Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer

Cambridge Swimming Takes 1st Place at Riverside Quad Meet

Cambridge Swimming Takes 1st Place at Riverside Quad Meet
Posted: Nov 20, 2014

On Wednesday, Nov. 19th, the Bears traveled to Gainesville to compete against Riverside Military Academy, Blessed Trinity, and North Forsyth High School. With all four teams in close competition with one another throughout the entire meet, the scores came down to a few points differential. Overall, Cambridge came out of competition with three relay state cuts, and three individual event state cuts.

Boys' Team Rankings:

Riverside 83
Cambridge 78
North Forsyth 78
Blessed Trinity 47

Girls' Team Rankings:

Blessed Trinity 117
Cambridge 87
North Forsyth 82

Combined Team Scores:

Cambridge 165
Blessed Trinity 164
North Forsyth 160
Riverside 83

With tough competition in each event, the Cambridge boys' team fought hard for every point. Starting off the meet, the boys' A-relay team (Erek Humm, Ethan Nalwasky, Jake Todd, Austin Daniel) in the Medley Relay took third place overall with a state cut time of 1:50.83. This relay was the most coveted by the boys' team since it has been the only relay to which the Bears have not appeared at the state meet. Achieving the state cut at the first official meet of the season means that the boys can take the rest of the season to perfect and improve their strategy for the state meet. Others contributing points to the medley relay event was the fourth place B-relay team (Sean McGinty, Kyle Daniel, Adam Montes, Alex Mahler), and seventh place C-relay team (Tony Guerra, David Le, Connor Fleming, Connor Christiansen). In the 200-yard freestyle event, the Cambridge boys also had three point-earning finishes. Connor Christiansen finished fifth overall with a time of 2:11.69, Noah Sannes finished sixth overall, and Tony Guerra finished seventh overall. In the 200-yard individual medley event, Jake Todd finished second place with a time just off the state cut of 2:13.36. Conor Wesolowski followed Todd with a third place finish, and Adam Montes contributed with his fifth place overall finish. While the 50-freestyle event did not result with points contributing to the boys' score, there were a couple notable finishes by new swimmers. Jared Keimand Jason Hink, both first-time swim competitors, finished in the top 16 with 43 competitors total in the event. Both Keim and Hink swam sub 27-second 50-freestyles, which is incredibly impressive for first time swimmers. In the 100-yard butterfly event, the Bears had another three point-earning finishes. Erek Humm finished in fifth overall with a time of 1:03.07, Conor Wesolowski finished in sixth, and Jason Yang finished in seventh. The 100-yard freestyle had two point-earning finishes. Austin Daniel, with a state cut time of 50.96, took first place in the event. Matt Hogan followed up with a seventh place finish, also bringing important points to the Bears' total score. In the longest event of the day, the Bears had an impressive showing with all three competitors finishing in point-earning positions. Jake Todd finished third overall with a state cut time of 5:18.77, Ethan Nalwasky finished right behind Todd in fourth place, and Sean McGinty finished in sixth place. In the 200-freestyle relay, the boys' team had two finishes earning them team points. The A-relay team (Matt Hogan, Alex Mahler, Sebastian Lara, Conor Weslowski) finished in fourth overall with a time of 1:43.12, and the C-relay team (Connor Fleming, Jason Hink, Nick Mirchandani, Jared Keim) finishing in seventh. In the 100-backstroke, Austin Daniel once again put up an impressive finish with a time of 57.20, which also qualifies him for the event at the state competition and second place at the meet. Erek Humm followed him up with a fourth place finish, and Sean McGinty with a seventh place finish. The 100-breaststroke was an important point-earning event for the boys' team with three finished in the top five spots. Ethan Nalwasky took second place with a time of 1:09.35, Kyle Daniel took third place, and Jason Yang took fourth place. The last event of the day was the 400-freestyle relay, and the boys' team put up an impressive showing. The A-relay team (Jake Todd, Matt Hogan, Ethan Nalwasky, and Austin Daniel) posted a state-cut time, however, due to an official calling an early start by a swimmer, the team was disqualified. Luckily, the other top relay in the event, coming from Blessed Trinity, also disqualified for the same reason, so the B-relay team (Conor Wesolowski, Connor Christiansen, Sean McGinty, Erek Humm) and C-relay teams (Jason Yang, Noah Sannes, Sebastian Lara, Alex Mahler) were there to earn third and fifth place finishes to gain valuable points for the Cambridge boys.
 

