Last week, the Cambridge swim and dive team culminated their season with the state championship meet at Georgia Tech. With COVID threatening to cancel the meet all together, the Bears were grateful for the numerous people who worked to put procedures in place to ensure the meet could still go on. At the end of the meet, the Cambridge girls finished as the state runner up to the Lassiter Trojans and the boys' team finished in the top 10.
Diving
Diving had its most successful season to date! With a total of 15 divers on the roster, Cambridge was the biggest team in the region. In addition to that, Cambridge had EIGHT divers qualify for the state meet. That is more than has ever qualified in the school's history AND Cambridge had more divers qualify than any other 6A or 7A school. That is a huge accomplishment!
The boys' starting off the meet with Brendan Hunt and Jack Oblen representing the Bears. This was both Hunt and Oblen's second year at the state meet. Both boys improved tremendously throughout the season and had really solid performances going into Tuesday's competition. Oblen unfortunately only scored 151.20 points, and in order to place you had to score over 190. Hunt had a similar outcome with a score of 130.65. While Oblen finished his high school dive career with this meet, Hunt intends to be back next year and score for the boys' team. Both did an amazing job and we are so proud of them!
For the girls' team, captain Kate McKay was joined by Emilija Ragaine, Addy Woods, and Julia Versluis. Also qualifying for the meet was Gracie Counsell and Hana El-Gazairly. This was McKay's FOURTH state meet appearance. She is the first in the Cambridge dive program to attend the meet all four years. While all divers had great performances, Emilija Ragaine had the biggest stand-out performance which earned her 4th place overall, scoring 19 points for the Bears. This is the highest finish anyone from Cambridge has ever had at the state meet. Julia Versluis, a first-year diver, also had a great performance and finished in 7th place, scoring 16 points. Addy Woods finished right behind her in 8th place, scoring 15 points. At the end of the girls' competition, the Bears were the only team to have more than one person from their team score. Ragaine, Versluis and Woods set up the swimmers with a 50-point lead going into the swim portion of the meet. What a great day for the girls' team!
Swimming - Girls
The swimmers were up next! The girls arrived to do their part on Friday, February 5th at Georgia Tech. They were excited and knew they had a chance to repeat their championship status from last year. The obstacle they faced was a very formative Lassiter squad. With the region and classification reorganization that took place, Lassiter was moved from 7A to 6A and they also were coming off of winning the state championship last year for 7A. Both teams wanted their title to stay with them. The two teams even had assigned seats next to each other in the stadium, so the tension between the two groups was definitely there.
The Cambridge girls wanted to start off the meet and send a message that they were ready to fight it out and they certainly did that. Right out of the gates, the girls medley relay (Sophie Brison, Jayla Brown, Claire Kerber, Kate Kerber) set the tone by taking the back-to-back state championship in the event. They beat the very talented Lassiter team by only a half-second. Cambridge touched the wall in 1:46.42, with the Lassiter team finishing in 1:46.84. With one gold medal in the bag, the girls looked to their next events.
In the 200-yard freestyle, the Bears had Claire Kerber, Jessica Hernandez, and Olivia Skinner. Kerber was seeded 9th going into the event, and besting her time in finals to finish in 1:59.54 got her 9th place overall. Hernandez went into the event seeded 16th, but with a time drop of almost 2-seconds to finish in 2:01.43, she moved up to 12th place overall. Skinner finished in 2:08.44.
In the 200-yard individual medley, Sophie Brison sought to claim her repeat state championship status. Brison was seeded second in the event to a Lassiter swimmer and even though she fought till the very end and it was down to the touch, Brison claimed the silver medal. Finishing almost 6-seconds faster than her seed time, Brison touched with a new school record of 2:00.44. Lassiter's top finisher came in at 2:00.27, just to see how close the finish was. Kate Kerber was seeded 9th going into the event, but with over a 4.5-second time drop, she moved up to 7th place with a time of 2:11.30. Another freshman, Jamie Walsh, also came up big in her event. With a seed of 20th place, Walsh dropped almost 2-seconds to finish in 2:20.98 and claim 18th place. All three girls scored valuable points for the Bears.
