Cambridge Swimming Combined Score Defeats Lassiter but Falls Short of Northview, Sat. Dec. 12th

Posted: Dec 16, 2015

On Saturday, December 12th, Cambridge took on Lassiter and Northview in a trimmer at Dynamo Aquatic Center.

At the end of the day, the girls' team defeated Northview, but their winning streak was broken by not being able to out perform against Lassiter. For the boys' team, they had the opposite. The Cambridge boys' team beat out Lassiter, but fell behind Northview. With their combined score, Cambridge loses to Northview by 23 points, but defeats Lassiter by 18 points. An incredibly close meet with some very exciting races.

Combined Score:
1)    Northview - 1044
2)    Cambridge - 1021
3)    Lassiter - 1003

Girls' Team Score:
1)    Lassiter - 545
2)    Cambridge - 505
3)    Northview - 504

Boys' Team Score:
1)    Northview - 540
2)    Cambridge - 516
3)    Lassiter - 458

Boys' Team Recap

In the first event of the day, the boys' 200-yard A-medley relay team (Erek Humm, Jason Yang, Ethan Nalwasky, Jared Keim) had a hard-fought battle the entire race. While Lassiter's relay team was leading by a significant distance, the race was for second place. Cambridge and Northview were going back and forth the entire race and it all came down to the last leg of the race - freestyle. In the end, Cambridge was out-touched by less than a half-second to take third in the event with a time of 1:49.81, which is a new season best time. The B-relay (Sean McGinty, Konata Ford, Dawson Hall, Cameron Chong) also had an impressive swim, earning them a fifth place finish.

The 200-yard freestyle event brought an impressive display of athleticism with the top competitors demonstrating extremely high levels of performance. The top competitor from Northview and Cambridge's top competitor, Austin Daniel, battled the entire race, and even though Daniel touched the wall in second, his time of 1:45.32 was incredibly impressive. Daniel was followed by other top Cambridge competitor, Jake Todd, who touched the wall with a state cut time of 1:54.68. Teammate Conor Wesolowski wasn't far behind, touching the wall in fifth place, Konata Ford touched in eighth, and Cole Pieroni touched in ninth.

In the 200-yard individual medley, Erek Humm was the first from Cambridge to finish in third overall with a time of 2:20.12, followed by teammate Jason Yang in fifth, Ben Balmes in eighth, and Connor Fleming in ninth.

There was significant competition in the 50-yard freestyle event. With an incredible finish, Jared Keim finished in second overall with a personal best time of 24.43. Jason Hink finished in fifth, Dawson Hall finished in sixth, and Cameron Chong finished in seventh.

In the 100-yard butterfly event, Austin Daniel put up another impressive performance with a third-place finish and a time of 57.94. Ethan Nalwasky finished right behind him in fourth, followed by Dawson Hall in sixth, Connor Fleming in tenth, and Kyle Daniel in eleventh.

In the 100-yard freestyle, Conor Wesolowki finished in second overall with a time of 55.90, followed by Jason Hink in fourth, Cameron Chong in seventh, Ben Walker in twelfth, and Manav Kumar in fifteenth.

In the 500-yard freestyle event, Cole Pieroni touched the wall in fourth place, and Nick Mirchandani touched in fifth, both earning important points for the Bears.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the A-relay team (Austin Daniel, Jake Todd, Erek Humm, Jared Keim) had an incredible performance and put up a new season best time of 1:38.16, which earned them second place. Following right behind in third place was the B-relay (Jason Hink, Dawson Hall, Cameron Chong, Conor Wesolowski). Boys from both relay teams are potential members of the state relay team that will head to Georgia Tech in February.

In the 100-yard backstroke, Erek Humm touched the wall in fourth place (1:04.53), followed by Sean McGinty in seventh, Ben Walker in twelfth, and Manav Kumar in thirteenth. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Cambridge had a very strong showing with Konata Ford touching in third (1:09.09), following very closely by Jason Yang in fifth, Ethan Nalwasky in sixth, Kyle Daniel in ninth, and Ben Balmes in twelfth.

In the last event of the day, Cambridge's 400-yard freestyle relay (Austin Daniel, Jake Todd, Conor Wesolowski, Jason Hink) and Northview went back and forth for first place throughout the race. The relay came down to the last leg and with only a finger-length lead, Northview took first. The boys' relay from Northview took first place at state last year, so with Cambridge competing with such a close finish, there is a lot to be said for what Cambridge has the potential to do at the state meet this year. With a finish in 3:30.71, this was Cambridge's fastest time this season and only a little over 2-second away from their state time last year. The B-relay (Jared Keim, Cole Pieroni, Sean McGinty, Konata Ford) finished in fifth.

