On Friday and Saturday, January 17-18, Cambridge swim and dive competed in Metro Atlanta Championships at Westminster.
Diving
On Friday, six Cambridge divers went to compete. The entry requirements for Metro Championships are a higher caliber than even the state meet requires, so only the best of the best of divers in the area come to compete in the meet.
For the girls, Cambridge had Kate McKay, Emilija Ragaine, and Gracie Counsell compete. With very strict and unforgiving scoring, the girls still performed very well. Out of 26 divers, Kate McKay took 13th, Gracie Counsell took 22nd and Emilija Ragaine took 23rd.
For the boys, Cambridge had Maddox Riddick, Brendan Hunt and Jack Oblen compete. Out of 22 divers, Maddox Riddick took 13th, and Hunt and Oblen unfortunately did not complete all six dives to qualify for a placed finish.
Prelims - Swimming
On Saturday, swimming prelims took place starting at 9 AM. The top 20 from prelims qualified to swim at finals in the evening. The top 10 qualify for the A-final and places 11 through 20 qualify for the B-final.
The meet started with the girls 200-medley relay and the girls relay (Eva Medici, Grace Ghent, Claire Kerber, Brooke McLain) won their heat at the final touch. Their finish earned them 3rd place seed for the A-finals heat.
The boys medley relay (John Empoliti, Gabe Montes, Aiden Goodnight, Abhi Malik) took 4th in their heat which earned them 10th place seed which gets them to sneak into the A-finals.
In the girls 200-free, all of the Cambridge girls punched their tickets to finals. Emma Guy was the top finisher for Cambridge by securing the 12th place seed, followed by Emma Solomon with the 14th place seed, Morgan Young who finished in 18th and Daniella Ryzhkov who grabbed the 20th spot to sneak her way into the finals heat.
For the boys, Aiden Goodnight finished in 25th out of 52 swimmers and Harrison Cottick dropped significant time but finished in 29th.
In the girls 200-IM, Izzy Filipek took 31st out of 39 swimmers. The remaining three girls in the event get to compete again in the evening. Olivia Skinner took 15th, Laura Watkins took 16th and Amelia Duffner took 19th.
For the boys, Gabe Montes had a great swim and finished second in his heat and third overall. Billy Blood easily won his heat and seeded fifth for the evening finals event. John Empoliti also punched his ticket to finals with a 15th place seed.
In the girls 50-free, Abigail Marzullo dropped time and finished 66th out of 95 swimmers. Paige Jaeger took 29th. Sydney Forbes dropped time to take 19th seed and Jayci Brown also dropped time to take the 18th seed.
For the boys, Nick Feliciani took 68th out of 88 swimmers and Matthew Harper droppd time to take 65th. Oleg Kolesnikov took 43rd and Harrison Cottick took off time to take 38th.
In the girls 100-fly, Izzy Filipek took 34th out of 51 swimmers and Abigail Marzullo took 37th. Laura Watkins took 25th and Anna Kerber took 24th. Due to scratches, Anna Kerber was moved into the top 20 and in a position to compete again in the evening. Laura Watkins was moved to 21st, first alternate.
In the boys 100-fly, Billy Blood took 13th place seed, and Aiden Goodnight was tied for 20th.
In the girls 100-free, Sydney Chambers took 28th out of 93 swimmers. Three girls return to finals, which include Jayci Brown with a new best time and a 15th place seed, Sydney Forbes with a new best time to take 17th seed, and Grace Ghent in 19th place seed.
For the boys, Matthew Harper dropped time to take 55th out of 85 swimmers. Nick Feliciani took 65th. Abhi Malik took 39th.
In the girls 500 yard freestyle, all four competitors return to finals. Camille Brown easily won her heat and took the 3rd place seed, Libby Jones swam a new best time and is also in the A-finals in 9th. Olivia Skinner took 11th with a new best time and Anna Kerber took 12th.
In the girls 200-freestyle relay, the girls (Samantha Hamilton, Eva Medici, Brooke McLain, Claire Kerber) took second in their heat and second overall going into finals. Samantha Hamilton swam a 26.19 in her leadoff leg which qualifies her to swim the 50-free at the state meet. This was Hamilton's first individual state qualifying swim.
For the boys, the relay (Billy Blood, Oleg Kolesnikov, Harrison Cottick, John Empoliti) took 6th in their heat and 12th overall to return to finals.
In the 100-backstroke, all of the competing girls return to finals. Libby Jones swam a new best time just off the state qualifying time to take 11th, Samantha Hamilton took 14th with a new best time, Sydney Chambers took 15th and Paige Jaeger took 19th.
For the boys, Abhi Malik had a great swim, but his time earned him 24th place out of 58 swimmers. John Empoliti earned a returning spot with a 13th place seed.
