Undaunted by the very hot and humid conditions, CSL swimmers raced to their strongest collective times of the season, determining two Division crowns in the process.

In the Gold Division, host Countryside won the final seven relays in their decisive meet to rally past Arlington Knights of Columbus, 233 to 211. In the crucial White Division meet, South Riding, trailing after the individual events, won 9 out of 12 relays to win at Fort Myer by a score of 239 to 205.

The Cascades Rapids won a hard-fought meet at Franklin Farm, 230 to 214, to clinch their third straight undefeated regular season and a second consecutive Red Division crown. Finally, Blue Division champ Armfield Farm held off determined Hayden Village to stay perfect for the season, barely winning by a score of 224 to 220.

Congratulations to the Waves, the Stingrays, the Rapids, and the Stingrays for "bringin' it" every weekend! Great seasons!

There were four CSL records set this weekend.

The Burke Centre Penguins continued their 2010 assault on the record books, starting with their Girls 8&U 100M Medley relay. The relay consisting of Cassidy Hoeft, Shelby Cleal, Rachel Luteran, and Ellie Mulvenon raced to a time of 1:24.54, besting their own record time of 1:25.48 set in the first week of the season. And in the Boys Mixed Age 200M Freestyle relay, Vincent Cleal, Cal Dermody, Matt Jones, and Ben Zajic recorded a time of 1:53.26, smashing the 24-year old mark of 1:55.93.

In the Boys 11-12 50M Backstroke event, Armfield Farm standout Dennis Lai set the new standard with a time of 32.63, bettering the mark of 32.73 which had stood for 14 years. And finally, our old friend Michael Herrmann from Barrington once again lowered his Boys 15-18 50M Backstroke record, this time to 25.37 from his previous record time of 25.78.

Congratulations to Cassidy, Shelby, Rachel Luteran, Ellie, Cal, Vincent, Ben, Matt, Dennis, and Michael! Great swims!

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Updated -- 7/27/2010!!!

In their make-up meet last evening against Fort Myer, the Burke Centre Stingers relay consisting of Christine Canty, Rachel Canty, Rebecca Bott, and Tess Miller set a new league record in the Girls 15-18 200M Medley relay event, shattering the old record of 2:08.48 with a sparkling time of 2:06.59.

Congratulations on a great swim, Christine, Rachel, Rebecca, and Tess!!!

Swimmers and parents will want to check out the Latest Results and League Leaders areas of the website.

Latest ladders....

Individual Meters

Individual Yards

Relay Meters

Relay Yards

Arlington Knights of Columbus, ManorGate, South Riding, and Burke Centre Penguins walked away with the hardware at today's "new look" CSL Relay Carnival at Sugarland Run.

Interested consumers of swimming data should check out these printable meet results and (corrected) Division-level scores.

Hy-Tek gurus for the team might want to download and process the meet backup and results export.

There were three league records set at this summer's meet, starting with the first event where the Penguins' Cal Dermody, Vincent Cleal, Jimmy Honnold, and Matt Jones recorded a time of 1:44.63 in the Boys Mixed Age 200Y Freestyle relay, beating the 30-year old mark of 1:45.41.

The Penguins soon struck again in the Girls 8&Under 100Y Medley relay, with Cassidy Hoeft, Shelby Cleal, Rachel Luteran, and Ellie Mulvenon smashing the previous record of 1:21.54 with a dazzling time of 1:16.23.

Finally, in the Boys 15-18 200Y Medley relay, South Riding's Thomas Mignone, Christopher Crampton, Pete Johnson, and Andrew Smith motored impressively to a new record time of 1:45.73, besting the old standard of 1:46.06.

Congratulations to Cal, Vincent, Jimmy, Matt, Cassidy, Shelby, Rachel, Ellie, Thomas, Christopher, Pete, and Andrew! Well done!

Also on the league record front, at their meet with the Burke Centre Penguins on Saturday, Broadlands' 8&Under standout Jack Moore broke his own record in the 100M IM event, this time putting the mark way down to 1:30.29.

Way to go, Jack! Congratulations!

For those interested in comparing these sorts of things, you can see last year's scoring method applied to this years' meet and contrast it with the Division level scoring above.

Also, here are this year's ribbon counts by team along with the approximate ribbon counts by team had we scored the meet the old way.

League meet updates...

With Saturday's victory over Ashburn Village, undefeated Cascades has now successfully defended its Red Division title, as they are now 1-1/2 meets clear of all the other teams. Likewise, Armfield Farm is this summer's Blue Division champ, with a one meet lead and the tie-breaker over 2nd place ManorGate and Chantilly National.

The other two Divisions will both come down to showdowns of the undefeateds. Fort Myer, their makeup meet with BCS not withstanding, hosts South Riding in the meet that will decide the White Division. And the AKC Holy Mackerels travel to Countryside to swim for the Gold Division crown.

It wasn't the best conditions for great swims this past Saturday -- improved times were down nearly 12% -- but that didn't keep several close meets from occurring.

Red and White Division co-leaders Cascades and South Riding both pulled away late to win tense meets at home against the Burke Centre Penguins and a surging Barrington team, respectively. Ashburn Farm won the final relay at Franklin Glen to win, 224 to 220, in a meet during which they never led by more than six points.

And Chantilly Highlands was in another thriller, this time at Red Division co-leader Ashburn Village. That meet was tied at 180 after the individual events, and was tied 6 more times through the relays, the final tie occuring at the final score of 222 all. Whew!

The other White Division co-leader, Fort Myer, postponed their meet with Burke Centre Stingers.

In the Blue Division, Manorgate surprised previously unbeaten Hayden Village, 235 to 198, which turned that Division race into a complete melee. The Marlins and the Villains now both have a shot at the title, along with Chantilly National and undefeated Armfield Farm.

Finally, in the Gold Division undefeateds Countryside and Arlington Knights of Columbus continue on their collision course to a week 5 showdown.

The CSL season began to heat up a bit this week, with several close meets underscoring the competition.

A strong Broadlands team lost narrowly for the second week in a row, this time falling to Cascades, 224 to 220, in a back-and-forth meet that came down to the final two relays. And although Armfield Farm's 235 to 209 win over Chantilly National may not appeared to have been that close based on the score, this meet featured 5 ties and 15 lead changes, with the Stingrays eventually taking control late in the relays. Finally, Chantilly Highlands was the place to be for wire-to-wire excitement as the Dolphins edged the Burke Centre Penguins, 220 to 217. This meet came down the final relay, and it featured 12 lead changes, with 6 lead changes occuring during the relays.

The division battles are now starting to take shape. In the Gold Division, Countryside and Arlington Knights of Columbus sit alone at the top, while Armfield Farm and Hayden Village are both undefeated in the Blue Division.

South Riding and Fort Myer -- the two bottom seeds -- appear to be the class of the White Division, and Ashburn Village and Cascades are at the top of the Red Division table. All of these teams will clash late in the season, most of them in the final week.

There was a new league record set this weekend. Broadlands' standout Jack Moore powered to an impressive time of 1:32.88 in the Boys 8&Under 100M Individual Medley, breaking the mark 1:33.34 set in Y2K.

Congratulations and way to go, Jack!! Great swim!

The first week of the 2010 CSL season got off to a successful start under sunny skies today, with away teams taking 8 of the 12 meets, including a road sweep in the Red Division.

The White Division was the only one with two home winners as South Riding and Fort Myer -- this year's 5th and 6th seeds -- both looked very impressive in dispatching the Burke Centre Stingers and top-seeded Ashburn Farm. In that division's other meet, Franklin Glen led almost wire-to-wire -- but never by more than 24 points -- to win at Barrington by only 227 to 217.

There were two CSL records set today.

Barrington's Michael Herrmann (who you might remember from last year, and from the year before last) broke his own record in the Boys 15-18 50Y Backstroke, zipping to a time of 25.78. His previous record time from last summer was 26.04.

Not too far away at the Commons Pool in Burke, the Burke Centre Penguins Girls 8&Under 100M Medley relay consisting of Cassidy Hoeft, Shelby Cleal, Rachel Luteran, and Ellie Mulvenon swam an incredible time of 1:25.48, shattering the previous record time of 1:28.69 which had stood for 32 years.

Congratulations to Cassidy, Shelby, Rachel, Ellie, and Michael! Great swims!!

Colonial Swimming League is offering the usual regimen of Officials and Hy-Tek training this spring. You don't need to sign up in advance. Just show up!

A condensed schedule is below.

Details are available in the full article.

Officials Training (Stroke & Turn, Starter, Referee)

Saturday, May 8th, 8 am - Noon, Arlington Knights of Columbus

Saturday, June 5th, 8 am - 11 am, Burke Centre

Wednesday, June 2rd, 7 pm - 10 pm, Ashburn Village

Hy-Tek Training (Team Manager & Meet Manager, with perhaps a bit of TeamUnify & ActiveNetwork thrown in)

Thursday, May 20th, 7 pm - 10 pm, Chase Club

Thursday, June 10th, 7 pm - 10 pm, Ashburn Village