A Fast Fall at NBAC

It’s been a great start to 2024-2025. In our fall report we cover a duo of meet wins in York, PA and Baltimore, a national age group record performance, an invite to the national select camp and our ‘NBAC in the Community’ Fall focus.

NBAC PICKS UP 115 TOP 3 FINISHES AT THE BILL SCHMIDT INVITATIONAL

Hosted by the York YMCA, NBAC traveled to the Graham Aquatic Center to swim benchmark times in the first meet of the year. Swimmers from the performance, challenge, imagination and discovery groups put up some fast times to lead the medal count. On the girls’ side, Willa Kulp (12 yo) and Anna Harberts (10 yo) swept their individual events with a combined 17 first-place finishes. On the boys’ side, Philip Scharper, Mason Wade and Emmanuel Francis combined for 24 top three finishes.

RECORD SETTING FALL FASTIVAL

The team returned closer to home for the NBAC-hosted Fall ‘Fastival’ meet at the Mangione Aquatic Center. NBAC welcomed ten teams from around the Baltimore region and put up some record-breaking performances. Swims like Jane Thomas’ 200 freestyle, a swim in which she cut over 12% off her 200 free, were typical. On the girls’ side, Shannon Conway, Olivia Karp, Willa Kulp, Maddie Dixon, Ava Vercollone, Harley Vercollone, Anna Harberts and Audrey Sorensen combined for 29 of the top 30 swims of the meet by power points. The boys nearly repeated the feat with 24 of the top 30 swims by Kyan Siri, Avery Heron, Jude Burkhart, Daniel Branon, Max Kunisaki, Charlie Dieveney, Philip Sharper, Matt Hart and Gabriel Olszyk. Jude Burkhart’s 1650 freestyle also lowered the National Age Group Record for 11-12 year-old boys by 12 seconds – this is Jude’s second NAG record in the past four months.

DANIEL BRANON TAPPED TO JOIN THE NATIONAL SELECT CAMP THIS WINTER

Coming off a fast fall, USA swimming announced the 104-athlete strong roster for the USA Swimming National Select Camp. Daniel, with a nation-leading time in the 200 butterfly, was named to travel the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs this January.  Inviting the top age-group athletes to experience life as a Team USA member, Daniel will join Team USA coaches and staff in the first camp in the run up to LA2028. Congratulations Daniel.

NBAC IS RECOGNIZED AGAIN IN USA SWIMMING’S CLUB EXCELLENCE PROGRAM

USA Swimming tracks the progress of its member clubs and, through its club excellence program, seeks to annually recognize the highest-performing clubs in developing athletes aged 18 years and younger. NBAC is again recognized as a silver medal club for 2025. NBAC is the highest ranked club in Maryland and, when considering the size of the swimming membership, amongst a very small group of clubs recognized that highly with a total athlete membership limited to around 250 swimmers.

NBAC IN THE COMMUNITY UPDATE

NBAC is dedicated to supporting the local families and communities that help to define our culture and mission. This fall our team has chosen to recognize members of our family impacted by cancer. A team fundraising drive focused on advocacy and kinship – we launched a tee-shirt drive with a silver message on a navy shirt, replacing the star in our logo with a ribbon. Silver was chosen this year to reflect the impact that brain cancers, such as glioblastoma, can have on our families and community. Look out for these special shirts at swim meets this fall and winter.