In the 50-yard freestyle, one of the most competitive events in the meet after the relays, the girls' team was stacked with four entries: Emma Guy, Samantha Hamilton, Eva Medici and Kathryn Suplee. Guy claimed 12th place with a time of 25.43, Suplee took 17th place with a time of 25.80, Hamilton claimed 22nd place with a time of 26.16, and Medici took 26th with a time of 26.35.
In the 100-yard butterfly, the Bears had Claire Kerber and Camille Brown. Kerber took fourth place last year in the same event and sought to get on the podium this year. Unfortunately, the field was stacked and even with a time drop of almost 2-seconds and a spectacular race, Kerber took fourth place again. With a time of 56.69, Kerber set a new school record and scored 19 points for the Bears. Brown also had a standout performance and dropped almost a full second to finish in 1:02.20 and finish in 20th place, which allowed her to also score points for the Bears.
In the 100-yard freestyle event, the Bears were stacked again with Jalya Brown, Emma Guy, Kathryn Suplee, and Samantha Hamilton. Brown medaled in the event last year and was hoping to do the same. Even with a huge time drop and a finish of 54.33, she took 5th place overall, which was a jump from her 9th place seed going into the meet. Guy also put up a great time by dropping over 2-seconds to finish with a personal best time of 55.25 and 9th place overall (she was seeded 16th going into the event). Suplee dropped over a second to finish in 57.13 and 23rd place overall (she was seeded 33rd going into the event). Hamilton finished in 29th place with a time of 58.08.
In the 500-yard freestyle, the Bears had Camille Brown and Jessica Hernandez. Brown came out of nowhere and dropped over 15-seconds off her time to finish in 5:23.49, which took her from a 16th place seed to 9th place overall. Incredible race! Hernandez finished just behind her in 11th place with a time of 5:27.58, which was a new personal best time.
In the 200-yard freestyle event, the relay team was made up of Samantha Hamilton, Eva Medici, Kathryn Suplee and Emma Guy. All four girls had already competed in the individual 50-freestyle event and were looking to put up even better times in the relay. As the anchor, Guy broke the 25-second barrier to finish with an unofficial split of 24.93, and Medici and Suplee both put up personal best unofficial splits. With a finishing time of 1:43.05, the girls finish in 8th overall.
The last couple races were critical for the Bears. Lassiter had stacked most of their people in the front half of the meet and mostly in freestyle events. The Bears had a lot of swimmers left to compete and the next couple events would determine the outcome of the meet. With critical wins needed in the next two events, the Bears really felt the pressure to perform and make up lost ground.
In the 100-yard backstroke, Sophie Brison was looking to get her second gold medal and maintain her championship status in the event that she held from last year. Unfortunately, again Brison found herself down to the touch with the top Lassiter swimmer and was out-touched. Brison's time was a 54.76 and the 1st place Lassiter swimmer finished in 54.69, so to the naked eye the race was too close to call and the touch pads had to make the judgement. Brison swam an amazing race and put up a huge fight, which was what being a Bear is all about. Kate Kerber also put up a fight a couple lanes down from Brison and dropped almost 1.5-seconds to finish in 59.32, which earned her 6th place overall. Eva Medici dropped almost 2-seconds to finish in 1:02.79 and jump from 17th place seed to 15th place overall. Jamie Walsh dropped over 2-seconds to finish in 1:02.92 and jump from the 19th place seed to 16th place overall, just behind Medici. Great showing by the Bears where all four athletes entered in the race scored points!
In the 100-breaststroke, Jayla Brown and Grace Ghent looked to score some important points for the Bears. Brown finished in 1:05.89, which was over 5-seconds faster than her seed time and a new school record. Ghent finished in 16th place overall with a time of 1:13.53.
The last event of the day was the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Bears took the state championship in the event last year and hoped to do the same to cap off the meet. Dropped over 7.5-seconds from their seed, the Bears finished in 3:35.19. Unfortunately, Lassiter's relay raced us until the end and finished in 3:32.09, leaving the Bears with the silver medal.
