The Cambridge Varsity Swim Team took to the pool at the Cumming Aquatics Center against 8 teams from Forsyth County, Lumpkin County, and other schools from across the state. The team was excited and nervous at its first official appearance, but certainly the nerves caused the swimmers to rise to the occasion! Overall, the boys finished 5th place, with only 10 swimmers, and the girls placed 2nd with only 14 swimmers! Both teams performed with a disadvantage of having, in some instances, more than 10 fewer swimmers than the other competing squads, but they were able to pull out many first and second place performances.
The meet started off with our boys' (made up of Kevin Knapp, Shaban Halim, Hawk Hammer, and Bryce Jewell) and girls' (Lauren Holliday, Maggie McGinty, Ashley Dale Henslee, Ayana Dudley) medley relays pulling out first place performances in their heats, setting the Bears off to a great start and lifting the spirits of all team members.
The good news continued to come in with the boys taking first (Jake Todd), second (Kevin Knapp) and third (Bryce Jewell) place in the first boys' heat of the 200 freestyle, followed by another first place performance in the second heat (Erek Humm). Jake Todd took first place overall in this event. Lauren Holliday followed up, placing 2nd in the girls' 200 free. In the 200 Individual Medley race, the girls swept the competition, with Angela Ho finishing first in her heat, and then Maggie McGinty and Sydney Swenton finishing first and second in their heat. Hawk Hammer also made a top finish in the 200 IM for the boys, followed by Noah Sannes and Kyle Daniel.
The competition was steep in the 50 freestyle, but David Le was able to pull off a first place finish in his heat, and was backed up by the girls Susannah Jordshaugen, Amanda Seibert, and Lauren Pocza finishing first, second and third in their heat. Sarah Moore followed in second place in the second heat. In one of the most challenging races, Hawk Hammer was able to pull out a second place finish in the 100 butterfly. In the 100 freestyle, Noah Sannes placed second, followed in the second heat with Bryce Jewell placing first, Shaban Halim placing third and Jeremy Sokol placing fourth. Tori Bentley took first in the first heat, followed by Alex Newcomer and Angela Ho taking first and second, and then with Syndey Anderson taking third.
The longest event of the meet, the 500 freestyle, was also a shining moment for the Bears. Jake Todd took first by a great distance in his heat, resulting in an overall second place finish for the event, by racing his best time to date (5:35.56). For the girls, the Bears took first and second in the first heat (Lauren Holliday and Alex Newcomer), and then first in the second heat (Ashley Dale Henslee).
The girls' 200 freestyle relay team, made up of Angela Ho, Tori Bentley, Sydney Anderson, and Sydney Swenton, took first in their heat.
The lone backstroker for the boys, Kevin Knapp, took first in his 100 backstroke event by a great distance. The girls took two first place finishes (Ayana Dudley and Emily Dwane), and a third and fourth place finish (Amanda Seibert and Lauren Pocza).
Breastroke has definitely been shown to be the greatest strength of the Cambridge Bears. The boys pulled out a first and second place finish (Kyle Daniel and Shaban Halim), and then the girls truly swept most of the competition with their performance. Maggie McGinty, in the first heat of the event, took first with a time of 1:13.76, automatically qualifying her to compete at State Championships at the end of the season. This moment was truly the highlight of the entire meet for the Bears. The rest of the girls backed her up in the second heat taking first (Tori Bentley), second (Sydney Swenton), fourth (Sarah Moore) and sixth (Ayana Dudley).
As the meet begins to come to an end, the last event of the evening starts with the 400 freestyle relay, considered to be the most competitive event of all the relays,and the pressure was on to finish the meet with top places. The boys took fourth (Erek Humm, Shaban Halim, Noah Sannes, and Jake Todd), besting the Bears' previous seedtime by almost 30 seconds. The girls took first (Lauren Holliday, Amanda Seibert, Susannah Jorshaugen, Emily Dwane) and second (Sydney Anderson, Lauren Pocza, Angela Ho, and Tori Bentley) of the first heat. The last heat of the evening, the Bears took second (Maggie McGinty, Alex Newcomer, Sydney Swenton, Ashley Dale Henslee) besting our seedtime by over a second and a half.
The Bears truly stepped it up and had an incredible finish in their first competition of the season. Coach Lauren Hall says "we have much to look forward to in our upcoming meets! We are very proud of our athletes and are excited for what lies in our future!"
Go Bears!!
