The West Laurel Swim Team has wrapped up yet another successful season. They are not just successful for their team wins but for their individual achievements. With swimming, you always want to beat your own best time.
The Wahoo season culminated with the annual Fun Night that followed WLST hosting the Divisionals. The team celebrated a great season with a volleyball tournament, greased watermelon contest and lots of food and frolic.
Congratulations to coach David Basile and assistant coaches Katie Ruiz and Louanne Myers who had the love and admiration of all the team.
The highlight of the night was the awards ceremony. Roshan Mani received the Littlest Wahoo Award; Chase van der Have and Celina Johnson received the Rookie of the Year Award; and Henry Buda and Kara Schmidt were named the MVPs for scoring the most points for the team. The prestigious spirit awards went to Ben Stevick and Sara Morgan. Most Improved Swimmer Awards went to Tim Hicks, Cara Samson, Tom Diggins, Chandler Nelson, Luke Justice, Marissa Thigpen, David Magno, Rayhanna Mani, Ayden Moris and Diana Kirk. High Point awards went to (15-18) Zach Landau, Maria Ruiz; (13-14) Terrell Nash, Lucy Buda, EJ Hendershot, Grace Zack, Andres Moran, Taylor Murray, Matthew Schmidt and Celina Johnson. Congratulations to all the swimmers, coaches, and parents for another Wahoo season of fun in the sun.
Summertime is also baseball time. Our local fields have been busy with softball and baseball games with players of all age groups. Two brothers stand out as baseball players we could see playing in the big leagues one day. Christopher Jones, a 14-year-old who is going to be a freshman at Eleanor Roosevelt, and his brother Marcus Jones, 12 years old and a student at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, have been breaking records. They keep their parents Kim and Jeffrey running from game to game; baseball is a family affair.
Marcus and his U12 travel team, the Olney All-Stars, traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y., as one of the 104 teams and 1,300 kids that compete there every July. Marcus was selected by his team to compete in the Roadrunner event, where he had the second-fastest time at 12.57 seconds against 103 other players. They advanced the top six times to the main field to be timed again in front of all the other spectators. Marcus ran and had the best time and edged out his leading competitor by .08 seconds to win the coveted Roadrunner trophy. The same day he hit a grand slam against a team from Canada to help with a decisive win.
As I reported previously, big brother Christopher's skills got him the championship of the local /area competition in May, which qualified him to compete in June at Camden Yards where he finished in second place. Congratulation Marcus and Christopher for your amazing achievements.
The Prince George's County Public Schools 2016-2017 school year begins on Tuesday, Aug. 23. Get your school supplies ready!