On Friday evening December 9th, the Cambridge swimming and diving team traveled to Cobb Central Aquatic Center to take on 10 other teams in the Campbell swimming and diving invitational. With the divers to help the team score, the Bears took first overall with boys' team separately taking top accolades and the girls' team falling just to the host team.

Some of the standout performances of the evening came from the boys' A-medley relay (Sean McGinty, Jason Yang, Connor Christiansen, Cameron Chong) with an overall second place finish, followed by the B-relay (Nick Diponzio, Ben Balmes, Cole Pieroni, Connor Fleming) in fourth place. The girls' team had similar results with an overall second place finish for the A-relay team (Darby Goodyear, Katie Fishman, Katie Durden, Brooke McLain), a seventh place overall finish for the B-relay (Libby Jones, Natalie Henderson, Chloe Paskins, Maggie Duffner), and a ninth place finish for the C-relay (Isabella Empoliti, Brigs Riddick, Carolyn McLain, Morgan Young).

In the 200-yard freestyle event, Jason Hink took second place with a new personal best time of 1:59.40. Clayton Johnson took sixth. For the girls' team, Morgan Young swam a new personal best time of 2:15.42, followed by Chloe Paskins in third, and Sydney Chambers in ninth.

In the 200-yard individual medley, Ben Balmes slightly improved his time to take third place overall with a time of 2:23.05, followed by Nick Diponzio in fourth with a new best time, Cole Pieroni in eighth with a new best time, and Don Cofrancesco in ninth. For the girls' team, Maggie Duffner took second place overall, followed immediately by Katie Fishman in third, and Rachel Henderson in seventh.

In the 50-yard freestyle event, Zak Parker took fifth overall, followed by Cameron Chong in eighth, and Connor Fleming in ninth, both with new best times. In total, there were 55 boys entered in the event. For the girls' team, Paula Morales took sixth, Libby Jones took seventh, and Isabella Empoliti took eighth. In total, there were 65 girls entered in the event.

In the 100-yard butterfly event, Connor Christiansen dropped time to take second place overall with a time of 1:02.96, followed by teammate Jason Yang in third, and Clayton Johnson in fifth overall. For the girls' team, Katie Durden took third overall, followed by Anna Kerber in tenth.

In the 100-yard freestyle event, Jason Hink took first with a new best time of 52.97, followed by Zak Parker in third, Connor Fleming in fifth, and Cameron Chong in sixth. Both Fleming and Chong had new best times. In total, there were 36 boys in the event. For the girls, Brooke McLain took second, followed by Morgan Young in fourth. In total, there were 48 girls in the event.

In the 500-yard freestyle event, Sean McGinty had an amazing race and swam a new best time of 5:49.18 to take second place overall. For the girls' team, Chloe Paskins also had an amazing race and dropped almost seven seconds from her time to break six-minutes, coming in at 5:59.11 and taking first place overall. Darby Goodyear took second overall, followed by Ella McIlvain in seventh.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the boys' A-relay (Zak Parker, Connor Fleming, Cameron Chong, Jason Hink) took second overall, followed by the B-relay (Ben Balmes, Clayton Johnson, Don Cofrancesco, Connor Christiansen) in fifth. For the girls' team, the A-relay (Katie Durden, Paula Morales, Katie Fishman, Brooke McLain) took second overall, followed by the B-relay (Sydney Chambers, Rachel Henderson, Anna Kerber, Kelsey Mahurin) in eighth.

In the 100-yard backstroke event, Sean McGinty slightly improves his best time to a 1:04.59 and touching in fourth overall. Nick Diponzio swam a new best time and took sixth overall. For the girls' team, Libby Jones took third, Darby Goodyear took fifth, and Isabella Empoliti took seventh.

In the 100-yard breaststroke, Jason Yang took second, followed by Ben Balmes with a new best time and taking third. Don Cofrancesco took tenth. For the girls' team, Katie Fishman easily took first, followed by Natalie Henderson in seventh, and Sydney Chambers in ninth.

In the last event of the day, the boys' 400-yard freestyle A-relay (Jason Hink, Sean McGinty, Nick Diponzio, Zak Parker) took second, followed by the B-relay (Don Cofrancesco, Jason Yang, Cole Pieroni, Clayton Johnson) in fourth. For the girls' team, the A-relay (Katie Durden, Morgan Young, Paula Morales, Brooke McLain) took second, followed by the B-relay (Maggie Duffner, Darby Goodyear, Libby Jones, Chloe Paskins) in fourth and the C-relay (Isabella Empoliti, Rachel Henderson, Carolyn McLain, Kelsey Mahurin) in fifth. The D-relay (Brigs Riddick, Sydney Chambers, Ella McIlvain, Anna Kerber) also finished in the top ten.

The meet was important not only because the swimmers did well, but because it was the first time the divers got to compete for the season! Divers performed six dives to start the season and the Bears got to get the competition shakes out before the main meets of the season kick off. For the boys' team, Simon Finlayson took fourth and Turner Mignerey took sixth. For the girls' team, Maddie Chaloux took fourth, followed by Haley Copeland in fifth, Noor El-Gazairly in sixth, Renee Wang in seventh, Margeaux Messier in eighth, and Brooke Darnell in tenth. It was exciting to watch the divers put on their debut performances in a smaller setting and the divers were grateful they could warm up the season with a six-dive combination before having to perform 11 the next day. This group of divers is shaping up to be a powerful force in the 6A conference and we are sure there will be more than three of them going to the state meet in February.

The swimmers and divers had a late evening and got as much rest as they could before hitting the water again on Saturday morning at the Cumming Aquatic Center! With one win under their belt, they felt they could possibly take one more.