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With only one dual meet remaining until the Prince George's County Swim Championships at the Fairland Aquatic Center in Laurel, many of the squads from the 3A/2A/1A league continued their quest of peaking during the postseason in various meets last weekend.
In the clash of perennial boys' powers, Frederick Douglass remained perfect in the league by upending two-time defending champion Forestville, 106-49, Saturday evening at Prince George's Community College. The Eagles again got strong efforts from Elrody Martin, Andre Parrish, Ameer Taylor, Daryl Isom and Marlon Garner to counter the quickness of Forestville's David Mason. Douglass also edged Oxon Hill, 95-68, while the Clippers earned the split by defeating the Knights, 87-67.
Douglass won eight of the 11 events, with Taylor (25.63 seconds) and Garner (27.39) finishing one-two in the 50-yard freestyle, with Garner later taking the 100 free. Parrish captured the 100 breast (1 minute, 19.85 seconds) and Jared Hester and Justin Thomas finished second and third, respectively, in the 500 free. Douglass won all three relays, taking the 200 medley (2:15.02), the 200 free (1:50.78) and the 400 free (4:43.20) by 31 seconds.
"Forestville has a couple of really fast freestyle swimmers," Douglass coach Jim Woods said. "But we had a lot more depth than they did and that gave us the luxury of putting more kids in some events that I knew we probably wouldn't win. They won the 200 free, 200 IM and 500 free, but my kids scored more points in those events because we took second and third in all three and fourth in two of them."
The Douglass girls had little trouble defeating Forestville, 104-20, and the Eagles also edged Oxon Hill in a non-league encounter, 83-71. Senior Allison Burget led the way with a pair of victories (200 individual medley and 500 free) and anchored two relays and Aujunae Smith won two events (100 free and 200 free) and Teresa Briley (100 back) and Jasmine Kelly (50 free) each won one.
Douglass will face High Point and Friendly this Saturday afternoon at PGCC. The Patriots' boys swept Wise and Largo last weekend as they defeated the Pumas, 65-49, and the Lions, 61-36. The Friendly girls earned a split against those squads as they dropped a close decision to Wise, 49-41, but had little trouble with Largo, 72-8.
In a double dual meet among three of the county's smaller squads, the Fairmont Heights boys edged DuVal, 61-43, and downed Central, 64-13, while the Tigers earned the split by upending the Falcons. On the girls' side, DuVal earned a pair of victories as the Tigers defeated Central, 49-12, and Fairmont Heights, 50-12. The Hornets earned the split by edging Central, 12-10, as Fairmont sophomore Danielle Jackson won two events.
In the closest meet of the weekend among the south county schools, Surrattsville nipped Gwynn Park, 54-53, and both teams departed with 12-0 victories over Potomac, which has failed to show for all five meets this winter. The Yellow Jackets' girls earned two victories by downing Surrattsville, 28-10, and Potomac. The Hornets also earned a 12-0 forfeit victory over the absent Wolverines.
A total of 13 swimmers from Bishop McNamara will head to National Catholics this weekend at Villanova University near Philadelphia. Seniors Kevin Clark, Alex Dewey and Erica Minor, juniors Max Allegro, Miguel Boluda, Kristin Bryant, Grace Kelly, Jesse Miller and Zach Miller, sophomores Amanda Barber, Tyler Holmes and Carmela Rourke and freshman Tyler Bryant will represent the Mustangs this weekend. This will mark Minor's fourth consecutive trip to National Catholics with McNamara.
E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net