After competing Thursday and Friday, Jan. 12th & 13th, the Bears get on a bus once again early on Saturday morning, January 14th to head to the Cumming Aquatic Center for the annual Winter Classic Invitational, hosted by Forsyth Central and West Forsyth. In addition to exhaustion and muscle tightness from constant competition, the meet is a long one, lasting all day. Regardless of the conditions, the Bears pulled out some amazing performances that left the girls' team winning by over 100 points, which was enough to make up for the deficit the boys' team had to help claim first place combined team score.
Girls' Team Scores (Top 10 out of 24 Teams)
- Cambridge 614.5
- West Forsyth 502
- Starrs Mill 370
- McIntosh 352
- Forsyth Central 309.5
- East Coweta 220
- Social Circle 147
- King's Ridge 136
- Apalachee 120
- Pinecrest 114.5
- West Forsyth 466
- McIntosh 466
- Starrs Mill 459
- Cambridge 441
- Sandy Creek 273
- Pinecrest 209
- Forsyth Central 200
- Lumpkin County 189
- Whitewater 184
- Northgate 115
Combined Team Scores (Top 5 out of 24 Teams)
- Cambridge 1,055.5
- West Forsyth 968
- Starrs Mill 829
- McIntosh 818
- Forsyth Central 509.5
For the swimming events, the top 20 swimmers from each individual (non-relay) event scored points for their team. The following are the performances of the top relay teams and the top 20 finishers.
The swim portion of the meet started out with the boys' team medley relay event. The A-relay (Sean McGinty, Konata Ford, Jason Yang, Nicholas Diponzio) took seventh overall. There were 27 relay teams in the event. In the girls' event, the girls' A-relay (Lauren Jonsson, Katie Fishman, Katie Durden, Brooke McLain) were trailing for the first couple legs and by the end of Durden's butterfly leg, the girls were in the lead and McLain closed the deal and finished the event taking first by over four seconds. There were 39 relay teams in the event.
In the 200-yard freestyle event, Austin Daniel took second overall by less than a tenth of a second, followed by Jason Hink in seventh. Clayton Johnson also scored points with his 13th place finish. In the girl's event, Chloe Paskins took ninth, followed by Morgan Young in 10th, Isabella Empoliti in 12th, and Carolyn McLain in 14th. There were 46 girls in the event.
In the 200-yard individual medley event, Nicholas Diponzio took seventh, followed by Cole Pieroni in 10th. In the girls' event, Lauren Johnson swim a state-qualifying time and took third. Katie Fishman took eighth. Rachel Avant and Caroline Butler also scored points for the team by taking 13th and 17th.
In the boys' 50-yard freestyle event, Connor Fleming took 12th. There were 107 boys entered in the event. In the girls' 50-yard freestyle, Brooke McLain took sixth, followed by Paula Morales in ninth. Rachel Henderson also scored points for the team by taking 19th. There were 136 girls entered in the event.
In the 100-yard butterfly event, Jason Yang took eighth and Clayton Johnson took 11th. For the girls, Lauren Johnson took fifth. Carolyn McLain also scored points for the girls by taking 12th.
In the 100-yard freestyle event, Jason Hink took sixth, followed by Connor Fleming in 14th. There were 77 boys in the event. For the girls, Brooke McLain took third, Paula Morales took eight, Morgan Young took 10th, Libby Jones took 11th, Maggie Duffner took 14th, Isabella Empoliti took 15th. There were 127 girls in the event.
In the 500-yard freestyle event, Sean McGinty took sixth. For the girls' team, Darby Goodyear took third, and Chloe Paskins took fourth.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the A-relay (Austin Daniel, Konata Ford, Connor Fleming, Jason Hink) took second overall. For the girls' team, the A-relay (Katie Durden, Katie Fishman, Morgan Young, Paula Morales) took sixth overall.
In the 100-yard backstroke event, Austin Daniel took third overall, Sean McGinty took seventh, Connor Christiansen took 11th, and Nicholas Diponzio took 12th. For the girls' team, Libby Jones took sixth, Katie Durden took eighth, Darby Goodyear took tenth, and Maggie Duffner took 13th. There were 60 girls in the event.
In the 100-yard breaststroke event, Konata Ford took sixth, Jason Yang took ninth, and Cole Pieroni took 18th. For the girls' team, Katie Fishman took sixth, Natalie Henderson took 12th, Kelsey Mahurin took 17th.
In the last event of the day, the boys' team 400-yard freestyle A-relay (Austin Daniel, Connor Fleming, Sean McGinty, Jason Hink) took second overall. The girls' team matched the boys' team performance by also taking second place with the A-relay (Lauren Jonsson, Katie Durden, Brooke McLain, Paula Morales).
The victory at this meet was amazing for a number of reasons. Obviously after three days of competition, these kids dug deep and pulled out some amazing performances. Additionally, the boys' team had only 10 competitors and managed to earn fourth place against teams that had twice as many boys. In addition, the Cambridge kids demonstrated good sportsmanship and attitudes at all times by cheering on others, congratulating the competitors around them, whether they were from Cambridge or not, and generally having a good time with each other, which is what this sport is all about. No matter how hard the competition gets and how much pressure these kids are under, they support each other and lift each other up in all circumstances. Forget about the number of medals, trophies and meets these kids have won. These kids are just an outstanding group of individuals that achieve the pool and in the classroom, and at all times demonstrate their character in the best possible light. This is what Cambridge sports are all about.
Come and cheer on your Bears as they compete at the Metro Atlanta Championship meet at Westminster on Friday and Saturday! Diving is on Friday at 4:00 PM and swimming prelims will be at 9 AM on Saturday, following by finals at 6:30 PM for the top 20 of each event.
