“[A national record] teaches the kids that you can accomplish anything that you put your mind to and there are no limits to your achievement,” Coach Joe Lee said. “When kids do things that have never been done before, it really sets them off into a place where they say, ‘Well, what else can I do?’ It sets them up for the sport but more importantly, it sets them up for life.”

The Bulldogs’ record showing was one of several elite performances from local athletes at the VA Showcase in Virginia Beach this past weekend.

Archbishop Carroll recorded nation-best times in the boys’ and girls’ 4×200 relays with 1:25.79 and 1:36.89, respectively. South Lakes recorded a nation-best time of 9:5.09 in the girls’ 4×800 relay.

Bishop McNamara narrowly edged out fellow Prince George’s County program DeMatha in the boys’ 4×800 relay, finishing 0.66 seconds ahead of the Stags with a nation-best time of 7:49.

Wilson was just two-hundredths of a second away from grabbing another national record. The Bullis sophomore finished the 500 meters in 1:01.27.

Junior Sydney Sutton and the Bulldogs’ boys’ and girls’ 4×400 relay teams also notched impressive performances.

Blair dominated the second annual D.C. State Athletic Association girls’ wrestling invitational Saturday at the University of the District of Columbia, running away with a first-place finish by posting a score of 138.0 — 72.5 points ahead of second-place Oakton. A trio of Blazers placed first in their respective weight classes: Ezra Lewis (107 pounds), Mckinley Jovanovic (120) and Joni Chuka (126). Three more landed in the top five.

While Blair finished atop the standings as one of 22 participating Maryland- or Virginia-based schools, the event had a focus on showcasing and encouraging the growth of girls’ wrestling in the District. Ten D.C. schools participated in the event, with Jackson-Reed’s 12th-place finish the best of the bunch. The Tigers were powered by Zoe Lewis, who took home both the 132-pound crown and the invitational’s MVP award.

The organization Wrestling to Beat the Streets helped bring wrestling back to D.C. public schools, but the approximately 40 girls wrestling for schools in the District don’t have their own state championship because it is currently a coed sport. The group’s goal is to bring that number to 75 female wrestlers, which would be adequate to get a separate division at the DCSAA’s end-of-season title competition.

Excelling in a single sport is a challenge many athletes strive to achieve. Excelling in two? That’s an entirely different beast.

Though her primary sport is soccer, Stone Ridge senior Addie Shannon has been just as dominant on the ice. While the sports have stark differences, Shannon has found that the skills needed to play hockey and soccer can be interchangeable.

“I play center for hockey, and then for soccer I play a center position as well,” she said. “They’re somewhat similar in the way that they’re both a defensive and offensive position.”

Shannon is committed to play soccer at Trinity College next fall, but she hopes to also walk on to the school’s hockey team.

Through four games this season, Shannon is first in the Mid-Atlantic Girls Hockey League upper division with 13 goals and is on pace to lead the league for a second consecutive year.

“She reads the play, reads the field and reads the eyes very well,” Stone Ridge Coach Mary Carpenter said. “And that IQ is just something that translates between soccer and hockey.”

DeMatha is more familiar with setbacks than most defending champions. After its bumpy journey to the Mid-Atlantic Prep Hockey League championship last year — the victory capped a roller coaster 7-15-3 season and marked their first title since 2008 — the Stags graduated 11 seniors and knew defending the trophy would only get harder.

Now, despite being off to a similarly rough start, the players say they’ve made progress rebuilding a top line of young talent that, they hope, will again shift into high gear during the playoffs.

Senior center and team captain Kalen Wells said he’s hoping to recreate the camaraderie that carried the Stags through last year’s playoffs. Turns out that opportunity came not on the ice, but on a bus while the team traveled to tournaments in New York and Rhode Island last month.

“We do a little tradition every year where when it’s the first time going on tour or going on a bus trip, you got to go up at the front of the bus and sing in front of everyone,” Wells said. “At first kids are hesitant … but it brings us even closer together so we’re not as shy as we were at the beginning of the season. We’re starting to open up.”

As embarrassing as singing “Call Me Maybe” in front of your teammates might be, Wells said the activity has produced real results out on the ice. After a 7-5 loss to a strong Mount St. Charles team in Rhode Island in December, Wells and his teammates made a resolution to reset mentally. Together, they’d forget past losses and enter a playoff mind-set.

Considering DeMatha’s unexpected dominance late in the season last year, that idea could be the needed boost. In the next few days, the Stags will get their biggest test of that mentality yet with a MAPHL matchup against St. Albans on Friday, followed by Monday’s game against defending Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champion St. John’s.

After Independence Coach Ryan Webb watched Ryan Jastrzembski finish fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke at last year’s Virginia Class 5 state championship, he was pleased with the result, given it was the swimmer’s first state meet.

Hours after, when Webb was reminiscing about the event, he got a text from Jastrzembski: “I’m winning this thing next year.”

Jastrzembski has started his senior year strong, giving credence to his prediction. He won the 100-yard freestyle (48.32 seconds) and the 100 breaststroke (57.64) at Saturday’s Briar Woods Invitational. His performance steered a young team to a first-place finish.

“He’s taking the bull by the horn,” Webb said about his captain.

When Jastrzembski embarked on his swimming journey as a freshman, he had a long way to go. His flexibility was “absolutely terrible,” per Webb, and he finished with a 1:15 time in the 100 breaststroke.

Four years later, he has shaved off more than 18 seconds of that time. He does not possess the fastest stroke rate, which tracks how many strokes a swimmer registers during a heat, but his pull through the water makes up for it. Jastrzembski has strong forearms and pushes down a good amount of water during each stroke. That power propels him.