years. Olympian Tom Dolan's mark in the 500 freestyle, set in 1993, also fell, with Chantilly junior Matthew Benecki eclipsing the mark by more than one second.

Four swimmers -- Stone Bridge senior Suzanne Schwee (100 butterfly, 100 backstroke), Jefferson senior Jonathan Christensen (200 individual medley, 100 breaststroke), Lake Braddock senior Molly Emery (500 freestyle, 200 freestyle) and Lake Braddock All-Met Ashley Danner (200 individual medley, 100 breaststroke) also captured two individual events, with Danner and Emery setting records in both.

"As a team, we're ready," Wingert said of states. "We're so pumped, we're at the top of our game and we're ready to do this thing."

Northern Region Swimming Championships Up Next: The Virginia AAA championship meet is Feb. 8-9 at the Aquatics and Fitness Center at George Mason University. Record Setting: The Lake Braddock girls set five records. Ashley Danner and Molly Emery each secured two records, and the 400-freestyle relay of Sarah Lynch, Carly Ogren, Danner and Emery set another. Northern Region Swimming Championships Up Next: The Virginia AAA championship meet is Feb. 8-9 at the Aquatics and Fitness Center at George Mason University. Record Setting: The Lake Braddock girls set five records. Ashley Danner and Molly Emery each secured two records, and the 400-freestyle relay of Sarah Lynch, Carly Ogren, Danner and Emery set another.