Cambridge Swimmers Gain Four More State Qualifying Events at Fulton County Championships

Posted: Jan 13, 2015

On Saturday January 10th, the Cambridge swimming and diving team took on the best in Fulton County at Fulton County Championships at Marist. After coming into competition a bit rusty after a long winter break, the team still came out with the addition of four events to the state meet agenda in February, including diving. Overall, the women finished in seventh out of eleven schools and the men took eighth out of ten schools.

Men's Team Recap

To start the day off, the men's team gave a point-earning performance in the medley relay. The A-relay team (Jake Todd, Kyle Daniel, Erek Humm, Austin Daniel) swam just off their best time of the season at 1:50.86. Their time scored them eighth place overall. The B-relay team (Sean McGinty, Jason Yang, Connor Christiansen, Jared Keim) took thirteenth overall with a time of 1:58.00.

In the 200-freestyle, Connor Christiansen and Noah Sannes represented the Bears and put up solid times, but didn't earn the team any points.

In the 50-freestyle, Jason Hink was the first from Cambridge to touch the wall. He finished thirty-fifth overall out of sixty-one entries with a time of 25.89. Jared Keim finished just two places behind Hink, followed by Nick Mirchandani, Austin Thistleton, and Connor Flemming.

While the swimming events were going on, the men's diving was hard at work. Jack Braglia greatly improved his overall score to earn points for the men's team, but the standout performance was had by Simon Finlayson. At the Emory meet, Finlayson had the overall score necessary to earn the state cut, but did not have the necessary level of difficulty in his dives. This week, Finalyson had the perfect formula that not only got him the state meet qualifications, but he also placed fourth overall, which earned the team fifteen valuable points. Finalyson will have three more meets to practice his state meet agenda.

In the 100-butterfly, Erek Humm was the first to finish from Cambridge with a time of 1:03.16. His fifteenth place finish earned the team points. Just getting squeaked out of point-earning position was Jason Yang in seventeenth, followed by Kyle Daniel.

In the 100-freestyle, Austin Daniel made his first individual event appearance of the day. He finished in seventh overall with a time of 52.11, just off his best time, and earned twelve points for the men's team. Just a couple places behind him, still in point-earning position, was Jake Todd and Conor Wesolowski. Just off point-earning position were teammates Matt Hogan, Jason Hink, Sebastian Lara, and Connor Christiansen. Lara and Christiansen both shaved off time for season-best finishes.

In the 500-freestyle, Sean McGinty put up another solid performance to take eighteenth place. Tony Guerra came in two spots behind McGinty by shaving off over eight seconds to have a season-best performance. Noah Sannes also put up a new season-best time in the event.

In the 200-freestyle relay, the A-relay (Matt Hogan, Jared Keim, Jason Hink, Conor Wesolowski) gave a solid performance to earn tenth place overall, which earned eighteen points for the men's team. The B-relay team (Noah Sannes, Nick Mirchandani, Connor Christiansen, Sebastian Lara) also had a good performance to earn fifteenth overall.

In the 100-backstroke, Austin Daniel was the first to finish in eleventh place overall with a time of 1:00.56. Jake Todd finished a couple places behind, followed by Erek Humm, all in point-earning positions. Sean McGinty finished a couple places behind Humm, followed by Conor Wesolowski, and Tony Guerra. Guerra had another season-best time of the day.

In the 100-breaststroke, Kyle Daniel finished in fourteenth place overall with a new season-best time of 1:11.59. David Le and Sebastian Lara also had solid performances in the event.

In the last event of the day, the men's team has always had solid performances and today was no different. The A-relay team (Jake Todd, Conor Wesolowski, Matt Hogan, Austin Daniel) finished in ninth overall. They look to shave off some more time and not only get back to their best state-qualifying time, but improve upon it so they can attempt to return to finals at the state meet.

Women's Team Recap

The women's team started off very similarly as the men's team, with the A-medley relay team (Katie Durden, Katie Fishman, Caley Cramer, Alex Newcomer) swimming just off their best time at 2:03.81 and an overall placing of ninth. The B-relay team (Nicole Detjen, Sydney Swenton, Chloe Paskins, Lauren Holliday) finishing in fourteenth overall with a time of 2:08.81.

The women followed the men's pattern in the 200-freestyle with Annah Morgan, Anna Salvadori, Isabella Empoliti, Julia Dinardo, Sydney Anderson, and Amanda Seibert putting up solid swims, but just missing the point earning positions. Salvadori and Dinardo did swim season-best times in the event.

In the 200-individual medley, Sydney Swenton solidly took her heat with a new season-best time of 2:36.35. Her finish got her twelfth place overall and scored points for the team. Another point-earner in the event was freshman Katie Fishman with a fourteenth place finish. Chloe Paskins finished just a couple places behind Fishman with a solid performance.

