SwimRVA 2nd Overall With Greatest Point Total Ever at 8 & Under District Champs!

Rapids 8 & Unders Finish 2nd Overall at Historic District Champs!

Richmond, VA….Wow, oh wow! What a meet! If you weren't there, you surely missed out because the Rowdy Rapids were living up to the name both in the pool and out. At the 8 & Under District Championships, SwimRVA showed up in 2025 as a force to be reckoned with. The parents were amazing, cheering for so many kids that weren't even their own, but felt like their kids! The volunteers put together awesome goody bags and our "LOVE" themed team poster that looked so great. The coaches...........well, y'all were amazing as always, showing such genuine deep care for each and every Rapids swimmer in the meet. But this article today is about ........the SWIMMERS! You all did things that had never been done before at an 8 & Under Championship and have so much to be proud of!

Not only did we end up winning our first ever relays (boys swept!), but we also took home the overall title in 20 out of 34 events! We don't have to look it up to double check because we definitely have never won that many events! But as awesome as our top finishers were, we kept crushing it at each and every level. Athletes were racing new events for the first time ever, swimmers were scoring points that had never scored before, and we just had so much dang fun! Congratulations on such a historic meet that saw SwimRVA with the closet proximaty to the perennial champions that we've easily ever seen. Keep working hard, keep having fun and we will just keep rising!

Overall Combined Team Scores
NOVA 2147.50 points
SwimRVA 948.50 points (plus 157 unattached points)
Poseidon 705 points
Hanover 536 points
Quest 493 points
Dolphin Club 240 points
Richmond City Riptides 111 points

6 Team Records Fall to Brighton Hollender from District Champs!
Since joining the Rowdy Rapids in December, young Brighton Hollender hasn't stopped smiling.....with maybe the exception of when she's working hard in practice and probably has a face of determination instead. But even then, she might still be smiling underwater, haha! When you have fun with what you're doing, you tend to increase the chances that you will swim very well. When you throw good consistent hard work on top of that, then even better things tend to happen. In the case of Brighton, you can easily say that she's been putting all of those great qualities together from Day One and it's leading to some pretty special things in the water, including 6 new SwimRVA team records. Way to go girl!!

New 8 & Under Girls SwimRVA Individual Team Records
Brighton Hollender: 100 free (1:12.55), 100 IM (1:22.37), 200 free (2:44.97), 200 IM (3:01.34), 25 free (14.93), 50 free (32.82)

CLICK HERE for an updated list of SwimRVA Team Records

New All-Time Top 10 Swims from 8 & Under Districts!
Congratulations to the following swimmers who are among the best we have ever seen!  If you check out the All-Time Top 10 swims for each age, you’ll see this incredible group of swimmers amongst the greatest athletes in SwimRVA history!

Swimmers Who Earned New All-Time Top 10 Swims
Brighton Hollender, Josephine Simmons, Maggie Mariscalco, Asher Young, Brooks Nemeth, Kellan Yosay, Keegan Wallace, Paxton Wilson, Grant Bradbury, Raphael Valentine

CLICK HERE for the full All-Time Top 10 list

Hollender, Nemeth, Yosay and 8 & Under Boys Become District Champions!
As we mentioned earlier, we may have had some pretty special relays throughout our 8 & Under District Champs history, but none like what we experienced in 2025! Even after having our two all-time record breakers age up on the boys side just a month or so earlier, we still showed our tremendous depth and determination by having the next set of boys step up to become THE BEST in the entire District! Asher Young, Paxton Wilson, Brooks Nemeth, Kellan Yosay and Keegan Wallace deserve so much credit because they have turned themselves into the talk of the town! Congratuations on becoming our first two ever relay District Champions!

It didn't stop with the relays though! Kellan Yosay, Brighton Hollender and Brooks Nemeth combined to win 16 out of 30 individual events! With Kellan and Brighton earning 7 championship titles each (out of 8 races), and Brooks showing that he had the longer freestyle distance event under wraps. There was no denying whose unstoppable train was rolling into domination station; the RAPID EXPRESS! Congrats to each of you for making it very clear who the top swimmers in the meet were. You have so much to be proud of and we all can't wait to see what comes next!

