On Saturday, December 3rd, Cambridge faced off against teams from all over the Metro Atlanta area in the Water Warrior Invitational at the Cherokee Aquatic Center. Falling only to Lassiter, Cambridge had an impressive showing with many swimmers dropping time at a difficult point in the training season. 

Combined Team Scores:
Lassiter – 990
Cambridge – 743.5
Alpharetta – 664
Harrison – 553
Kennesaw – 369
Cherokee – 335
Pinecrest – 275
North Cobb – 213.5
Weber School – 57
South Paulding – 48
Hiram – 40
Pauling County – 4
Eastside – 3

Girls Team Scores:
Lassiter – 546
Alpharetta – 360
Cambridge – 337
Harrison – 308
Cherokee – 206
Kennesaw – 163
Pinecrest – 95
North Cobb – 64
Hiram – 40
Weber School – 22
South Paulding – 18
Paulding County – 4
Eastside – 3 

Cambridge began their day on a high note with both the girls' and boys' medley relays making state qualifying times. The boys' team (Austin Daniel, Jason Yang, Zak Parker, Matthew Gaines) dropped a total of almost nine and a half seconds from their seed time to make their final state cut time of 1:46.06, taking second place overall, and pave their way to state for their last qualifying relay. Now the team can focus on the right relay combinations and technique for their approach in February. The B-relay (Sean McGinty, Konata Ford, Connor Christiansen, Connor Fleming) also were in scoring position by taking fifth overall, followed by the C-relay (Clayton Johnson, Ben Balmes, Cole Pieroni, Don Cofrancesco) in 11^th. The girls' team (Lauren Jonsson, Ashleigh Hays, Katie Durden, Abby Grottle) also took second place overall and dropped two seconds from their seed time to finish at 2:01.78, also paving their way to the state meet well within qualifying time. The B-relay (Libby Jones, Natalie Henderson, Maggie Duffner, Morgan Young) took 11^th, and the C-relay (Isabella Empoliti, Brigs Riddick, Carolyn McLain, Katie Fishman) took 15^th overall. 

In the 200-yard freestyle, Jason Hink gave a consistent performance to take third overall with a time of 2:01.97, followed by teammate Don Cofrancesco in seventh also scoring points for the Bears. In the girls' 200-yard freestyle, Paula Morales took sixth overall with a drop in almost five seconds to swim a personal best of 2:12.30. Teammate Morgan Young took eleventh and dropped over a second and a half to score points. Isabella Empoliti took eighteenth, which was also in scoring position out of 34 entered swims. 

In the 200-yard individual medley, Matthew Gaines took third place overall with his official state qualifying time clocked at 2:08.79. Gaines will take on this event at state in February. Teammate Jason Yang finished in sixth, followed immediately by teammate Ben Balmes in seventh, with an over three-second drop from his best time. For the girls' team, Lauren Jonsson took fifth overall with a time of 2:22.00, which qualifies her for state and is just a little off her best time from state last year. 

In the 50-yard freestyle event, Connor Fleming took 20^th overall out of 87 swimmers with a slight time improvement to come in at 25.58. For the girls' team, Abby Grottle finished in second out of 115 entries with a time of 26.02. Freshman Brooke McLain finished in ninth, Anna Kerber in 18^th, also contributing points to the team. 

In the 100-yard butterfly event, Connor Christiansen took fifth place overall with a time of 1:05.12, followed by Cole Pieroni in eighth place with almost a two-second drop in time. For the girls' team, Ashleigh Hays had an incredibly strong swim with a state qualifying time of 1:03.36 and third place overall. Lauren Jonsson was also in scoring position by taking 11^th, followed by Katie Durden in 12^th. Carolyn McLain took 18^th with an almost two-second improvement. 

In the 100-yard freestyle event, Austin Daniel took first place overall with a time of 48.94, an event that he has already qualified for the state meet in, followed by teammate Zak Parker in third overall and an improved time of 53.44. Jason Hink also improved his time to take fourth. Connor Fleming took 16^th with almost a second and a half improvement in time, along with Clayton Johnson also with a half-second time improvement, all in scoring position. For the girls' team, Brooke McLain was the first to touch the wall in sixth overall out of 95 swimmers, with an improvement of over a second (1:00.79), followed by teammate Morgan Young also with a time improvement in 10^th place, Darby Goodyear in 12^th place, Libby Jones with a time improvement in 14^th, and Maggie Duffner with a time improvement in 17^th, all in scoring position. 

In the boys' 500-yard freestyle event, Matthew Gaines got his official state qualifying time of 5:05.38, which earned him second place overall. Sean McGinty also had an impressive swim that earned him fifth and got him back into grasp of his best time two years ago. 

In the 200-yard freestyle relay event, the boys' A-relay (Jason Hink, Konata Ford, Ben Balmes, Jason Yang) took seventh place overall. The girls' A-relay (Katie Durden, Paula Morales, Brooke McLain, Darby Goodyear) took fifth overall, followed by the B-relay (Morgan Young, Katie Fishman, Isabella Empoliti, Carolyn McLain) in seventh. 

In the 100-yard backstroke event, freshman Zak Parker took fifth overall with a time of 1:01.21, followed by Sean McGinty with a time of 1:04.72, right at his best time, in eighth place, and Clayton Johnson in 17^th overall, all scoring points for the Bears. For the girls' team, Abby Grottle took third place with a state qualifying time of 1:05.26, followed by Libby Jones in seventh with a time improvement, Paula Morales in nineth with almost a two-second improvement, Darby Goodyear in 12^th, Isabella Empoliti in 15^th, and Maggie Duffner in 16^th, all scoring points. 

In the 100-yard breaststroke event, Austin Daniel swam a state qualifying time and new school record of 1:05.21 (breaking his own record), and taking third place overall. The highlight of the event was Konata Ford making his first state qualifying time of 1:06.85 in the event to take fourth, Jason Yang in eighth, Ben Balmes with a time improvement in 12^th, and Cole Pieroni with a time improvement in 16^th, all scoring points. The girls' team had Ashleigh Hays just miss the state qualifying time, but still taking sixth overall with a time of 1:15.22, followed by Katie Fishman in ninth. 

In the last event of the day, the boys' A-relay (Austin Daniel, Zak Parker, Jason Hink, Matthew Gaines) swam a time of 3:27.97, which earned them first place. The B-relay (Sean McGinty, Connor Christiansen, Cole Pieroni, Clayton Johnson) took seventh place, also scoring points. For the girls' team, the A-relay (Ashleigh Hays, Lauren Jonsson, Paula Morales, Abby Grottle) dropped over half a second to improve their state qualifying time to 3:56.39, which earned them third overall. The B-relay (Katie Durden, Brooke McLain, Libby Jones, Maggie Duffner) earned ninth overall, followed by the C-relay (Sydney Chambers, Colleen McCreanor, Natalie Henderson, and Rachel Henderson) in 14^th, also scoring points. 

Cambridge swimming and diving will head to the Campbell Invitational on Friday evening, December 9th at the Cobb Central Aquatic Center at 7:15 PM, and also will attend the Forsyth Central Invitational on Saturday at the Cumming Aquatic Center at 9:30 AM. This will be the first time the divers will compete for the season, so come out and support your Bears!