Championship season has come and gone and the SwimRVA Rapids have left their mark on a historic season across the Artistic Swimming, Water Polo, and Swim Team programs. Catch up on the season here:
Artistic Swimming:
The Rapids Artistic Swimming Team completed their competitive season in Manassas, Virginia at the South Zone Region A Meet in May. The two-day event kicked off with novice and intermediate figures and solos, followed by team routines, duets, and trios. The meet was unique as it combined swimmers’ figure scores with their routine scores for an average combined results.
The swimmers then displayed the season’s accomplishments in their Artistic Swimming Spring Showcase, bringing a record crowd to their home practice space at SwimRVA-CSAC.
Rapids artistic swimmers Aina Traite-Codina and Sadie Edlavich traveled from Richmond to Gresham, Oregon in July to compete at the 2024 USA Artistic Swimming Junior Olympic Championship. Both girls competed in an individual solo and teamed up for a duet together to represent SwimRVA on the national stage. Overall, the girls competed among 970 athletes representing 71 different artistic swimming clubs across 22 different states.
Water Polo:
Rapids water polo athletes James McRae and Petar Stjepanovic competed in session one of the 2024 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics in Stanford, California. Finishing 14th in the classic division for Capitol DC, James had the opportunity to compete against some of the best water polo players in the country. Petar competed in the championship division, finishing 14th in the country as well. Playing for CT Premier, Petar was a starter and recorded multiple goals.
The Rapids made program history in more ways than one entering session three, as they brought both 16u and 18u teams to compete at the national level for the first time. The 16u team continued the historic momentum as they were placed in the Platinum Division after the first day of competition, again marking a program-first achievement. With less substitutes than other teams, Rapids players proved their stamina across several intense shootouts on the national stage.
Swim Team:
The Rapids swim team made history in multiple categories at the 2024 VA LC Age Group Championships in Christiansburg. Headed into day one, the Rapids saw a record 40 swimmers entered in the meet, up eight from the previous best of 32. By day three of competition, the team had already surpassed their record points and concluded the meet with 1640 points, up nearly 500 points from the previous best of 1172 points. Their combined score earned them fourth place overall and only 5.5 points behind Cavalier Aquatics who took third place.
Additionally, 26 team records were broken and two individual championship titles were earned at Age Group Champs. Lexi Hynst and Trey Young each finished atop the podium for the Rapids, as Lexi won the 10 & Under 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:31.41 and Trey won the 13-14 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:08.73.
The Rapids also had nine swimmers compete in the 2024 USA Swimming Futures Championships hosted by SwimRVA. Multiple team records were broken as a handful of swimmers earned their way to finals, highlighted by Christine Datovech’s podium finish in the 50 Freestyle with a time of 26.85 to earn her eighth place overall.
Last but not least, the Rapids saw a team-best 12 qualifiers for the 2024 Eastern Zone Age Group Championships in Hampton, Va., up from eight swimmers over the past two years. Eleven of those qualifiers represented Virginia Swimming across four days of competition at the Hampton Virginia Aquaplex.
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SwimRVA is proud to be represented by such a competitive and successful group of athletes and looks forward to all the accomplishments to come in the upcoming 2024-2025 season.
More information on our Rapids programs can be found below: