Down the Line: Tide Swimming performers shine at USA Swimming Junior Nationals
The Tide Swimming club members made their presence felt, to say the least, at the USA Swimming Junior Nationals last week in Irvine, California.
Based in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, Tide gained nine top-eight finishes and five top-three finishes in a meet for elite swimmers who are 18 or younger.
Kayla Wilson, a Norfolk Academy graduate who soon will compete for Stanford, won the women’s 100- and 200-meter freestyle races in 55.09 seconds and 1 minute, 58.69 seconds, respectively. She was fifth in the 400 free at 4:14.49.
Sophia Knapp, a graduate of state champion First Colonial High who soon will head to reigning NCAA champion Virginia, was third in the 800 free (8:39.27), fourth in the 400 free (4:14.41, eight-hundredths of a second ahead of Wilson) and fifth in the 1,500 free (16:43.49), the meet’s longest race.
Maddy Hartley, a First Colonial graduate who soon will swim for Arkansas, also competed on the girls’ side. Her finishes included 46th in the 200 butterfly (2:25.22) and 59th in the 100 fly (1:02.83).
In boys competition, Ocean Lakes High standout Bobby DiNunzio took two bronze medals, placing third in the 800 free (8:09.34) and 1,500 free (15:37.79). He has committed to swim for the Cavaliers in the fall of 2023.
Wilson and DiNunzio have quite a trip ahead. They will leave Aug. 20 to represent Team USA in Honolulu at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships, having earned their ticket by qualifying at the International Team Trials in Greensboro, North Carolina, in late April.
Boys basketball: Forty-seven high school teams began the weekend at the Blue Marlin Team Camp at Virginia Wesleyan, and the final day of action is today.
Barring changes, action is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Sunday with Norview against Riverbend, Salem against Pocomoke, Indian River versus Kellam, Cox against Granby and Maury against Kempsville.
The last games are scheduled for 5 p.m., with Kecoughtan meeting Huguenot, Hampton playing Northampton and Bethel facing Lake Taylor.
Amateur golf: The Tidewater Golfweek Amateur Tour will return to action with two sold-out events next weekend at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, including a Skins Game on Saturday.
Last weekend in the AmpCaddy Classic at Beechwood Country Club in Ahoskie, North Carolina, Matthew Spruill shot a two-day 152 to win the Championship flight.
Jeff Knapstein fired a 155 to win the 28-player “A” flight for golfers with handicaps from 4.0 to 8.9. Carlos Quinones won the 31-player “B” flight (9.0-13.9) at 162, Matt Coleman won the 23-player “C” (14.0-18.9) at 166 and John Cycyk took the 17-player “D” (19 and up) with a 172.
Davis Cup: If you’ve watched local college tennis in the past couple of years, you probably have seen some players who frequently represent their country in Davis Cup.
They include: Costa Rica’s Sebastian Quiros from William & Mary, Barbados’ Matthew Foster-Estwick from Hampton University, Cambodia’s Timothy Tep from Virginia Wesleyan and, most recently, Old Dominion products Adam Moundir of Morocco and Codie van Schalkwyk of Namibia.
Davis Cup has five levels, with a system of promotion and relegation similar to soccer. In theory, a nation could climb from the lowest level, Group IV, to the elite World Group in four years, though that rarely happens. Just advancing one level is a big deal for a nation.
This week, former ODU standout Moundir — ranked 727th in the world on the ATP Tour — and current starter van Schalkwyk have been in action in Group III competition in Algiers. They even had to play each other Friday, when Moundir won 6-1, 6-3. That victory helped Morocco advance with an 11-0 record in individual matches at the clay-court event.
To illustrate the difference in levels, van Schwalkwyk lost four consecutive singles matches in Group III in 2019, won four in a row in Group IV in 2021 but was 0-3 at this event, with his other defeats coming to Algeria’s Rayan Ghedjemis, the world’s No. 773 player, and Zimbabwe’s Benjamin Lock, the world’s No. 366 player.