Girls' Team Recap

In the first event of the day, the girls' 200-yard medley A-relay (Nicole Detjen, Katie Fishman, Olivia Mahler, Sydney Swenton) trailed the Lassiter A-relay, but were back and forth with the Northview relay. The entire relay, the teams fought against each other to take the second-place spot and in the end the Northview team touched the wall less than 0.1 second faster than the Cambridge squad, so the girls had to settle for third. The B-relay (Isabella Empoliti, Sarah Moore, Emily Powers, Ashley Dale Henslee) took sixth.

In the 200-yard freestyle event, Annah Morgan was the first to touch the wall from Cambridge in fifth place with a time of 2:23.56. Ashley Dale Henslee was right behind her in sixth, followed by Anna Salvador in eighth, Sydney Anderson in ninth, Ella McIlvain in tenth, and Melissa Mandato in eleventh.

In the 200-yard individual medley, Lauren Jonsson took fourth with a time of 2:23.09 (just off her state qualifying time earlier this season at Riverside), Olivia Mahler took eighth, Sarah Moore took ninth, Carolyn McLain took twelfth, Cat Kania took thirteenth, and Ayana Dudley took fourteenth.

In the 50-yard freestyle event, Cambridge snagged a number of top finishes. Alex Newcomer touched the wall in second place with a time of 26.56 (0.06 off the state cut time), and Caley Cramer finished in third, also just off the state cut time. Katie Durden finished in fifth, Sydney Swenton took ninth, and Ashley Robinson took eleventh.

In the 100-yard butterfly event, Olivia Mahler took seventh with a time of 1:11.31, followed by Anna Salvador in eighth, Bella Kane in ninth, Sophia LaMarca in tenth, Emily Powers in eleventh, and Carolyn McLain in twelfth.

In the 100-yard freestyle event, Alex Newcomer finished in third with a time of 59.07, followed by Lauren Jonsson in fourth, Caley Cramer in fifth, Katie Durden in sixth, and Ashley Dale Henslee in ninth.

In the 500-yard freestyle event, Sydney Anderson touched the wall in third with a time of 6:36.60, followed by Ella McIlvain in fourth, and Julia Dinardo in fifth.

The girls had a tough battle in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The A-relay (Caley Cramer, Katie Durden, Lauren Jonsson, Alex Newcomer) was right up in the front with Lassiter. They swam as hard as they could, but came up just short of Lassiter to take second place with a time of 1:49.56. The B-relay (Sydney Swenton, Ashley Dale Henslee, Anna Salvador, Katie Fishman) took fourth.

In the 100-yard backstroke event, Nicole Detjen took fifth with a time of 1:12.97, followed by Isabella Empoliti in seventh, Julia Dinardo in ninth, Ashley Robinson in thirteenth, Irazu Lara in fourteenth, and Colleen McCreanor in fifteenth.

In the 100-yard breaststroke event, Katie Fishman took third with a time of 1:16.68, followed by Sydney Swenton in seventh, Sarah Moore in ninth, and Brigs Roddick in thirteenth.

In the last event of the day, the girls' 400-yard freestyle A-relay team (Caley Cramer, Lauren Jonsson, Katie Durden, Alex Newcomer) had a number of solid splits to take third overall with a time of 4:05.44. Even though the team has a state qualifying time, they will have to drop time if they want a spot back in the finals heat at the state meet. The B-relay (Katie Fishman, Anna Salvadori, Annah Morgan, Ashley Robinson) took fifth.

Next Week's Preview

The rest of the season for the Cambridge swimming and diving team will be challenging with tough competition ahead. Next weekend, December 19th, the team will travel to Emory to compete against some of the top teams in the state. This will be good practice for them to see where the competition is so far this season and what they need to do in the next month to prepare. Lots of fast swimming will happen this weekend and then the team will begin their last month of preparation for Metros and then the state meet.

When the swimmers return from break, they will compete at Fulton County Championships the Thursday back from break. This meet will show who has been doing the work over break. The tema will begin their taper headed into the last weeks. They will get to compete at Cumming Aquatic Center, which has proven to be a great pool for the Bears in the past. They will head to Westminster and then a final relay meet where the seniors will be honored at the Mountain View Aquatic Center.

Keep an eye out for these guys in the coming weeks. The pools the will be at tend to encourage fast times and we will see what competition there will be in store in February when the best meet at Georgia Tech.

Come out and support your Bear swimmers!