In the 100-breaststroke, Adi Avershai took 42nd out of 72 swimmers. Camille Brown took 13th place seed and Grace Ghent took 9th place seed to make it into the A-final.
For the boys, Oleg Kolesnikov took 21st for the first alternate position and Gabe Montes had a great swim and took 2nd in his heat and earned the 4th place seed for finals.
In the last event of prelims, the girls 400-free relay (Eva Medici, Emma Guy, Brooke McLain, Claire Kerber) took 3rd in their heat which earned them the 6th place seed for the A-finals.
For the boys, the relay (Billy Blood, Abhi Malik, Aiden Goodnight, Gabe Montes) took 7th in their heat and secured the 14th place seed to return to finals.
Finals
The girls team kicked off finals with a bronze medal in the 200-Medley Relay. The relay (Eva Medici, Grace Ghent, Claire Kerber, Brooke McLain) shaved over a second from their seed time to secure the top three finish.
The boys medley relay (John Empoliti, Gabe Montes, Aiden Goodnight, Abhi Malik) took 8th overall in the A-finals.
In the 200-freestyle, the girls had a big showing in the B-finals with Emma Solomon finishing in 6th in her heat and 16th overall. Daniella Ryzhkov took 19th with an improved time from prelims and Morgan Young took 20th. Emma Guy dropped another 2-seconds from her prelim swim to take 10th overall, less than 1.5-seconds from the state qualifying time.
In the girls 200-individual medley, Olivia Skinner took another 2-seconds off her time and took 2nd in the heat and 12th overall. Laura Watkins dropped 2-seconds to take 15th and Amelia Duffner dropped 4-seconds to take 16th, which means she jumped three places from her prelim seeding.
In the boys 200-IM, John Empoliti took 17th overall. Billy Blood and Gabe Montes competed in the A-final. Blood dropped 4-seconds from his prelim swim to take 5th overall and Montes swam a new best time to take 4th place in 2:03.20.
In the girls 50-free, Sydney Forbes took 20th and Jayci Brown took 19th with a new best time.
In the girls 100-fly, Laura Watkins got to slide in with a scratch and finished in 20th and Anna Kerber swam a new best time to take 18th.
In the boys event, Billy Blood dropped almost a full second from prelims to finish in 2nd in his heat and 12th overall.
In the girls 100-free, Jayci Brown took 15th, Sydney Forbes took 16th, and Grace Ghent took 20th.
In the 500-free, Cambridge girls had the most people from any school competing in the event. Olivia Skinner swam an incredible race and took first in her heat (11th place overall) with a new best time by dropping 6-seconds from prelims to finish in 6:09.87. Anna Kerber took 13th. In the A-final, Libby Jones took 10th and Camille Brown swam a great race to finish in 2nd place and swim a new best time of 5:31.26.
In the girls 200-free relay (Samantha Hamilton, Eva Medici, Brooke McLain, Claire Kerber) took 2nd overall in a close race, only falling to Westminster.
In the boys event, the relay (Billy Blood, Oleg Kolesnikov, Harrison Cottick, John Empoliti) won their heat and took 11th overall.
In the girls 100-back, Paige Jaeger took 8th in her heat (18th overall) and Samantha Hamilton shaved off a little more time to take 2nd in her heat (12th overall) followed by Sydney Chambers in 3rd (13th overall). Libby Jones competing in the A-final and took 10th just off the state qualifying time.
In the boys event, John Empoliti took 3rd in his heat and 13th overall.
In the girls 100-breast, Camille Brown had an amazing swim in the B-final and dropped 3-seconds to take 1st place in her heat (11th overall) with a new state qualifying time of 1:14.78. Grace Ghent took 10th in the A-final.
In the boys event, Gabe Montes took 4th in the A-final with an improved time from prelims of 1:03.10.
In the last event of the day, the girls (Eva Medici, Claire Kerber, Brooke McLain, Emma Guy) finished in 6th place with Eva Medici leading the relay. Her leadoff leg clocked a 58.47 which qualifies her for her third state qualifying event. The relay shave off 4-seconds from their prelim time.
The boys relay (Billy Blood, Aiden Goodnight, Abhi Malik, Gabe Montes) took 3rd in their relay (13th overall) and dropped 10-seconds from their preliminary swim.
The meet was a great opportunity to grab a couple last state qualifying times and give some members of the team some racing experience at the end of the season. This brings the 2019 - 2020 regular season to a close. The team will participate in the Spartan-Mustang Senior Relays on February 1st where we will celebrate our seniors and then the team will head to the state meet at Georgia Tech the following weekend.
The work isn't done yet and we are excited to see what these Bears can do!
