2026 Senior Metropolitan Winter Championships
- February 12-15, 2026
- Nassau County Aquatic Center, East Meadow, New York
- 25 yards (short course yards), prelims/finals
- Meet Site
- Complete Results
16-year old Carly Afanasewicz from the Phoenix Aquatic Club stormed the field over the weekend at the Senior Metropolitan Winter Championships.
The class of 2027 commit was the meet’s individual high scorer, winning five individual events and breaking several records in the process.
That included a new 15-16 LSC Record in the 100 yard backstroke.
Afanasewicz swam under her previous personal best in the 100 back two times at the meet. That included a 53.34 on a 400 medley relay leadoff and her record-breaking 52.55 in the individual event final.
That cracked the old record of 53.13 set at the 2021 high school state meet by Tess Howley, who is now at Virginia. Afanasewicz’s swim is also faster than Howley’s 17-18 LSC Record.
Prior to this meet, Afanasewicz’s best was 53.79.
She later came back and won the 200 back in 1:53.40, which is both the Meet Record and another 15-16 LSC Record. This time, she cleared her own mark of 1:54.50 set in March.
Afanasewicz is the 9th-ranked recruit in the high school class of 2027 in spite of being one of the youngest members of the class (she doesn’t turn 17 until the fall of her senior year of high school). She is verbally committed to NC State.
Other individual wins for the young New Yorker include the 100 fly (53.83), and the 400 IM in a personal best (4:11.63).
The women’s side of the meet saw an appearance from graduated Texas A&M All-American Chloe Stepanek in her first short course meet since last year’s NCAA Championship meet.
She won the 200 free, her specialty event, in 1:43.83, faster than she swam at those NCAA Championships. Stepanek is a Long Island native.
She also won the 50 free in a new Meet Record of 22.44 and finished 2nd in the 500 free in 4:44.02. Her 16-year-old LIAC teammate Vivienne Zangaro won that 500 free in 4:42.75, a new personal best. Zangaro also had a big meet, likewise winning the 200 fly (1:59.96) and winning the 1000 free in 9:44.63 to drop 15 seconds.
On the boys’ side, the high point scorers were Rohan Mehra of Asphalt Green, Aiden Moy of Badger Swim Club, and James Darcy of LIAC, each separated by only a single point.
Darcy had the best swim of that trio, winning the 1000 free in 8:57.24. A Notre Dame commit in the class of 2026, that was his first time under nine minutes in that event and is nine seconds better than anybody on Notre Dame’s current roster has been this season.
Moy won the 100 fly (47.49), 200 fly (1:44.17), 200 IM (1:45.65), and 400 IM (3:48.80) individually and was on five winning relays. Each of those four winning individual swims was a new personal best except the 200 IM for the Michigan commit.
Mehra, meanwhile, swam a lot of best times and in spite of not winning any races, amassed the most points on the depth of his performances. He finished in the top 8 of six different races.
Other Meet Highlights
- Westchester Aquatic Club’s Ines Arnall was chasing Afanasewicz in the backstroke races all day. She finished runner-up in both distances with a 52.93 in the 100 and 1:54.20 in the 200.
- Jonathan Packles from Asphalt Green had a monster meet on his own personal scale. The 16-year-old finished 2nd in the 100 back (47.95), 200 back (1:44.00), and 4th in the 400 IM (3:55.08), all with big time drops. He also dropped time in the 200 IM (1:53.45) and swam a best time in the 100 fly in the first 100 yards of his 400 IM in finals (54.43). He’s a Duke commit for 2027.
- Michael Geh from the Badger Swim Club won the 200 free (1:36.40), 100 back (47.42), and 200 back (1:43.57). Those backstroke times were both new personal bests, including a 1.19 second drop in the 200 that is his second consecutive meet with a drop in that race.
- 14-year-old Declan McDonald battled with the senior boys throughout the meet and put up best times in the 200 free (1:44.10), 1000 free (9:25.56), 1650 free (15:58.89), and 400 IM (3:57.76). That 1000 free sneaks him inside the top 100 all-time in the age group while the 400 IM puts him inside the top 50.
