On Friday evening December 1st, Cambridge took on one of the top swim and dive teams in the region, Lassiter High School. While the boys fell short, the girls' team took the win in a great meet. Cambridge fell just short of taking the combined team win. A couple disqualified relays made the difference and the Bears will learn from those mistakes and move on in the coming weeks!
Girls' Team Score:
Cambridge 163
Lassiter 133
Boys' Team Score:
Lassiter 157
Cambridge 115
Combined Team Score:
Lassiter 290
Cambridge 278
Before the swimmers took to the pool, the Cambridge divers completed their competition. For the Bears, Margeaux Messier, Haley Copeland, Noor El-Gazairly, and Maddox Riddick competed and showed a lot of improvement so far this season. In the 11-dive competition, Haley Copeland took first for the girls' side and earned the necessary points to qualify for state, but she needs to add her degree of difficulty to get her state ticket punched. Copeland, a state meet veteran, will seek to make those necessary adjustments to her dive routine and set herself up to meet those requirements for February. Hopefully to join her this year, Margeaux Messier is working on her difficulty and routines to make her first state appearance this year. Messier took second in the 11-dive competition. Noor El-Gazairly, after having an accident on the board last weekend, rallied and joined the Bears in a shortened 6-dive routine on Friday. She took first in the 6-dive competition. El-Gazairly also has her sights set on state in February. On the boys' side, Maddox Riddick showed a lot of improvement in his dives and took second in the 6-dive competition. Riddick shows a lot of promise and potential to be a big contributor to the program.
The swim portion started with the medley relay and the Bears were able to bring in the win in both the girls' and the boys' side. On the boys' side, the A-relay (Blood, Balmes, Ryzhkov, Diponzio) took first with a state qualifying time that was a tenth of a second improvement from their seed time earlier in the season. The B-relay (Goodnight, Cofrancesco, Montes, Champion) were disqualified for an early take-off. On the girls' side, the A-relay (Medici, Fishman, Jonsson, Brown) took first with a state qualifying time. The B-relay (Empoliti, Ghent, Guy, Young) took fourth, and the C-relay (Ho, Riddick, LeeMaster, Lara) took sixth.
In the 200-yard freestyle event, Billy Blood took first, followed by Aiden Goodnight in fourth. For the girls' event, Brooke McLain took second with an 8-second improvement since the last time she swam it, Morgan Young took third with a half-second improvement, Delaney Goodell took fourth, and Sydney Chambers took sixth.
In the boys' 200-yard individual medley, Nick Diponzio took third, followed by Gabe Montes in fourth with a four-second time improvement. For the girls, Lauren Jonsson took second with a state qualifying time of 2:17.50, followed by Maggie Duffner in fourth, Rachel Henderson in sixth, and Jayci Brown in seventh.
In the boys' 50-yard freestyle, Ben Balmes touched in third with a new best time, followed by Aiden Goodnight in fourth. On the girls' side, Libby Jones came in second with a new best time, followed by Katie Fishman in fourth, Isabella Empoliti in fifth, Carolyn McLain in sixth, Sydney Chambers in seventh, Anna Kerber in ninth, Rachel Avant in tenth, Rebecca Ho in twelfth, and Irazu Lara in fifteenth.
In the boys' 100-yard butterfly, Konata Ford took second with a new best time by three-second, Don Cofrancesco took fifth with a new best time, and Cole Pieroni in sixth. For the girls' team, Emma Guy took sixth, Carolyn McLain took seventh with a new best time by over two seconds, Adyson LeeMaster took ninth, and Jayci Brown took tenth.
In the boys' 100-yard freestyle, John Empoliti took fifth and Nathaniel Champion took seventh. The Cambridge girls dominated the 100-yard freestyle event starting with Jayla Brown, who took first place, followed by Brooke McLain took second and inched back close to her best time from last season, Eva Medici took third with a new best time, Rachel Henderson took fourth, Anna Kerber took fifth, Brigs Riddick took seventh with a new best time, Rebecca Ho took eighth with a new best time by three seconds, and Irazu Lara took twelfth with a new best time.
In the 500-yard freestyle event on the boys' side, Don Cofrancesco took second, followed by Gabe Montes in third. The girls' team dominated this event by taking all four top spots with swimmers who were all swimming it for the first time in a Cambridge meet. Morgan Young took first, Emma Guy took second, Grace Ghent took third, and Delaney Goodell took fourth, even with her goggles coming off at the start of the event!
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Cambridge boys' A-relay (Pieroni, Goodnight, Empoliti, Ford) took second overall. On the girls' side, the A-relay (B McLain, Jones, Jayci Brown, Fishman) took second with a state qualifying time, followed by the B-relay (Duffner, Empoliti, Chambers, C McLain) in third, the C-relay (Henderson, Avant, Riddick, Kerber) in fifth, and the D-relay (Lra, LeeMaster, Ho, Goodell) in sixth.
In the boys' 100-yard backstroke event, Billy Blood tacked up another first place finish, followed by Nick Diponzio in second, Phillip Ryzhkov in third, and John Empoliti in fifth. On the girls' side, Lauren Jonsson took second with a state qualifying time, followed by Eva Medici in fifth, Libby Jones in sixth, Maggie Duffner in eighth, Isabella Empoliti in ninth, and Rachel Avant in twelfth.
In the boys' 100-yard breaststroke event, Konata Ford took second with a time just off the state qualifying cutoff, Phillip Ryzhkov took third, Ben Balmes took fifth, Cole Pieroni in sixth, and Nathaniel Champion in eighth. In the girls' event, Jayla Brown tacked another first place finish with a state qualifying time, followed by Katie Fishman whose time was just off the state qualifying cutoff, Grace Ghent in sixth, Adyson LeeMaster in eighth with a new best time, and Brigs Riddick in ninth.
In the last event of the evening, the boys' 400-yard freestyle B-relay (Cofrancesco, Pieroni, Ford, Ryzhkov) took second and the A-relay (Balmes, Blood, Montes, Diponzio) were disqualified for an early takeoff. On the girls' side, the A-relay (Jonsson, Guy, B McLain, Jayla Brown) took second with a state qualifying time, followed by the B-relay (Medici, Jayla Brown, Duffner, Young) took third, the C-relay (C McLain, Jones, Chambers, Henderson) took fifth, and the D-relay (Goodell, Ghent, Kerber, Avant) took sixth.
The swim and dive Bears will be competing at the Wesleyan Invite next Friday and Saturday, December 8th & 9th. All divers will be on Friday evening and half of the swimmers will compete Friday and the other half on Saturday.
Come and support your Bears! The meet will begin at 5:00 PM on Friday, with diving taking place after the swim portion, and then swim will resume on Saturday at 9:00 AM.
Go Bears!
