Cambridge Swimming Takes on Wesleyan and Collins Hill

Posted: Jan 12, 2014

On Friday, January 10^th, the Bears traveled to Wesleyan to compete against the homeschool and Collins Hill. The Bears started off the day strong by taking third overall in the boys' 200 Medley Relay (Jake Todd, Ethan Nalwasky, Erek Humm, Austin Daniel) and just missing the state cut time by a little over a second. The boys intend to make this time next week at North Georgia Regions in Dalton. The Bears' B-team also made significant time improvements and took sixth overall (Sean McGinty, Kyle Daniel, Matt Hogan, Alex Mahler) followed by the C-team (Tony Guerra, Sebastian Lara, Adam Montes, Austin Thistleton) in seventh.

The girls' A-team Medley Relay also came in third overall (Darby Goodyear, Maggie McGinty, Angela Ho, Alex Newcomer). The team had already made the state cut, but they also made a state qualifying time at this meet. While the B-team was unfortunately disqualified due to an illegal stroke (Taylor Holliday, Ayana Dudley, Olivia Mahler, Emma Gustafsson), the C-team took sixth overall (Colleen McCreanor, Sarah Moore, Emily Powes, Melissa Mandato).

Noah Sannes dropped four seconds off his best time for his 200-freestyle, which placed him seventh overall, followed by Adam Montes in eighth place and Kyle Daniel in ninth. The girls took sixth (Emma Gustafsson), seventh (Sydney Anderson), and eighth (Anna Salvadori) in the same event.

Matt Hogan tied for sixth place in the 200 Individual Medley, followed by teammate Sean McGinty. Maggie McGinty led the Cambridge finishers in the girls' 200 Individual Medley by coming in fourth overall. Teammate Simona Cofrancesco came in seventh overall, followed by Emily Powers in eighth.

In the 50-freestyle, Austin Daniel took eighth out of 29 swimmers with a time of 24.25. Bryce Jewell finished in thirteenth with a new personal best time of 25.17. Alex Mahler also swam a personal best time of 25.78. Noah Sannes, Sebastian Lara, Tony Guerra, Austin Thistleton, Nick Mirchandani, David Le, Connor Fleming, and Nicky Northen also had notable finishes in the same event.

Katie Durden led the girls' team in the 50-freestyle by placing seventh out of 29 swimmers. Next to finish was Angela Ho in twelfth, followed by Alex Newcomer, Nicole Detje, Sarah Moore, Amanda Seibert, Raeghan Bulman, Ella McIlvain, Sophia LaMarca, Taylor Holliday, Julia Dinardo, Kat Jackson, Sydney Anderson, Melissa Mandato, Ayana Dudley, Colleen McCreanor, Cat Kania, and Ketki Kantikar.

In the boys' 100-fly, Jason Yang finished fifth overall with a new meet best time of 1:06.43, followed by Adam Montes in sixth with a new personal best time of 1:13.63 and then Connor Fleming in seventh. Olivia Mahler led the girls' team with a fourth place finish, followed by Simona Cofrancesco in eighth, and Sophia LaMarca in ninth.

Austin Daniel led the boys' team again in the 100-freestyle with a time of 52.44, a half-second shy of the state cut. Ethan Nalwasky shaved time off of his 100-freestyle to swim 55:96, followed by teammate Bryce Jewell. Ashley Dale Henslee led the girls' in the event with a new personal best time of 1:01.70, followed by Sydney Swenton also with a new best time of 1:04.98, and then Darby Goodyear.

Julia Dinardo was the only Bear to compete in the 500-freestyle on Friday on the girls' or the boys' team, since Saturday was county championships and the 500-swimmers needed additional rest. Dinardo swam the race for the first time and put up great effort for a notable performance. The team was thankful for her willingness to compete in the challenging event to get the team points.

In the 200-freestyle relay, the boys' A-team (Austin Daniel, Erek Humm, Ethan Nalwasky, Jake Todd) just missed the state cut by about 1.5 seconds, but placed fifth overall. The B-team (Noah Sannes, Bryce Jewell, Matt Hogan, Alex Mahler) placed right behind them in sixth. The C-team (Tony Guerra, Connor Fleming, Nick Mirchandani, David Le) placed eighth.

The girls' team was also seeking a state cut time in the 200-freestyle rely. The A-team (Ashley Dale Henslee, Lauren Holliday, Nicole Detjen, Sydney Swenton) did exactly what they needed to do and placed fourth overall with a time of 1:51.91, with Lauren Holliday and Ashley Dale Henslee swimming personal best times. Following in sixth was the B-Team (Olivia Mahler, Anna Salvadori, Ella McIlvain, Angela Ho) and then eighth was the C-Team (Raeghan Bulman, Cat Kania, Melissa Mandato, Colleen McCreanor).

Jake Todd led the boys' team in the 100-backstroke with a time of 1:01.05. Even though it was an improvement from his seed time, Todd was hoping for a state cut time of under 1:00.00. Erek Humm followed in fifth place with a time of 1:02.85, also an improvement in time. Teammate Sean McGinty placed in ninth. Katie Durden led the girls' team in backstroke with a time of 1:08.10 and a third-place finish, just two-seconds off the state cut. Nicole Detjen finished sixth, followed by teammate Lauren Holliday in eighth.

In the 100-breaststroke, Jason Yang took sixth place with time of 1:14.77, followed by teammate Kyle Daniel in eighth with a time of 1:16.43. The girls' team had a first place finish with Maggie McGinty in the 100-breaststroke. McGinty improved her state cut entry time to 1:12.17 and scored the team valuable points with her finish. Sarah Moore placed sixth overall in the same event.

The last event of the day was the 400-freestyle relay. The boys' team already had a state cut time, so the pressure was not as severe for their performance, but they still swam impressively. The A-team (Jake Todd, Ethan Nalwasky, Bryce Jewell, Erek Humm) placed fourth overall. The B-Team placed seventh overall (Matt Hogan, Alex Mahler, Noah Sannes, Sebastian Lara) and the C-Team (Nick Mirchandani, David Le, Nicky Northen, Austin Thistleton) placed eighth overall.

The girls' A-Team (Lauren Holliday, Sydney Swenton, Alex Newcomer, Ashley Dale Henslee) came in sixth overall followed immediately by the B-Team (Emma Gustafsson, Katie Durden, Darby Godyear, Sydney Anderson) and the C-Team (Ella McIlvain, Emily Powers, Taylor Holliday, Amanda Seibert).

The team swam hard, but also had to reserve much of their energy to compete the very next day in Fulton County Championships. The meet was a great opportunity to swim against some new faces and get their bodies warmed up and ready for the next day of competition. Due to the team not having a diving team to compete also hurt the Bears significantly in points. Overall, the meet was a great experience for the team and a great warm up for Saturday's competition.

Combined Team Scores