McLean Whiz Kids: McLean High Teams, Athletes Saluted, Hometown Graduate

We write a lot about local politicians, Tysons Corner traffic tangles and other grown-up goings on about town, but we thought we'd pause a moment to highlight some of our younger neighbors.

These McLean kids - and young adults - caught our attention for their recent accomplishments. A round of applause for the group, please!

• Robert Middleton received his computer science degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology's B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences in fall 2011.
• Sarah J. Braselton was named to the Dean's List at Colby College for the fall 2011 semester. Sarah is a graduate. She is studying art history and studio art at Colby.

The McLean High School  Activities office  sent kudos March 1 to the following teams and athletes for the winter season:

Boys Basketball: The boys basketball team had a historic season finishing with a  school record 24 wins and only 4 losses.  After a thrilling double overtime victory to capture the Liberty District Championship for the first time since 1971, the team followed up with two victories to reach the Final Four of the Northern Region tournament for the first time in school history.  It was an amazing run and a great job my Kevin Roller and his staff.

On the season the following athletes earned these individual awards.
1st Team All Region – Thomas Van Wazer
2nd Team All Region – Gordon Rogo
1st Team All District – Thomas Van Wazer & Gordon Rogo
2nd Team All District – Sango Amolo
District Defensive POY – Thomas Van Wazer
District All Defense Team – Gordon Rogo
Liberty District All Tournament Team- Thomas Van Wazer
Liberty District Tournament MVP – Gordon Rogo
Northern Region All Tournament Team- Gordon Rogo

Girls Gymnastics: The girls gymnastics team had a finished in the Top 5 at the Virginia AAA state meet at Salem High School in Virginia Beach.
After going 7 – 0 Regular Season, winning the Liberty District Championship (1st in school history), finishing as the 2012 Regional Runner up and having a team high score of 144.851. Congratulations to coach Courtney Lesson and the team on a fantastic season!

Individual Accomplishments included the following:
Abby Neuberger:
-    Competed in every meet on every event
-    Finished top 3 consistently throughout the season
-    Districts: 5th place on vault, 5th place on bars, 2nd place on Beam, 3rd place all around finish
-    Regionals: 4th place on beam, 2nd on floor, 6th place all around finish
-    State Qualifier, placed 17th on Bars, 20th on Beam, and 21st on Floor

Jacqueline Green
-    Competed in every meet on every event
-    Finished top 3 consistently throughout the season
-    Districts: 3rd place on vault, 4th place on bars, 5th place all around finish
-    Regionals: 4th place finish on bars, 5th place all around finish
-    State Qualifier: Individually finished..17th on vault, 37th on bars, 29th on beam

Lizzy Brown-Kaiser
-    Districts: 4th place finish on vault, 5th place on floor, 4th place all around finish
-    Regionals: 6th place finish on bars
-    State Qualifier: 14th place in the state on bars

Girls Basketball: The McLean girls basketball team had an outstanding season finishing top 4 in the district regular season. The following athletes earned the following individual awards.

1st team All District - Lisa Murphy
2nd team All District - Shellie Kaniut
Honorable Mention All District - Lexi Slotkoff
All Defensive team - Caroline Gray

Indoor Track:  The Indoor Track team had a great season under the direction of coach Jason Simoni. In the Northern Regional meet at George Mason University
The following athletes did exceptionally well at regional’s.

Alex Hedrick – 9th in Region in Long Jump
Nathan Goff – 6th in Region in Triple Jump
Scott Lafoon – 2nd in Region in Shot Put
1600m Relay – 5th in Region (Alex Hedrick, Kyle Pyne, Mac Howard, Michael Vignali)
Megan McCormack – 9th in Region in 1600m
Hannah Dimmick – 4th in Region in 500m
Alexa Tabackman – 7th in Region in 1000

In the AAA State meet, the girls 3200m relay team did exceptionally well.  They finished 9th in the state and set a new school record by 7 seconds with their overall time of 9:34.67!

Swim & Dive: The Swim team recently competed in the State Competition at George Mason.  The girls team finished 15th overall, and the boys team, represented by one swimmer, Ben Southern, finished 33rd.
Individual State performances include:
•    Girls Medley Relay: Nowell Boardman, MJ Ulrich, Kat Pardo, and Alexis Danchak finished 5th with an All-American Consideration time
•    Girls 200 Freestyle Relay: Alexis Danchak, Megan Murphy, Annie Springsteen, and Maria McGuire finished 16th
•    Girls 400 Freestyle: Alexis Danchak, Annie Springsteen, Kat Pardo, and Maria McGuire finished 13th.
•    Ben Southern, off a 2nd place finish in the 500 freestyle at Regionals, finished 9th overall.  He also swam in the 100 fly and finished 12th.
•    MJ Ulrich swam the 200 Individual Medley, finishing 13th, and the 100 Breaststroke, placing 10th.
•    Nowell Boardman placed 14th in the 100 Backstroke

Standouts At the Liberty District Championships:  Girls finished 2nd overall Girls Medley relay took first place!! (they're also within .4 seconds of the district record)- 500 Free--Maria McGuire, 2nd, Ben Southern took 1st 100 Breaststroke--MJ Ulrich, 1st place!!,

Congratulations to the swim team’s Ben Southern and MJ Ulrich for earning All-District Honors.

Ice Hockey: The Ice Hockey Team had their best season ever finishing 1st in  their District in the Northern Virginia Scholastic Hockey League.
Nick Baker, Mike Laywood  and Maury Winter were selected to the all star team!

Dance Team: The Dance Team had a great season with many individual and team accomplishments under the direction of Coach Heather Leeper.

At the South County High School competition on  Feb.4
Varsity Kick finished in 1st place!
Varsity Pom finished in 3rd Place
JV Pom finished in 2nd Place
JV Hip Hop finished in 2nd Place
JV Kick finished in 2nd Place

At the Gar-field Competition on  February 11
Varsity lyrical finished in 1st!
Varsity  Kick  finished in 2nd place
Varsity Pom finished in 3rd place
Varsity Hip Hop finished in 4th place.

Wrestling: The Wrestling team competed in postseason action with the following athletes performances. 

5th in the district. John Polzer, Bryson Davis
4th in the district. Nick Echeverria, Gabe Sutherland, Noah Cherry, Matthew Swarm
3rd in the district.  Forrest Stieg
2nd in the district, and 6th in the region. Adilet Uspeev

Forensics: Congratulations to Amy Poe and the Forensics team for winning the Liberty District Championship!

Do you know a child that deserves to be included in our next installment of McLean Patch's Whiz Kids? Email bobbi.bowman@patch.com or lauren.sausser@patch.com and let us know.