Due to the snow, the Metro Swimming and Diving Championship meet had to be postponed, but the Bears were not deterred! Unfortunately, the diving portion of the meet had to be canceled, but the three Cambridge state divers are cleared and ready for state regardless. The swimming portion of the meet took place on Monday, January 25th, as a last chance effort for swimmers to qualify for state in their individual events. This would be the last opportunity to swim a qualifying race and a last chance for the relays to improve their seed time.
Results for Combined Team Score:
- Westminster 335
- Alpharetta 190.5
- Wesleyan 189
- Marist 187
- Centennial 170
- Woodward 99
- Paideia 89
- Milton 81
- Roswell 81
- Rome 80
- Cambridge 77.5
- Riverwood 76
- Lovett 54
- Grady 43
- Whitefield 32
- North Springs/Adairsville/Walnut Grove 22
- Winder-Barrow
- Atlanta International
- South Paulding
- Galloway
- St. Francis 3
- Mount Pisgah 2
- Buford Wolves 1
Results for Girls' Team Score:
- Marist 172
- Westminster 135
- Wesleyan 106
- Alpharetta 76.5
- Centennial 69
- Lovett 50
- Paideia 45
- Grady 43
- Cambridge 41.5
- Rome 37
- Riverwood 36
- Woodward 35
- Milton 25
- North Springs/Adairsville 22
- Roswell 13
- Whitefield 12
- South Paulding 11
- Galloway 1
Results for Boys' Team Score:
- Westminster 200
- Alpharetta 114
- Centennial 101
- Wesleyan 83
- Roswell 68
- Woodward 64
- Milton 56
- Paideia 44
- Rome 43
- Riverwood 40
- Cambridge 36
- Walnut Grove 22
- Whitefield 20
- Winder-Barrow 19
- Marist 15
- Atlanta International 13
- Galloway/Lovett 4
- St. Francis 3
- Mount Pisgah 2
- Buford 1
Girls' Recap
In the opening event, the girls' A-Medley relay (Lauren Jonsson, Katie Fishman, Olivia Mahler, Sydney Swenton) had a solid swim with a time of 2:03.47, which earned them 13th place out of 26 relay teams.
In the 200-yard freestyle event, top Cambridge seed Lauren Jonsson swam a time of 2:07.26, which earned her 10th place overall, earning valuable points for the Bears. Jonsson will be swimming this event at the state meet next week. Darby Goodyear started off her day strong by dropped almost three seconds from her seed time to swim a new personal best and take 19th place. Chloe Paskins also had a good swim and shaved off a little time to take 26th place, and Ashley Dale Henslee took 31st place.
In the 200-yard individual medley event, Olivia Mahler took 34th place with a time of 2:44.72. Sarah Moore dropped over a second off her time to take 35th place before gearing up for her main focus in the breaststroke. Anna Salvadori, determined to make her last meet count, dropped almost three seconds from her time to take 37th place. Ella McIlvain dropped almost four seconds from her time to take 40th place.
In the 50-yard freestyle event, Cambridge had a number of very competitive swims. Alex Newcomer dropped 0.11 seconds to swim a time of 26.28 and take 12th place overall. Newcomer will swim this event next week at the state meet. She hopes to swim sub-26.0 to try to improve her spot and make it to the final round. Caley Cramer will join Newcomer at state in this event. She had a solid swim at Metros, taking 15th place overall. Paula Morales dropped additional time in the event as well to take 34th place. Morales will be an important member of the 200-yard freestyle relay event at state, where it will be important for her to drop even more time. Katie Fishman, the last member of the 200-yard freestyle relay also had a solid swim and took 49th place overall. Fishman will need to drop time in order for the relay to have a chance of returning to finals at the state meet.