The girls' team had challenging races throughout the evening, as the Blessed Trinity girls and the North Forsyth girls came with full squads ready to compete. As with the boys' team, the girls also started off the evening with a strong showing in the 200-medley relay. The girls' A-relay team (Nicole Detjen, Katie Fishman, Olivia Mahler, Katie Durden) gave a solid performance to come in with a state cut time of 2:05.46 and a third place overall finish. The B-relay (Darby Goodyear, Alex Newcomer, Ashley Dale Henslee, Sydney Swenton) and the D-relay (Amani Kanso, Melissa Mandato, Annah Morgan, Ashley Robinson) also scored points for the team with their fifth and sixth place finishes. In the 200-freestyle event, three girls also scored points by finishing in the top seven places. Simona Cofrancesco finished in third overall with a time of 2:11.63, following by teammates Darby Goodyear in sixth and Ashley Dale Henslee in seventh. In the 200-individual medley event, freshman Katie Fishman had her second significant impact of the meet by placing in fourth overall with a time of 2:38.07, followed by teammate Sydney Swenton in fifth place, Chloe Paskins in sixth, and captain Angela Ho in seventh. In the 50-freestyle event, with 41 girls total competing in the event, two Cambridge girls finished in the top five. Caley Cramer finished in fourth overall with a time of 27.36, followed by teammate Katie Durden in fifth. The girls had an impressive showing in the 100-butterfly event, with four girls finishing in point-earning positions. Olivia Mahler finished in fourth place overall with a time of 1:10.95, followed by Chloe Paskins in fifth, Anna Salvadori in sixth, and Lindsey Robinson in seventh. Three girls finished in point-earning positions in the 100-freestyle. Alex Newcomer finished in third overall with a time of 1:01.76, followed by Ashley Dale Henslee in fifth, and Angela Ho in sixth. A huge swing in favor of the girls' team came in the 500-freestyle. Simona Cofrancesco dropped significant time to take first place overall in the event, followed by teammates Sydney Anderson and Ella McIlvain, also in point-earning positions. In the 200-freestyle event, the girls' A-relay team (Sydney Swenton, Ashley Dale Henslee, Alex Newcomer, Caley Cramer) was a little more than half of a second from a state cut time, swimming a solid 1:53.65 which earned them second place overall. The B-relay team (Chloe Paskins, Angela Ho, Nicole Detjen, Chloe Phelps) took fourth place, the C-relay team (Isabella Empoliti, Sophia LaMarca, Julia Dinardo, Ayana Dudley) took sixth, and the D-relay team (Cat Kania, Kat Jackson, Amani Kanso, Lauren Lee) took the last point-earning position in seventh place. Backstroke has been a strength of the Cambridge squad for both the boys and the girls, and this meet displayed that advantage. Katie Durden, with a time of 1:08.35, took second place overall, followed by Caley Cramer in fifth place and Nicole Detjen in sixth. Katie Fishman once again took to the pool to earn valuable points for the Cambridge girls in the 100-breaststroke event with her fourth place finish and time of 1:17.23. Alex Newcomer followed closely behind with a seventh place finish. In the 400-freestyle relay, the Cambridge girls' team took three of the top seven scoring positions. With a state qualifying time, the A-relay team (Caley Cramer, Katie Durden, Angela Ho, Chloe Paskins) took second place with a time of 4:10.44. The C-relay team (Simona Cofrancesco, Ashley Robinson, Anna Salvadori, Ella McIlvain) and B-relay team (Katie Fishman, Darby Goodyear, Chloe Phelps. Lindsey Robinson) also earned point-earning positions for the girls.

Overall, the Cambridge squad has a lot to look forward to in the rest of the season. The Bears will host their first meet of the season on Friday, November 21st at the Cumming Aquatic Center against North Springs and South Forsyth. Diving will begin at 7:30 PM and the swimming events will immediately follow. One significant advantage that the Bears have coming into this season will be the inclusion of three divers. The points scored by divers Jack Braglia, Simon Finlayson and Maddie Chalouxwill bring vital advantage to the meets that will come down to the last few points. All three divers have state meet potential. Finlayson has already had an opportunity to engage in competition last weekend at the Marist Early Bird Invitational with 30 other male divers from the region. Finlayson scored well especially in his most difficult dive sequences, but he is looking forward to being joined in competition with his teammates Braglia and Chaloux.

The program has a lot to look forward to in the upcoming season and many more victories to come. The team intends to bring home many more victories to Bear Country.