Congratulations to Swimmers Gavin Hacket, Jennie McGrath, and Celia Ford!

 

“The level of dedication it takes to qualify for JOs is very high,” Scott says. “All three swimmers sacrificed aspects of their after-school life, from other sports to theater performances and recitals, to be fully prepared.” To put it in perspective, each event’s qualifying time standard or “cut time” is calculated to allow only the top 15% of all the swimmers who competed in that particular event to advance. Qualifying for the Junior Olympics means these swimmers are amongst the fastest swimmers under 14-yrs-old in the entire DC metro area.

Will Ginter, who competed in last year’s Junior Olympics, qualified again this year, hitting a top-16 time and ranking 15^th in the 50m breaststroke. To reach the top 16, officials use eligible times from all sanctioned meets, and after winter and spring championships, they take the top 16 times for each event to compile a “Top 16 Report” for each swimmer. Swimmers then are placed based on their Top 16 Report. Will, unfortunately, will be too old to swim in the Junior Olympics this year because he turns 13 years old 10 days before the start of the meet. He qualified as a 12-year-old, not as a 13-year-old.

Last year Will qualified with a time of 1:21.45 in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Potomac Valley Swim Competition. He swam alongside teammate Sean McCaffrey, who placed in the top 20 for the 50m breaststroke at the Junior Olympics.