In the 100-yard butterfly event, Olivia Mahler took 23rd place. Anna Salvadori finished her high school swimming career with her second new personal best time of the day by dropping over a second and a half to take 35th place. Carolyn McLain also dropped over a second and earned 42nd place, followed by senior Sophia LaMarca who finished off her last high school swim competition with a solid swim.
In the 100-yard freestyle event, Alex Newcomer had an incredible race, and dropped over half of a second to earn seventh place. Her time improves her seed at state where she will get another chance to swim the event and take a stab at making it back to finals. Paula Morales dropped almost a second and a half from her previous individual time to swim a 1:00.00 and earn 28th place. Senior and co-captain Ashley Dale Henslee rounded out her high school swim career with a 44th place finish and a time incredibly close to her personal best. Solid swim and a positive note to end on for Henslee. Senior and co-captain Sydney Swenton swam well and earned 50th place out of 105 swimmers. Swenton was getting warmed up for her 100-yard breaststroke event.
This year, the girls have been particularly strong in the distance free events. The 500-yard freestyle event really stood out at Metros as Cambridge posted three incredible performances. Lauren Jonsson stuck with the front of the crowd in the fastest heat to take third place overall. Jonsson will swim this event at the state meet next week and hopefully drop some time to make it back to finals in the top 20. Darby Goodyear had a standout performance as she pushed and swam harder than she ever has before and earned 4th place overall. Goodyear raced the top swimmers in her heat and incredibly touched the wall and dropped 15 seconds from her seed time. Goodyear's swim stood out as one of the top performances of the day, even though Goodyear was disappointed that she finished less than three seconds from the state cut time. Goodyear will certainly make the cut next season and will train to be a top finisher. Chloe Paskins has really improved in this event throughout the second half of the season. She earned 11th place with a new best time. With all three of these girls returning next season, Cambridge is in a very strong position and looks to pick up right where they left off.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the A-relay (Caley Cramer, Katie Fishman, Paula Morales, Alex Newcomer) shaved off almost two seconds from their seed time to post a new best time and take 7th place. This relay team looks to break their own school record at state and try to make it back to finals.
In the 100-yard backstroke event, Caley Cramer took advantage of the high level of competition to push herself as hard as she could to make her state time. Not only did Cramer make the state cut with a time of 1:02.98 (almost a second and a half faster than her best time last year), but she also took first in her heat. Cramer will swim this event at state next week. Nicole Detjen rounded out her last high school season with a solid swim and a 21st place finish. Isabella Empoliti took 24th place and dropped almost three seconds from her best time. Julia Dinardo took 34th place.
In the last event of the day, the girls' 400-yard freestyle A-relay (Caley Cramer, Lauren Jonsson, Paula Morales, Alex Newcomer) have proved to be an incredibly strong group. They consistently break their own records and look to continue that pattern of performance. Dropping over two seconds from their seed time to swim a solid 3:54.40, the team took 8th place overall. This event will be relay with the strongest possibility of returning, and the girls want it badly. Similar to the boys' relay, the two seniors on the relay team want a finals appearance badly and will push their teammates to do their part to get there.
Boys' Recap
In the opening event, the boys' A-Medley relay (Erek Humm, Konata Ford, Dawson Hall, Jared Keim) swam a new season best time of 1:48.08, which is almost two seconds faster than their seed time and will help improve their position going into the state meet.
In the 200-yard freestyle event, top Cambridge seed, Austin Daniel, took an impressive third place overall with a time of 1:46.14. Daniel will be swimming this event at the state meet next week with hopes of making it through prelims on Friday to the final heat on Saturday. Jake Todd had another impressive performance and dropped over a second and a half to swim a new best time of 1:51.57 and take eighth place. He will also be swimming this event at the state meet in hopes of dropping another couple seconds to go sub-1:50.00 and potentially make it back to finals on Saturday. Jason Hink, a fairly new addition to this event, again dropped time to earn 27th place. The big story in the 200-yard freestyle event was Sean McGinty. McGinty took off in his heat and led the pack the entire race, continuing to grow his lead. Coaches thought he would run out of steam and drop his momentum but he pushed through and had one of the most amazing swims of the season, dropping an incredible and unheard of 13 seconds from his seed time to easily take first place in his heat. Even though he didn't finish in the top contenders overall, his race was a highlight of the season.
