PHOTOS: West Potomac Swimmers are Champions

West Potomac High School's Reanna Dona, Hellen Moffitt, Sara Bertram and Maxine Clifford are the 2012 Virginia state AAA high school champions in the 200 yard freestyle relay.

The four girls won the state title by placing first in the event at the Virginia State AAA High School Swim & Dive Championship meet Feb. 17 to 18 at George Mason University Aquatic Center. The girls swam away from the field by more than 1.5 seconds to win with an Automatic All-American time of 1:36.58.  

The same four girls also teamed up for the 200 yard medley relay and placed third in that event with another Automatic All-American time. Bertram, Clifford, Dona and Moffitt broke the Patriot District and Northern Region records in the 200 yard medley relay earlier in the season.

All-American recognition is awarded to high school swimmers across the nation who have the top 100 fastest times recorded each year in each event. West Potomac was the only girls' team at the Virginia state meet to achieve Automatic All-American time standards in two relay events. Almost 600 student athletes representing 66 Virginia high schools competed at the state swim and dive championship meet.

The two West Potomac girls relays contributed 72 points toward the team's total of 162 points and helped West Potomac earn the third place trophy at the state competition behind Osbourn Park (166) and Oakton high schools (183 points). In the individual events, junior Hellen Moffitt scored 32 points by placing second in the 100 butterfly (55.08) and fourth in the 100 yard backstroke (55.79), with Automatic All-American (AAA) times in both events. Moffitt was one of only three girls at the state meet to achieve AAA times in two individual events.

The other two double All-American swimmers were Janet Hu from Oakton High School (100 butterfly and 100 backstroke) and Madison Hahn (200 individual medley and 100 backstroke) from Maury High School in the Eastern Region. All three girls are 2012 Olympic Trials qualifiers in the 100 meter backstroke. 

West Potomac senior Reanna Dona finished fifth in the 50 yard freestyle (24.40) and in the 100 yard backstroke (57.67) and scored 28 points for the Wolverines. Sophomore Sara Bertram finished eighth in the 100 yard butterfly (57.55) and 16th in the 200 yard Individual Medley (2:10.56) earning 12 points, while freshman Maxine Clifford added 18 points with her eighth place finish in the 50 yard freestyle (24.69) and 10th place finish in the 100 yard freestyle (53.94).

Junior Maddy Bolger, sophomores Carolyn Murphy and Kristine Pinter and freshman Torie Bolger competed for West Potomac in the 400 yard freestyle relay and placed 23rd overall in the preliminaries.

West Potomac's third place finish at the state swim meet and second place finish at the Northern Region meet this year were its best ever in the school's history. Last year the West Potomac girls team placed fifth at the state championship meet and fourth at regions. West Potomac's Head Coach Bob Lombardi is a psychology teacher at Falls Church High School and has coached the Wolverine swim team for the past 26 years. Coach Lombardi is assisted by Sam Burgi, who coaches for the Fort Belvoir Swim Team.

Complete meet results can be found here.