District Champions!
Brighton Hollender: 100 Free, 100 IM, 200 Free, 200 IM, 25 Free, 50 Back, 50 Free
Brooks Nemeth: 100 Free, 200 Free
Kellan Yosay: 100 IM, 25 Back, 25 Breast, 25 Free, 50 Back, 50 Breast, 50 Free
Boys 100 Medley Relay: Asher Young, Paxton Wilson, Brooks Nemeth, Kellan Yosay
Boys 100 Free Relay: Paxton Wilson, Keegan Wallace, Brooks Nemeth, Kellan Yosay

Additional Top 8 Finishers
Ryan Astoria: 100 Free
Grant Bradbury: 25 Fly, 50 Fly
Brighton Hollender: 100 Breast
Mackenzie Koelmel: 200 Free, 25 Back, 25 Fly
Maggie Mariscalco: 100 Back, 100 Breast, 100 IM, 25 Breast, 50 Breast
Brooks Nemeth: 25 Breast, 25 Fly, 25 Free, 50 Back, 50 Free
Madeline Niemaseck: 100 Breast
Josie Simmons: 200 Free
Rapha Valentine: 200 IM
Keegan Wallace: 100 Breast, 100 Fly
Paxton Wilson: 200 IM, 25 Breast, 25 Fly, 25 Free, 50 Breast
Kellan Yosay: 25 Fly
Asher Young: 25 Back, 25 Breast, 25 Fly, 25 Free, 50 Back, 50 Breast
Girls 100 Free Relay: Mackenzie Koelmel, Josephine Simmons, Madeline Niemaseck, Maggie Mariscalco
Girls 100 Medley Relay: Mackenzie Koelmel, Madeline Niemaseck, Ryan Astoria, Maggie Mariscalco
Boys 100 Medley Relay: Jake Saks, Raphael Valentine, Grant Bradbury, Asher Young

Additional Top 9-16 Finishers
Ryan Astoria: 25 Fly
Grant Bradbury: 100 IM, 25 Breast, 25 Free
Emma Flynn: 100 Back
Chloe Glenn: 25 Breast
Mackenzie Koelmel: 25 Breast
Maggie Mariscalco: 50 Free
Brooks Nemeth: 25 Back
Madeline Niemaseck: 100 IM, 25 Free, 50 Breast
Dean Rogers: 100 Free
Josie Simmons: 100 Breast, 100 Free, 100 IM
Keegan Wallace: 50 Free
Paxton Wilson: 100 IM, 25 Back, 50 Free
Asher Young: 50 Free
Boys 100 Medley Relay: Finlay Kaplan, Dean Rogers, Jake Saks, Adriaan Fitzgerald
Girls 100 Free Relay: Rachel Byars, Charlotte Ewbank, Charlotte Meredith, Chloe Glenn
Girls 100 Medley Relay: Chloe Glenn, Josephine Simmons, Charlotte Meredith, Alexis King
Girls 100 Medley Relay: Charlotte Ewbank, Lizzie Mueller, Abigail Farmer, Eve Walker
Boys 100 Free Relay: Landon Hornby, Diego Flores, James Simmons, George Kennedy
Girls 100 Free Relay: Emma Flynn, Teresa Flores, Abigail Farmer, Caroline Farley

Emma Flynn Cuts 25 Seconds in 100 Free to Lead in Ginormous Drops!
Take a look at these incredible time drops!! It's one thing to have all sorts of GINORMOUS DROPS in events like the 1650, 500 free, 400 IM, etc. But to see Emma Flynn drop 25 seconds in a 100 free, or Teresa Flores drop an insane 16 seconds in a 25, that's just bonkers!! Whaaattt?? Emma has been doing such an awesome job lately and it's become evident that when she races, good things happen! Miss Teresa has been blending lately into the Advanced Novice Group at SwimRVA-Meadowbrook and it's helping an incredible amount as her breaststroke has taken off! And bonus shout-out to Evie Pillot who cut nearly 20 seconds off of her 100 free too. Now those are some true GINORMOUS DROPS!

Ginormous Drops 

Teresa Flores: 25 Breast (-16.73)

Emma Flynn: 100 Free (-25.50)

Brighton Hollender: 200 IM (-9.03)

Alexis King: 100 Free (-7.99)

Evie Pillot: 100 Free (-19.77)

Eve Walker: 50 Breast (-13.38)

Asher Young: 50 Breast (-11.51)

Shout-Outs to Rowdy Rapids!
Congratulations to the following Rapids swimmers from the various training groups who did something truly special and unique over the weekend!  You deserve a shout-out category of your own!

• Shout-out to Julie Bradbury for the 8 & Under goodie bags and being an all around amazing supporter all weekend!
• Shout-out to Rapha Valentine for swimming his first 200 IM!
• Shout-out to Caroline Farley for swimming her first 100 Breast!
• Shout-out to Charlotte Ewbank for a great breakout meet!
• Shout-out to all of our relay swimmers! Many of whom swam on a relay for the first time for SwimRVA!
• Shout-out to Ryan Astoria for coming into the meet like a rocket ship with extra fuel blasting on every swim!
• Shout-out to Sammi, Aubree, Aubrey, Emma, Elyse and Payton for being amazing older siblings cheering on our up and coming Rapids swimmers!
• Shout-out to Asher Young for having huge drops in every swim he raced!
• Shout-out to Paxton Wilson for swimming his first ever 200 IM and still getting 3rd overall!