In the 50-freestyle, the team had their first new state swim of the day. Caley Cramer gave an amazing performance to shave off the necessary time to make the state cut with a time of 26.47 and an overall placing of ninth place out of fifty-nine swimmers. Katie Durden also earned points for her finish in eighteenth place. Alex Newcomer finished just two places after Durden, followed by Ashley Dale Henslee, Angela Ho, Nicole Detjen, and Paula Morales.

Just as the men's diving events brought good news, the women's team was no exception. Maddie Chaloux, who has been state-bound since the beginning of the season, did the work and got it done. Chaloux earned a state-qualifying score and level of difficulty, and even sweeter, earned third place overall in the competition. Her third-place finish earned the women's team a very important sixteen points towards the team score. Chaloux will have three more chances to practice her dives before heading to Georgia Tech to compete against the best in the state in February. She is certainly one to watch in the coming weeks.

Ladies swimming the 100-butterfly included Amanda Seibert and Sophia LaMarca. Even though their finishes did not earn the team points, they put up solid times and swam well against some very difficult competition.

In the 100-freestyle, Caley Cramer was the only one to finish in point-earning position with a time of 59.23, which earned her tenth place overall. Following her was Alex Newcomer, Ashley Dale Henslee, Angela Ho, Anna Salvadori, Sarah Moore, Lindsey Robinson, and Sophia LaMarca. Henslee and Ho went season-best individual event times, along with Moore who shaved off over two seconds.

In the 500-freestyle, Darby Goodyear came in just about a second off her best time to take seventh overall in the event and earn the team valuable points. Coming in right behind her in eighth place was Chloe Paskins with a new season-best time by over ten seconds. Sydney Anderson also earned points for the team by finishing in eleventh overall.

In the 200-freestyle relay, the A-relay (Sydney Swenton, Ashley Dale Henslee, Angela Ho, Lauren Holliday) swam extremely well and beat out some of the best teams in the region to swim a 1:52.40, which earned them sixth place overall. The B-relay team (Nicole Detjen, Paula Morales, Sophia LaMarca, Anna Salvadori) swam well and earned eleventh overall.

The 100-backstroke has been a strong event for the women's squad since the beginning of the season. Nicole Detjen was the first to finish on the women's team in eleventh place overall with a time of 1:07.37. Katie Durden also finished in a point-earning position in fifteenth. A couple back from Durden, Isabella Empoliti finished with a season-best time along with Darby Goodyear also with a season best time by over three seconds. Julia Dinardo and Ashley Robinson also finished with season-best times.

In the 100-breaststroke, Katie Fishman finished in tenth place overall, followed by Sydney Swenton in sixteenth, also earning points for the team with her season-best finish. Sarah Moore did not earn points for the team, but her finish was her second season-best swim of the day, along with Lindsey Robinson having a season-best time.

In the 400-freestyle relay, the women's team had another exciting event. Caley Cramer had just missed making the state cut in the 100-freestyle earlier in the day, so she hoped that by leading off the relay, she could earn her official time to qualify. The race was close and she looked solid coming into the wall, by the final official time would be the only thing to determine her state prospects. Cramer earned her state cut by just a few hundredths of a second to swim a 58.46 (the state cut being 58.50). Her relay teammates (Katie Durden, Ashley Dale Henslee, Alex Newcomer) followed her performance with renewed energy and also had great performance. Their performance earned an eighth place finish overall. The B-relay (Angela Ho, Katie Fishman, Chloe Paskins, Anna Salvadori) had a great performance also, which earned them twelfth place overall.

Preview of Coming Weeks

The team will be busy in the next two weeks as they wrap up the regular season. The team will travel to Wesleyan on Thursday to compete in a tri-meet and attempt to mix up some of the relay teams to see who will make the final state meet relay roster and give the divers a chance to practice a short 6-dive sequence. On Friday and Saturday, the team will travel to Dalton High School to compete in North Georgia Regions. In the past, the team has done very well, earning a second-place finish last year. The team returns hoping to take a top position. Diving and the 500-freestyle will compete on Friday and then will be joined by the rest of the team on Saturday for a preliminary round followed by a finals round in the evening. The last meet of the regular season will be Metros at Westminster on January 23^rd and 24^th. Friday will be all about diving, and then Saturday will have a preliminary and finals round of swimming events.

The state meet is fast approaching and will be held at Georgia Tech the first weekend in February. Thus far, here are the qualifying events that Cambridge will be potentially represented in:

Men

200-Medley Relay

200-Freestyle (Austin Daniel, Jake Todd)

200-Individual Medley (Austin Daniel)

50-Freestyle (Austin Daniel)

200-Freestyle Relay

100-Butterfly (Austin Daniel)

100-Freestyle (Austin Daniel)

500-Freestyle (Austin Daniel, Jake Todd)

100-Backstroke (Austin Daniel, Jake Todd)

400-Freestyle Relay

Diving (Simon Finlayson)