Less than 12 hours after competing in the Campbell Invitational on Friday evening, the Bears were back in the water at the Cumming Aquatic Center on Saturday, December 10th to face off against teams from all over the state. In total, over 20 other high schools were competing against each other.
Combined Team Score (Top 10)
Cambridge – 944
West Forsyth – 940.5
Forsyth Central – 691
Jefferson – 576.5
Loganville – 504
Flowery Branch – 416.5
Pinecrest – 396
Buford – 353
Northgate – 319
Carrollton – 274.5
Boys' Team Score (Top 10)
Cambridge – 532.5
West Forsyth – 453.5
Loganville - 340
Foryth Central – 326
Pinecrest – 284
Jefferson – 266
Flowery Branch – 211
Northgate – 179
Lumpkin County – 160
Buford – 120
Girls' Team Scores (Top 10)
West Forsyth – 487
Cambridge – 411.5
Forsyth Central – 365
Jefferson – 310.5
Commerce – 243
Buford – 233
Flowery Branch – 205.5
Northgate – 179
Lumpkin County – 160
Carrollton - 135
With such a large meet, the team had to persevere through a difficult meet set up. Not only did the team have one of the earliest warm up slots, but with so many athletes and teams, the wait time between events was extensive, this is without taking into consideration their exhaustion from the meet just the night before. When race time came, the Bears dug deep and pulled out quality performances to get their team top rankings.
In the first event of the day, the boys' A-medley relay (Clayton Johnson, Jason Yang, Connor Christiansen, Cameron Chong) took seventh overall, with the B-relay (Nick Diponzio, Ben Balmes, Cole Pieroni, Connor Fleming) trailing not far behind in ninth. For the girls' team, the A-relay (Darby Goodyear, Maggie Duffner, Katie Durden, Morgan Young) took tenth, followed by the B-relay (Colleen McCreanor, Natalie Henderson, Kelsey Mahurin, Anna Kerber) in seventeenth.
In the boys' 200-yard freestyle event, Sean McGinty dropped over three seconds from his best time to take seventh overall, followed immediately by Connor Christiansen in eighth, and Nick Diponzio in ninth. For the girls' team, Darby Goodyear took seventh overall, followed by Maggie Duffner in tenth, and Carolyn McLain dropping 13-seconds from her previous best time to take fifteenth. Anna Kerber and Ella McIlvain swam the same time to take seventeenth and earn points for the Bears.
In the 50-yard freestyle event, Jason Hink dropped almost a full second from his best time to take fourth with a time of 23.98, followed by Connor Fleming in fourteenth with a slightly improved time, and Ben Balmes in fifteenth with a time improvement of over a full second. There were 78 boys seeded in the event. For the girls' team, Brooke McLain took fifth overall with a slightly improved time, Katie Durden took ninth, and Morgan Young took fifteenth. There were 148 girls seeded in the event.
In the 100-yard butterfly event, Zak Parker took third overall with almost a full second of improvement in time to swim a 58.22, followed by Jason Yang in eighth, and Cole Pieroni in tenth. In the girls' 100-yard butterfly, Darby Goodyear took ninth, followed by Kelsey Mahurin in thirteenth.
In the 100-yard freestyle event, Jason Hink dropped almost a full second to take second place overall with a time of 52.32. Hink is now within half a second of qualifying for state in the 50 and 100-yrd freestyle events. Sean McGinty took tenth with a half-second time drop, Cameron Chong took fourteenth with a full second time drop, and Clayton Johnson took seventeenth. There were seventy boys entered in the event. In the girls' event, Brooke McLain got fifth, Libby Jones took thirteenth with a half-second time drop, Isabella Empoliti took fourteenth with a two-second time drop, and Anna Kerber took seventeenth with a three-second time drop. There were 110 girls entered in the event.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the boys' A-relay (Jason Hink, Connor Fleming, Cameron Chong, Zak Parker) took second place overall, followed by the B-relay (Connor Christiansen, Ben Balmes, Nick Diponzio, Sean McGinty) in ninth. For the girls' team, the A-relay (Katie Durden, Libby Jones, Brooke McLain, Isabella Empoliti) took third overall, followed by the B-relay (Kelsey Mahurin, Anna Kerber, Carolyn McLain, Rachel Henderson) in twelfth.
In the 100-yard backstroke event, Zak Parker tied with a West Forsyth swimmer for second place overall with a time of 1:00.89, followed by Connor Christiansen in seventh, and Clayton Johnson in tenth. For the girls' team, Libby Jones took fifth overall, followed by Maggie Duffner in seventh with a two-second time improvement, Isabella Empoliti in fourteenth, and Morgan Young in eighteenth.
In the 100-yard breaststroke event, Jason Yang took sixth, followed by Ben Balmes in ninth with a slight time improvement, and Cole Pieroni in tenth. For the girls' team, Kelsey Mahurin took seventh, followed by Natalie Henderson in eighth, and Brig Riddick in twentieth with a three-second time improvement.
In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the boys' A-relay (Sean McGinty, Jason Hink, Connor Fleming, Zak Parker) easily took first place by over six seconds, followed by the B-relay (Jason Yang, Clayton Johnson, Cole Pieroni, Cameron Chong) in third. For the girls' team, the A-relay (Katie Durden, Morgan Young, Brooke McLain, Libby Jones) took second overall, followed by the B-relay (Darby Goodyear, Isabella Empoliti, Maggie Duffner, Rachel Henderson) in fifth, and the C-relay (Carolyn McLain, Ella McIlvain, Sydney Chambers, Brigs Riddick) in eighth.
In the diving events, Simon Finalyson took third overall with a score of 391.40, followed by Turner Mignerey in sixth with a score of 344.45. Both boys qualified for the state meet based on their overall score and their level of difficulty for their routine. For the girls' team in the 11-dive event, Maddie Chaloux took ninth overall with a score of 306.70 which qualified her for the state meet based on her overall points and level of difficulty. Haley Copeland took tenth and even though her overall points (286.70) would qualify for state, her level of difficulty did not. Copeland is seeking her state qualifying performance in the next couple meets and we know she'll get there!
In the 6-dive event, Margeaux Messier and Noor El-Gazairly tied for ninth place with a score of 131.60, followed by Brooke Darnell in eleventh with a score of 105.35. The team is so excited for the growth of this diving program and the talent the new divers are already showing with only two meets into the season. There is a bright future for Cambridge diving in the 6A conference!
The swimmers and divers will travel to Emory on Saturday, December 17th for the Meet of Champions, where the best teams in the state compete for the last meet of December before heading into January and the last stretch of the season. With over twenty teams anticipated to attend the meet, the competition will be the most challenging the Bears will have seen yet this season but they are ready and excited to put their talents to the test. Coming on deck with a strong record of performance thus far sets them up with confidence to put everything on the line and show the rest of Georgia what Cambridge swimming and diving is all about.