In the 200-yard individual medley event, Ben Balmes was the first from Cambridge to touch the wall in 35th place, followed closely by Cole Pieroni in 37th, with a new best time after dropping over a second from his time.
In the 50-yard freestyle event, Jared Keim has consistently been the top seed for the Bears. Out of 99 swimmers, Keim took 36th with a solid swim. Finishing close behind him in 38th place was Dawson Hall with a new best time of over half a second. Connor Fleming has really taken well to this race this season and has continually dropped time, and the Metro meet was no exception. Dropping an additional half-second, Fleming took 54th place. Konata Ford finished in 64th place.
In the 100-yard butterfly event, Cambridge's top seed, Jake Todd, took 13th place overall. Finishing closely behind him was Dawson Hall, just narrowly missing the state qualifying time by less than a tenth of a second, in 18th place. His time was almost two-seconds faster than his previous swim. Cole Pieroni finished in 37th, and Kyle Daniel finished in 39th.
In the 100-yard freestyle event, Jason Hink dropped over a half second to take 26th place and swim a time of 54.22. Hink has been consistently dropping time throughout the second half of the season and earned his place on the 400-yard freestyle relay. Jared Keim finished closely behind in 29th place, with a new best time by over a second (55.04). Connor Christiansen dropped almost a half-second in this event to take 42nd place with a time of 57.56, and Connor Fleming had his second impressive swim of the day where he once again dropped an incredible amount of time for such a short event. Fleming dropped over two seconds to swim 58.77 and earn 49th place.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the A-relay (Jake Todd, Jared Keim, Erek Humm, Austin Daniel) maintained their entry time to take 11th place, but with some rest and taper, these boys are hunting for a return appearance in the finals round at state. Seniors Todd and Humm want to make the most of their last state appearance and are pushing their teammates to help get them there.
In the 100-yard backstroke event, Austin Daniel took fourth place overall among some very impressive swimmers. Daniel will swim this event at the state meet next week. Erek Humm took 17th place and will get another chance to cut time in this event at the state meet next week. This event at state will be his last individual of his high school career and he is looking to make it a good one. Connor Christiansen has been effective in backstroke this year and looks to fill some very big shoes next year. Dropping a little bit of time, Christiansen took 31st place. Following right behind him was Sean McGinty in his last individual event of the season, finishing in 32nd place.
In the 100-yard breaststroke event, freshman Konata Ford just narrowly again missed the state qualifying time, but his performance earned him 20th place. He will be the main contender for the breaststroke leg of the medley relay at the state meet next week. Teammate and senior Kyle Daniel finished off his high school individual career with a solid swim and a 29th place finish. Daniel will also be a contender for the breaststroke leg of the medley relay at state. Ben Balmes dropped some time to have a great race and a 43rd place finish.
Similar to the girls' team, the boys' strongest relay is the 400-yard freestyle relay. With many possible contenders to be members of the final relay team, they look to have a strong chance of making it to finals at state. At Metros, the A-relay (Jake Todd, Erek Humm, Jason Hink, Austin Daniel) swam a time of 3:26.05, just off their best time at state last year. The team feels confident that they can shave off the necessary time to improve their seed and make it back to finals.
Preview
This weekend will be the last meet of the regular season for the Bears. Cambridge will travel to Mountain View Aquatic Center in Marietta to swim at the Spartan Relays. In addition to ending the season with a fun meet, the team will honor their sixteen seniors and celebrate the first group to have made it through four years in the program. This group marks an important milestone in the program and they will leave a significant legacy and large shoes to fill for those rising upperclassmen and new incoming swimmers.
