The FISH

Pursuing excellence since 1991. The FISH swim team is a USA Swimming Club, founded by Executive Director Ray Benecki.

Coach Ray started the team with a small, dedicated group of swimmers in 1991at Spring Hill RECenter in McLean, VA. Spring Hill has been the home of the FISH team ever since. In 2009, the team added a second site - Audrey Moore at Wakefield Park - to its program. Since then, the team has grown to over 300 members. Most families live in the greater Washington, DC Metropolitan area. In 2009 the team received the highest honor of Gold Medal Club status awarded by USA Swimming, a status reserved to only very few clubs in the country.

-The FISH Mission-

The team's mission is to encourage the pursuit of excellence, while nurturing a love for the sport of swimming, and developing the values and skills for success in life along the way.

10/31/2026

Happy Halloween from our Spring Hill Mini FISH and Age Group practices tonight! The coaches had a blast showing off their costumes on deck and having the swimmers do some spooky work in the pool. Remember there are no evening practices tomorrow so everyone can go trick or treating!

10/25/2026

FISH Alumni reunion at the College Club Swimming regionals in Richmond! We are so proud to see Timmy (UVA), Kate (UMD) and Daniel (Duke) continuing their swimming careers through their university’s club teams!

10/14/2026

🌟 FUTURE STAR COACH OF THE YEAR 🌟

Huge congratulations to Coach Curtis Din, our Head Age Group Coach, named PVS Future Star Coach of the Year for 2025–2026! 🏆🏊‍♂️

From Spring Hill to Audrey Moore to Minnie Howard, Curtis leads our Advanced Age Group and Age Group swimmers across all three FISH sites, building the foundation for the next generation of FISH swimmers. We’re so lucky to have him on deck! 💙❤️

Drop a 👏 below to celebrate Coach Curtis!

08/08/2026

Well that’s a wrap on Day 5 and our time here in Irvine for Summer Junior Nationals. We ended our meet with some distance - Lila in the Women’s 1500 and Henry in the Men’s 800. In two exciting back to back heats, Lila started things off with a 23 second drop in her mile, earning her another Senior National qualifying time and a 12th place finish overall! Henry had a great swim, finishing only 1.5 seconds off his best time that he set at Futures just last Saturday, and moving himself up to 37th!

Overall a great experience for Lila, Henry and Luca, competing at the fastest 18&U meet in the country and maintaining their physical and mental strength through 5 days of competition. This is a hard meet to be successful at - and all three of them smashed it! With long course season coming to a close, we are looking forward to Winter Juniors in December and what more is in store for all of our FISH athletes in the short course season!

08/07/2026

On today’s episode of: What We Did In Irvine…we played “Where’s Lila?” in the main pool warm up, Luca finished his meet with the 100 Back, and we cheered on Lila’s second finals appearance of the meet!

Our morning started with the Women’s 200 Free where Lila’s prelims swim earned her a spot in the C Final this evening. Luca then hit the water with his last race of the weekend in the Men’s 100 Back. He had a great swim and placed second in his heat, finishing under the 59 second mark for the third time this week! We returned to the pool for finals where we watched Lila kick some C-Final butts, dropping almost a second from her morning swim (two tenths of a second off her lifetime best) and moving herself up to a 20th place finish.

Tomorrow will be our final races of the weekend with Lila and Henry racing in back to back heats of the distance session! Looking forward to a for sure!

08/06/2026

Day 3 check-in from Irvine coming to you AFTER finals! Another great day in Cali for the FISH. We started the morning with the Men’s 200 Back where Luca popped another best time - a 2:06.41, bettering his time from just last week! We shifted things over to the 400 Free with Lila and Henry racing in the A-Flights (top 5 heats for women and men). Lila’s morning swim earned her a solid spot in the B-Final, a two level improvement from her finals appearance last year at this meet. Henry went his second-fastest time ever, and moved himself up in his heat from the outside lane!

Tonight at Finals, Lila raced hard to an 11th place finish and a new best time of 4:18.42!! An over-a-second improvement from her time drop at PVS Open Champs.

The fun continues tomorrow with Lila racing the 200 Free and Luca racing his last swim with the 100 back. Henry gets a day off, but will be back to work on Friday!

08/04/2026

Day 2 check-in from Irvine and we had all 3 FISH in the water this morning! Lila started the morning with a 100 Freestyle, stopping the clock in a new best time of 58.31 and moving herself up around 30 spots! Henry had his first swim of the meet in the 400 IM. A very strong swim, but just off his best time. The Drop Of The Day went to Luca Sanchez who dropped an impressive 11 seconds in his 400 IM for a 4:39.42! Looking forward to some more racing tomorrow, with Luca in the 200 Back and Lila and Henry in the 400 Free!

08/03/2026

The gang’s all here! Henry arrived this afternoon and had a little swim out with Luca before cheering on Lila in her 800!

This morning, Luca had a solid 50 Backstroke, just off his best but moving himself up in the standings! This afternoon, Lila rocked her 800 Free with a 4.5 second drop and smashing through the 9:00 barrier! Her new best of 8:56.01 earns her another Senior Nationals AND US Open qualifying time! Congratulations to Luca and Lila on their awesome day 1!

Tomorrow, Lila will open the morning with the 100 Freestyle and Henry and Luca will each race the 400 IM. Drop some good luck in the comments!

08/03/2026

2/3 ain’t bad! Our National team is loading with Luca arriving on deck this morning! He kicks off with the 50 Backstroke around 10:25am PT and Lila will race the 800 Free in the distance session around 2:30pm PT. You can tune in and watch them swim on the USA Swimming YouTube page or follow the link on USAswimming.org!

08/03/2026

Lila has arrived “at the big pool”! Having a little swim out this evening before her 800 Free tomorrow!

Address

McLean, VA
22101

Website

http://www.pvfish.org/

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