Recently in FISH of the Month Category

Written by Josh Morgan

2010 has been a great year so far for Emily! In route to winning the girls 10 & Under high point award at the RAC Classic over MLK weekend, Emily won the 200 free, 50 back and 100 back and teamed with her fellow 10 & Under FISH to win both the 200 freestyle and 200 medley relays. Emily's 100 backstroke time of 1:04.88 bettered the PVS Resident Record and is currently the top in the nation for her age group. Emily had three other swims at the RAC meet that earned her national rankings: 200 free, 2:08.42 (8th), 50 back, 31.11 (11th) and 500 free, 5:42.54 (11th).

Written by Josh Hyde

Casey Storch, 10, is November's FISH of the Month. Casey's performance at the November Open was outstanding; he qualified for Junior Olympics in every event he competed. After this meet he came to practice with a new found focus on his training and enthusiasm to do whatever it takes to improve. This was apparent at the recent Tom Dolan Invitational meet where he improved his times in all of his events, only 4 weeks after the November Open.

Written by Josh Morgan

October's FISH of the Month, 13-year old Alexandra Cramer, is off to an impressive start to the 2009-2010 short course season. In just two meets, she has managed to not only swim every event offered in her age group, but has also swum personal best times in 13 of 14 events!

Alexandra, who swims with the Incredible FISH, has averaged over 100% attendance throughout the fall. Undoubtedly her persistence, consistent effort and hard work at practice have translated into improvements in the competition pool. Additionally, Alex was one of only two Incredible FISH who successfully swam in all four sessions as well as Saturday's between session practice at the MSSC Senior Meet. 

Alex, who has been swimming competitively since she was 8 years old, also plays the violin, enjoys drawing and has two cats (Buttercup & Sophie) at home. The FISH coaches are eagerly monitoring Alex's progress and are looking forward to her continued improvement and leadership by example. 

Written by Coach Gunther Niklas

No matter how demanding or painful a practice set may be, Megan McCreary always has a smile on her face and a determination to do her best.  Her approach to training and her "coach ability", make her an easy choice for Swimmer of the Month. Megan started out the 2009-2010 season with the challenging goal of qualifying for Spring Junior Olympics.  Through her hard work and determination, Megan is now within 2 seconds of her goal in the 200 freestyle.

Written by Coach Megan

Megan McCreary has emerged as an outstanding and dedicated swimmer this summer.

Megan began swimming at age 7 for her local swim team, the Langley Wild Things.  After finding a love for swimming, Megan began as a Mini FISH at 9-years-old.  From there, she has moved up in the ranks of the FISH Swim Team and will be a Terrific FISH in the fall.

Megan is a diverse swimmer and says that her favorite events are the 50 free, 100 free, 200 IM, and 400 IM.  In addition, she qualified for Age Group Champs for the 400 free the first time she swam 

Grace Gent was nominated FISH of the month for April. Grace is a very strong Mini FISH whose improvements have not only come from going to the regular scheduled Mini FISH practices, but by also by attending morning practices at Spring Hill on a regular basis.

Back in February, Grace swam at the Winter Gator Mini Meet where she qualified for the PVS Junior Olympics.  The time standards at the Junior Olympics are set for 10 and under swimmers. Grace is only 8 years old and qualifying for this meet at the age of eight is a tremendous accomplishment.  She was racing against 9-10 year old swimmers. 

When Jessica Rogers, 12, joined FISH this season, she was an unknown to the Potomac Valley Swim leagues, but had already made her mark on the junior national scene as a record holder in 7 swimming events.

Born with a condition called lumbo-sacral agenesis, Jessica weighs in at just under 35 lbs and is missing the lower part of her spine as well as most of both legs. Nevertheless, Jessica has always been an athlete. She plays wheelchair basketball (team ranked 1st in the Eastern region), participates in wheelchair track (taking 1st place at the 2008 junior nationals in the 100Meter 200Meter 400Meter events), and she swims.

By Coach Norm

Isabella Rongione is Fish of the Month for January.  From last year to this year Isabella was able to move from the Mini FISH into Terrific FISH.  She was able to do this by attending both Long Course (LC) and Short Course (SC) morning practices.  

Written by Coach Norm

Elena swims with the Awesome FISH and is the youngest of the Marsilli sisters who all swam with the FISH over the years.  Elena is a freshman at Bishop O'Connell High School.  At the Christmas Championship Meet in December, Elena was able to win five events while qualifying for finals in all of her events.  Elena was also able to swim 12 best times at Christmas Champs.