Capturing two of the titles outright and sharing a third, the Tuckahoe Tigers earned a triple crown of summertime swimming this season, capped by winning the Northern Virginia Swimming League’s top Division 1 championship for the second straight year, with 5-0 records each time.
The McLean team won the division crown by defeating the visiting Overlee Flying Fish, 221.5-198.5, the morning of July 13 in a final regular-season dual meet. The Division 1 crown was Tuckahoe’s third in four seasons.
In previous days, Tuckahoe won the divisional relays, then July 10 tied the Chesterbrook Tiger Sharks for first in the league-wide All Star Relay Carnival. The three victories added up to a much-coveted single-season trifecta.
“We will take it and we were determined to get the outright [division] title,” Tuckahoe coach Torey Ortmayer said. “We stepped up, won the division and swam well and won our [earlier] meet at Chesterbrook for the first time. It has been a fun season that way.”
Ortmayer has been Tuckahoe's head coach for all three recent Division 1 championships.
In the meet against Overlee, Ortmayer said the Tigers didn’t have to do “anything special” – just be consistent like the team had been in previous meets.
Leading Tuckahoe against Overlee were double winners Catherine Hughes, Grant Nielsen, Liam Laudier and Danielle Hughes. Single winner were Nolan Dunkel, Andrew Pelaez, Hugo Haggard, Oli Waisberg, ViVi Passos-Androvi, Max Waisberg, Isaac Bell, Kennedy Nielsen, Victor Rodriguez, Bella Cota-Robles and Hunter Zipperer.
Josie Gieseman, who has swam with Tuckahoe since age 5, and Calla Spignardo each had top-four finishes in the girls 15-18 age group for Tuckahoe.
Marjorie Misantone, Gabriela Rodriguez, Tinsley Bretzfield, Victoria Waisberg, Caroline Van Riper, Maddie Nielsen, Jillian Bayer, Ella English, Eloise Pray, Marin McManus, Daniel Klett, Victor Rodriguez, Evan Iacobucci and Cormac Misantone were other top finishers for Tuckahoe.
Tuckahoe led, 48-42, after the initial freestyle races, and maintained the lead the rest of the meet. The teams split winning the 12 relays.
Double winners for Overlee were Abigail Hartman, Samantha Bravery, Violet Mullen, McKinley Busen, Sully Portner and Sia Nicholakos. Single winners were Brendan Finnerty, Will Cravens, Tyler Hong, Vikas Gonzalez, Jackson Bravery, Jack Yost, Alex Bristow, Charleigh Cravens and Mary Pickens.
Mullen set team records in the girls age 11-12 freestyle (28.76) and 11-12 butterfly (30.40). The 13-14 Overlee boys broke the 100-medley-relay record with a time of 54.96.