Nation’s Capital Wins USA Swimming’s Top Club Excellence Award

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Nation’s Capital Swim Club of the Washington, D.C., area continues its reign as the top-performing club earning the No. 1 spot in the USA Swimming Club Excellence program for the fourth year in a row. Each year, the Club Excellence program recognizes the organization’s highest-performing clubs in the development of athletes 18 years and younger.

NCAP, whose top athletes include National Team member Cassidy Bayer, plus National Junior Team member Sam Pomajevich, tallied 91,597 points, finishing more than 30,000 points ahead of second-place finisher SwimMAC Carolina. Carmel Swim Club advanced one spot to claim the third-place rank.

“Nation’s Capital Swim Club is blessed with so many talented young athletes and coaches that make it possible for us to achieve this standard of excellence for the fourth year in a row. Being named the No. 1 team in Club Excellence is a goal we strive for every year,” said Tom Ugast, NCAP Chief Executive Officer. “I would like to thank the coaches, parents and 18 & under athletes that are dedicated to their sport and recognized by USA Swimming. I would also like to thank the other Clubs that participate in this program. It is hard work and makes all of us better at achieving excellence.”

In its 17th year, the Club Excellence program identifies clubs that execute strong, well-rounded programs to produce elite 18-and-under athletes. The top 20 clubs earn Gold level ranking and those rated 21-100 are designated as Silver honorees. The next 100 clubs are recognized at the Bronze level.

“Earning a Gold, Silver or Bronze ranking is a reflection of the hard work and time invested by athletes and coaches and has become a highly coveted honor for our teams. To see new clubs earn a spot on this list is exciting and a testament that the future of club swimming continues to be bright,” said Pat Hogan, USA Swimming’s Club Development Managing Director. “On behalf of USA Swimming, I want to congratulate each of the 200 clubs that have earned a ranking in the 2018 program.”

Each team’s ranking score is based on the FINA Points Table, a power point rating system that assigns point values to swimming performances based on the Gold, Silver or Bronze time standard. Starting with the 2017 Club Excellence rankings, Gold swims were multiplied by a factor of 2.0; points for Silver level swims were increased by a factor of 1.5.

The following clubs achieved the Gold Medal ranking for 2018, with Local Swimming Committee (LSC) designation. Sixteen different LSCs are represented in the Gold Medal level.

	Club	LSC	Points
1.	Nation’s Capital Swim Club	Potomac Valley	91,597
2.	SwimMAC Carolina	North Carolina	59,673
3.	Carmel Swim Club	Indiana	40,745
4.	Sandpipers of Nevada	Southern California	36,808
5.	Marlins of Raleigh	North Carolina	35,932
6.	Irvine Novaquatics	Southern California	31,749
7.	Long Island Aquatic Club	Metropolitan Swimming	31,621
8.	Mason Manta Rays	Ohio	30,256
9.	Swim Atlanta	Georgia	29,705
10.	Scottsdale Aquatic Club	Arizona	28,035
11.	Nitro Swimming	South Texas	28,008
12.	Magnolia Aquatic Club	Gulf Coast	27,181
13.	Mission Viejo Nadadores	Southern California	26,951
14.	Virginia Gators	Virginia	26,507
15.	Club Wolverine	Michigan	26,317
16.	Fort Collins Area Swim Team	Colorado	25,325
17.	Sarasota YMCA Sharks	Florida	25,292
18.	Austin Swim Club	South Texas	25,201
19.	Lakeside Aquatic Club	North Texas	25,172
20.	Pleasanton Seahawks	Pacific	24,561

Click here to view the complete 2018 Club Excellence Program results.

Mason Manta Rays, Magnolia Aquatic Club, Virginia Gators and Austin Swim Club all achieved a Gold Medal ranking for the first time. Since the inception of this program, 83 different clubs have earned Gold Medal ranking at least once.

Out of the 200 clubs recognized as Gold, Silver and Bronze programs, Middle Atlantic led all LSCs with 12 clubs recognized, followed by Southern California Swimming and Florida at 11 clubs represented.

In addition to recognizing high-performing teams, the program provides grant funding that enable clubs to expand and enhance the services already provided to athletes. A total of $400,000 in grants will be distributed to the 100 Gold- and Silver-level clubs.

In conjunction with the USA Swimming Club Excellence program, USA Swimming will induct four members into the 2018 Podium Club. Each team achieving a Gold Medal ranking for four consecutive years will be named to the Podium Club. In addition to earning Gold grant dollars, Podium Club members will receive a financial bonus from a pool of dollars to be divided equally among the number of teams in the Podium Club each year.

Congratulations to the following four teams that were inducted into the Podium Club for 2018:

Carmel Swim Club
Nation’s Capital Swim Club
Nitro Swimming
Sarasota YMCA Sharks

Press release courtesy of USA Swimming.

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