At the end of the meet, Lassiter finished with their back-to-back championship with 413.50 points. The Bears took the state runner up trophy with 377 points. Third place was Lakeside, Dekalb with 240 points. It was a fantastic season for the girls' team and we know they will be back to fight it out with Lassiter again next season!
Swimming - Boys
The boys took over Georgia Tech on Friday evening. With a small squad of only 7 boys, the Bears were looking to make a big impact. While there wouldn't be enough boys to win the meet, they were certainly out to have an impact on other teams' prospects. The boys started off the meet with the medley relay. The relay consisted of Michael O'Connor, Oleg Kolesnikov, Billy Blood and Ben Grottle. The boys were tied in their relay going into breaststroke, they started to lose some ground in the middle of the race, and then Grottle came in and tore up the freestyle leg of the relay. With an unofficial split of 21.90, Grottle made up a lot of yards and propelled the Bears to 6th place overall with a new school record of 1:40.20.
In the 200-yard freestyle event, Michael O'Connor swam a personal best time of 1:50.09 to earn him 21st place, just out of scoring range. With a time drop of almost a full seconds, O'Connor had a great race.
The boys were stacked in the 200-yard individual medley, Ben Grottle, Billy Blood, Jack O'Connor and Alex O'Connor were all in the same heat fighting for points. Grottle finished in the top 10 by taking 9th place with a new school record time of 1:55.09, which moved him from the 11th place seed to 9th. Blood wasn't far behind with a new best time of 1:57.77, which was over an 8-second time drop from his seed time to finish in 1:57.77. He went from 15th place seed to 10th place overall. Jack O'Connor also dropped almost 6-seconds to finish in 16th with a time of 2:03.35 and jump up from a 19th place seed. Alex O'Connor snuck into 20th place with an over 2-second time drop to finish in 2:07.11. All four boys scored for the Bears!
In the 100-yard butterfly event, Jack O'Connor dropped almost a full second to finish in 54.81 and 16th place overall.
In the 500-yard freestyle event, Ben Grottle finished in 9th place overall with a time of 4:43.97.
The 200-yard freestyle relay consisted of Jack O'Connor, Oleg Kolesnikov, Alex O'Connor, and Aiden Goodnight. All members had personal best unofficial splits in the event and dropped over 2-seconds from their seed time. They went from 22nd place as a seed to 19th place overall with a time of 1:35.69.
In the 100-yard backstroke event, Billy Blood dropped over a second from his time to finish in 53.34, which is a new school record. He took 9th place overall. Michael O'Connor wasn't far behind and finished in 53.51, which clenched 10th place overall to reward his over 2-second time drop. Alex O'Connor also swam a new personal best time by almost 1.5-seconds to jump from 31st place seed to 23rd overall with a time of 58.49.
Oleg Kolesnikov swam the 100-yard breaststroke with a new personal best time by almost 2-seconds of 1:04.56. He stayed in scoring position by jumping from his 25th place seed to finish in 19th place overall.
The last event of the evening was the 400-yard freestyle relay. The relay members were Ben Grottle, Michael O'Connor, Jack O'Connor, and Billy Blood. Grottle started off the relay strong with an official split of 48.51. The rest followed suit with personal best splits. The team dropped over 2-seconds from their seed time to finish in 8th overall.
At the end of the day, the Bears clenched 9th place overall with 149 points. A great day for the boys' team and they are going to come back even stronger next year! Go Bears!
Special Recognition
Special shout out to Mrs. Agans for coming to cheer on the swim and dive team at all of their sessions! She managed to come and see diving and both sessions of the swim meet! Thank you for showing your support! We truly appreciate it!
Shout out to our seniors that competed at their final high school meet this year and for their leadership in and out of the pool:
Kate McKay
Gracie Counsell
Jack Oblen
Emma Guy
Eva Medici
Grace Ghent
Jayla Brown
Kathryn Suplee
Aiden Goodnight
Billy Blood
The last couple years, the program has seen huge growth and has transformed into one of the top competitive programs in the state and much of that is thanks to this group of seniors who have been there every year, pushing their teammates to be better and to believe that we were capable of more. We will miss you!
In addition, Coach Hall was presented with the Coach of the Year plaque for 6A during the girls meet. Congratulations Coach!
