Male junior athlete of the year: Brett Feyerick, NCAP
Of the 36 combined Potomac Valley short-course yards resident records for the boys’ 10-and-under and 11-12 age groups, 19 of them were broken in 2014. Six of those records have Brett Feyerick inked next to them entering 2015 — including three which will stand as national age group records.
In February, Feyerick broke the 10-and-under national age group record in the 50-yard backstroke, obliterating the Maryland open record previously held by Michael Phelps in the process. He touched in 27.52 seconds. He’s dominate the first two months of the year by breaking resident records in the 50 freestyle (25.50), 100 freestyle (55.88), 50 butterfly (28.24) and 100 butterfly (1:02.74), adding to records set in 2013 in the 100 backstroke (1:01.81) and 100 IM (1:04.57). [Note: not all of Feyerick's still stand]
In December, an 11-year-old Feyerick helped Nation’s Capital Swim Club’s 11-12 relays take down a pair of national records in the 200 and 400 medley events at the Tom Dolan Invitational. And despite having only competed in his new age group for a few months, he enters the second half of the 2014-15 season as the top-ranked 11-year-old in the 100 freestyle (52.66), 200 freestyle (1:55.91), 50 backstroke (26.20), 100 backstroke (56.63) and 200 backstroke (2:04.18), and already ranks 32nd all-time in the 50 backstroke, 66th in the 100 backstroke and 100th in the 200 backstroke.
He also ranks second in the 50 freestyle (24.36) and 100 butterfly (59.55), third in the 200 individual medley (2:09.83), fourth in the 400 IM (4:47.77), fifth in the 500 freestyle (5:19.76) and 14th in the 100 breaststroke (1:11.28) so far this season.
Runner-up: Johnny Bradshaw, The FISH/Machine Aquatics
As fast as Feyerick was at the start of 2014, and he was historically fast by area standards, it didn’t take long for many of his records to fall. Two months to be exact.
And the 10-year-old who did so was Bradshaw. The FISH product took down Feyerick’s records in the 50 freestyle (25.42), 50 butterfly (27.95) and 100 IM (1:03.17), and added his name next to records in the 50 breaststroke (32.23), 100 breaststroke (1:11.41) and 200 IM (2:17.32). He also helped FISH to resident records in the 200 freestyle and 200 medley relays. Most impressive was that Bradshaw broke each record during a four-day stretch in April at the NASA Showcase Classic in Clearwater, Fla.
Bradshaw has since switched to Machine Aquatics, and as an 11-year-old trails Feyerick slightly with top-20 times in the 100 IM (3rd: 1:01.41), 50 breaststroke (4th: 31.74), 50 butterfly (4th: 27.35), 50 freestyle (7th: 24.97), 50 backstroke (7th: 28.74) and 100 freestyle (18th: 56.36).
Female junior athlete of the year: Madelyn Donohoe, FISH
Coming from a club long-known for its distance swimmers (i.e., Olympian Kate Ziegler), the FISH’s Madelyn Donohoe has been untouchable throughout 2014 in the long-range freestyle events. Donohoe finished the year with Potomac Valley resident records in the 500 and 1,000 freestyle events — and climbed past one of the most impressive catalogs of swimmers in doing so.
In the 500, Donohoe moved past previous record holders Isabella Rongione (2012: 4:56.58) and Katie Ledecky (2010: 4:57.67) at the NASA Showcase Classic, finishing in a time of 4:55.83 — a time that would have finished sixth among area high school swimmers during last season’s championship meets.
In the 1,000, she was even more impressive and surged past previous record holders Rongione (2012: 10:06.76), Megan Byrnes (2011: 10:17.20), Ledecky (2010: 10:20.28) and Janet Hu (2008: 10:28.74) when she broke the record at the Fall Senior Invitational in October with a time of 10:04.03 — a 24.71 second improvement in just six years.
In the 11-12 age group, she ranks 32nd all-time in the 200 freestyle (1:52.97), 11th in the 500 freestyle, second in the 1,000 freestyle — a slim 6.7 seconds behind two-time Olympian Chloe Sutton’s national age group record, fourth in the 1,650 freestyle (16:50.84), 87th in the 200 backstroke (2:07.35) and 57th in the 400 IM (4:33.25).
Runner-up: Katie Mack, Nation’s Capital Swim Club
While Donohoe finished the year with perhaps the most (and feel free to argue this in the comments) notable records, Mack finished with the most records in 2014.
The 12-year-old Nation’s Capital swimmer swept through the records in the 50 freestyle (23.65), 100 freestyle (51.82), 200 backstroke (1:59.03), 100 IM (59.37) and 200 IM (2:05.73). She was the top-ranked 50 freestyler among 12-and-unders during the 2013-14 season and held eight other top-20 times during the season. So far in 2014-15, she’s ranked fourth overall in the 50 freestyle (23.81), ninth in the 100 freestyle (52.33), second in the 200 freestyle (1:51.60), fourth in the 100 backstroke (56.88), fourth in the 200 backstroke (2:00.34), sixth in the 200 IM (2:06.54) and fourth in the 400 IM (4:26.50) among 13-year-olds.