by Cara Farr ‘27

Freshman Brooke Lakso races through the water as she tackles a freestyle event, finishing first against QO.

Over the past decade or so, there have been seasons when Sherwood’s girl swim team has been among the very best in the entire DMV. The girls have won first place in different events at the state championships 15 times in the past decade, with many individual phenoms such as Morgan Hill, with 5 different school records, Melissa Bartlett with the 500 free school record that from 1999 that still stands 27 years later, and Lilia Atanda setting two different diving records in 2022 and 2023, having ended their high school careers as legends.

This season’s edition of girls swim is looking to make their mark as one of the strongest teams in school history. As the season comes to a close, the girls swim team has had an extremely successful regular season going undefeated with a record of 5-0. Captains of this season’s girls team are seniors Maya Quiroga and Jill Williams, and junior Ella Costolo. The team’s talent carries much further past their captains, and part of their success this season comes from the depth of excellent swimmers on their team.

“Our team was very deep and had a new hero each week really. Someone new seems to always step up each weekend to earn our team a win,” said coach Ryan Burnsky. This claim was substantiated when 11 girls qualified for the state championship.

Burnsky saw the potential for this team early in the season to achieve their goal of bringing home the division title. “Our girls have a very legitimate chance to win,” Burnsky said last November. This held true as the girls were crowned division champions for the first time in eight years. “We’ve done really well,” said Williams. “We’ve never won the division during my high school years before.” With all of the young talent that will be staying with the team, Burnsky is hopeful that the our girls will compete for Division titles for years to come.

Three seniors are continuing their swimming career past Sherwood into college. Williams is committed to Rowan University, located in New Jersey. Elle Floyd is staying in state to continue her athletic career at Salisbury University. Corinne Blachere is going up north to continue swimming for Franklin & Marshall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Along with these seniors bringing experience, three freshmen swimmers have stood out and represent the future of the program. Emi Cooper, Brooke Lakso, and Mia Velasquez are all making a big impact in just their first year being on the team. “The bulk of our points came from our underclassmen,” said Burnsky. “Having three freshman at States is more than any other team in MCPS this season” said Burnsky, showing that He specifically mentioned Lakso and how consistently good she was throughout the season. She went undefeated, meaning she did not lose in any individual events.

One of the biggest events of the season, the Washington Metropolitan Interscholastic Swim & Dive Championships (Metros), which took place from February 4 through February 7, is where the best swimmers from the DMV compete to see who comes out on top. The Warriors once again had a strong showing, with junior Mia Fecko and Floyd both finaling in 500 free. Lakso had an impressive couple of days, placing 3rd in 100 Breast and 12th in 200 IM. Putting up such an impressive performance as just a freshman, she will be a crucial component to this team’s success in the next couple of years. “Brooke Lakso absolutely crushed her freshman season. To be a freshman and get 3rd at Metros and 2nd at States is unbelievable. We are lucky to have her for three more years,” said Burnsky.

With such young talent performing so well this past season, the best is yet to come for this swim team. “Next year we will return a lot of our top swimmers,” mentioned Burnsky, “it should be fun and fast for the next couple years.” Once experience is combined with the talent already present in this group of swimmers, they will have no where to go but up.