Cambridge Girls Swim Team Takes First Place at Raider Relays, Boys Team Takes Second

Posted: Nov 11, 2016

The Cambridge swim team made their season debut on Saturday, November 5th at Dynamo in the annual Raider Relay.

Along with Cambridge was Alpharetta, Milton, Johns Creek and Chattahoochee. The day is a fun way to start the season as it is all relay events and allows the teams to try out their new swimmers to see what they can do. The results were as follows:

Girls Teams

Cambridge 554
Alpharetta 492
Milton 436
Johns Creek 246
Chattahoochee 198

Boys Teams

Johns Creek 456
Cambridge 392
Chattahoochee 362
Alpharetta 294
Milton 254

Combined Scores

Johns Creek 994
Cambridge 972
Alpharetta 908
Milton 860
Chattahoochee 704

The Cambridge team showed up to the Raider Relays this year with a new attitude. With a new crop of swimmers and the incorporation of an intense dryland and pool workout regiment, the team was ready to hit the pool. Of the standout performances on Saturday, the biggest areas that the team had were in specific stroke work. Backstroke is a significant strength for the Bears with the boys' A-backstroke relay (Austin Daniel, Connor Christiansen, Sean McGinty, Nicholas Diponzio) taking second overall and missing the first place team by less than two seconds, and the girls' A-backstroke relay (Katie Durden, Paula Morales, Lauren Jonsson, Isabella Empoliti) taking first overall by about six seconds. Butterfly was another strength of the Bears with the boys' A-butterfly relay (Zachary Parker, Austin Daniel, Clayton Johnson, Nicholas DiPonzio) and the girls' A-butterfly relay (Carolyn McLain, Paula Morales, Lauren Jonsson, Katie Durden) both taking second place overall.

This season is shaping up to be a very exciting one. While the boys' team has only 17 members, the quality of new swimmers is phenomenal. Austin Daniel will be completing his high school career this year and passing to torch to a new group of boys that bring significant depth and talent to the team. Freshman boys such as Matthew Gaines, Zach Parker, Nicholas DiPonzio and others will add a lot of talent to an already talented bunch of boys. The new talent will push the experienced team member to be stronger, better and faster than before. The girls' team is quite deep with 27-members on the squad. With so many options, the girls will be competing for the top relay and individual spots, which has increased the intensity of the workouts and the opportunities for racing to earn their place. Exciting new members like Abby Grottle and Ashleigh Hays will join our already highly decorated members like Lauren Jonsson and push the girls to top positions in the new 6A division. Next weekend, the first official meet of the season against Centennial and South Forsyth, will be the first chance for the whole team to be together and really show what we can do in a traditional meet setting.

The other exciting development for the Cambridge program is the growth of the diving team. Last year, the team was five-members deep and this year they have doubled to ten members! With all five members from last year returning again, the new five divers will be a huge advantage for the team in large meets where diving can tip a team's score. The team will be led by experienced senior divers Maddie Chaloux (two-time state meet competitor, top 20 finisher last year) and Simon Finlayson (two-time state meet competitor). While the move to 6A will prove challenging for our swimmers, our divers will thrive in this opportunity. While in the 5A division, our divers competed against the private schools and other elite programs, the 6A will be much more reasonable competition and the team should favor well at the state meet. This will be a VERY exciting group to watch. December 3^rd will be the first chance to see them in action, so come to the Cherokee Aquatic Center to watch Cambridge diving!