by Katherine Mahoney ‘20

Last Saturday morning the Sherwood Warrior swim team walked into Martin Luther King, Jr. Indoor Swim Center bringing their all as they battled Blair, Gaithersburg, Northwest, Quince Orchard, and Wootton for the division two county championship. After winning this meet the previous six years, the girls’ team added another victory to their untouchable record on Saturday. The boys swam one of their best meets of the year, with numerous swimmers achieving personal bests, finished third.

“The girls really swam well today, and it’s a little momentum-builder to get ready for next weekend. I think we will be in the hunt next weekend at Metros,” said Coach Brendan Lees.

The team had an amazing season with girls going undefeated and boys showing major improvements. At the divisionals, the girls finished with a score of 516, with almost a hundred-point lead over second place Blair. Quince Orchard took third, followed by Northwest and Gaithersburg. Blair’s boys’ team came in first with a score of 426.5, followed by Quince Orchard with 381.5, and Sherwood only 10.5 points behind at 371.

The team did exceptionally well in relays, with girls winning all three relays and boys placing third for the first two races and fifth for another. “I think our team is going to do very well at Metros considering the fact that almost everyone swam personal bests or close to personal bests at divisionals,” said senior Kennedy Nolan.

Starting this Wednesday swimmers and divers all over the county will be preparing for Metros. Metros are not like football games, poms competitions, or even the typical swim meet.

At the multiple-day meet, swimmers must place in the top 20 at preliminaries to advance to the finals. Sherwood is excited to go against usual opponents like BCC and Blair, as well as private schools like Holton Arms and Stone Ridge. The Sherwood girls won Metros in 2016 and were runner-up in 2017. Based on the results from the teams on Saturday, and the strong performances from both returning and freshmen swimmers, the Warriors are going to be hard to beat. Diving will be Wednesday and Thursday, and swimming will be Friday night, and Saturday.

“It feels great that our team can go to the next level and achieve great things. I’m excited to see what we can do at Metros.” said senior Andrew Martinez.

This year’s captains, seniors Grace Giddings, Nolan, Kelly Kolanawski, Martinez, Chad Carlson, and Declan Black, have molded the team into a strong, spirited family for their last year at Sherwood. Divisionals was filled with supportive Warriors and friends screaming with excitement for the swimmers. The team is eager to see the amazing support given by Sherwood’s community as they try to bring home the victory.

“This season has not only been super successful, but super fun. Everyone on the team is great friends, and it definitely helps to have all the support,” said Giddings.