Three Bears Take Home Individual Fulton County Champion Titles Last Week and Honor Teammate Fighting Cancer
On Thursday, January 11th, the Bears competed in the annual Fulton County Championship meet. The schools span 7A, 6A and 5A conferences, but every year come together to have an evening of intense and high-level competition in preparation for state.
Even though the Bears did not come home with any team titles, three individuals were Fulton County Champions and many others had new best times and new state qualifying times to join the state championship roster.
The Bears also took the meet as an opportunity to show support for teammate Audrey Lampa that was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The team wore thyroid cancer awareness ribbon tattoos for the meet to show her that she's not alone in her fight. In a show of extraordinary unity, all Fulton County Schools at the meet also joined Cambridge in wearing the ribbon tattoos. While we are competitors and, at times, rivals, at the end of the day, the swimming and diving community joins together to show their support when any athlete from any school is going through hard times. This was an amazing demonstration of kindness and generosity of spirit and sportsmanship.
Combined Team Score
Johns Creek - 740
Northview - 683
Alpharetta - 671
Chattahoochee - 547
Cambridge - 507
Riverwood - 280
Centennial - 279
Milton - 247
Roswell - 196
North Springs - 46
Boys Team Score
Johns Creek - 396
Northview - 387
Alpharetta - 345
Chattahoochee - 304
Cambridge - 223
Centennial - 151
Milton - 104
Riverwood - 77
Roswell - 39
North Springs - 0
Girls Team Score
Johns Creek - 344
Alpharetta - 326
Northview - 296
Cambridge - 284
Chattahoochee - 243
Riverwood - 203
Roswell - 157
Milton - 143
Centennial - 128
North Springs - 46
Before the swim events, the divers competed in their event. The divers were very strong this year and the Cambridge divers had to work really hard to compete. At the end of the event, Brooklyn Petit was able to continue her undefeated status to take first with a score of 302.95, which was just two-points ahead of the top Johns Creek diver. Lilah Versluis also had a best score performance and took third place with a score of 231.60. Both Petit and Versluis are already qualified for the state meet, but they are looking especially sharp going into this final stretch of the season. Brandon Norfleet also had a strong performance and took fourth with a new best score of 150.35. Going into the swim competition, the Bears had a bit of a head start with their scores thanks to the divers.
In the first event of the night, the boys medley A-relay (John Murphy, Thomas Lenston, Gavin Schoeling, Jax Jackson) took fifth overall with a new season best time of 1:43.62. The B-relay (Ryan Robertson, Elijah Edison, Maor Bigio, Bryson Mynatt) took 11th.
For the girls, the A-relay (Caroline Gaines, Jamie Walsh, Kate Kerber, Jennifer Griner) took third with a new season-best time of 1:53.33. The B-relay (Molly Thompson, Alana Drevet, Audrey Lampa, Ana-Clare Grann) had a solid performance and took 11th with a state qualifying time of 2:02.37.
In the boys 200-freestyle, Yan Berezitsky dropped even more time from his best time achieved the previous week to take sixth overall with a state qualifying time of 1:53.25. Jax Jackson took 10th, Raj Malik went a new best time by over seven-seconds and took 24th, and Aneesh Ayyagari took 26th.
For the girls, Kate Kerber swam her best time this season and took second with a time of 1:56.98. Audrey Lampa swam a new best time by over three-seconds and took 12th.
For the boys 200-individual medley, Gavin Schoeling took sixth with a new best state qualifying time of 2:04.68. Thomas Lenston wasn't far behind in 11th place, Oscar Ryzhkov took 14th with a new best time and less than a half-second off the state qualifying time, and Elijah Edison took 20th with a new best time.
In the girls event, Jennifer Griner took fourth with a new best state qualifying time of 2:12.81. Molly Thompson took 15th with a new best time by over four-seconds, and Mihika Ayyagari took 21st.
In the boys 50-freestyle, Zach Andersen took 10th a with a new best time of 23.76, which was just off the state qualifying time of 23.50. Bryson Mynatt took 20th with a new best time, Maor Bigio took 41st, and Raj Malik took 45th.
In the girls event, Abby Harber took fifth with a new best time and her first individual state qualifying time of the season with a time of 26.03. Ana-Clare Grann took 23rd, Hayden Whalen took 29th, and Alexis Walkenhorst took 34th with a new best time.
In the boys 100-butterfly event, Gavin Schoeling took sixth with a new best state qualifying time of 55.79. Oscar Ryzhkov took 11th with a new best time of 58.17, which was just off the state qualifying time. Maor Bigio took 16th.
In the girls event, Kate Kerber secured the Fulton County Champion title with a new best state qualifying time of 57.69. Audrey Lampa took 20th.
In the boys 100-freestyle event, Jax Jackson took 11th, John Murphy took 14th with a new best time, Tate Robertson took 27th with a new best time, and Pranav Kolathaya took 44th.
In the girls event, Abby Harber took ninth with a new best state qualifying time of 57.32. Hayden Whalen took 33rd with a new best time and Mihika Ayyagari took 43rd with a new best time.
In the boys 500-freestyle, Yan Berezitsky took eighth with a state qualifying time of 5:15.16. Ryan Robertson dropped time to take 11th, Bryson Mynatt dropped over 11-seconds to take 14th, and Aneesh Ayyagari took 19th.
In the girls event, Jennifer Griner blew away the competition to be Fulton County Champion with a new best state qualifying time of 5:04.79. Jamie Walsh took eighth, and Alana Drevet took 11th.
In the boys 200-freestyle A-relay (Oscar Ryzhkov, John Murphy, Thomas Lenston, Yan Berezitsky) took 5th with a new best season time of 1:36.30. In the B-relay, Zach Andersen led the relay and touched with a time of 23.36, which qualified him for his first individual state event of the season. The rest of the relay included Raj Malik, Tate Robertson, and Maor Bigio and they took 12th overall.
In the girls event, the A-relay (Audrey Lampa, Jamie Walsh, Alana Drevet, Abby Harber) took 5th. The B-relay (Ana-Clare Grann, Mihika Ayyagari, Hayden Whalen, Alexis Walkenhorst) took 15th.
In the boys 100-backstroke, John Murphy dropped more time from last week to finish in ninth with a new best state qualifying time of 59.63. Elijah Edison took 11th with a new best time that was just off the state qualifying time. Ryan Robertson took 22nd and Pranav Kolathaya took 26th with a new best time.
In the girls event, Caroline Gaines went a new season best state qualifying time of 1:00.71 and took third. Molly Thompson dropped even more time from the event and took 19th and Ana-Clare Grann finished in 20th with a new best time. Alexis Walkenhorst took 30th with a new best time.
In the last individual event of the night, Thomas Lenston swam a new best state qualifying time of 1:01.93 in the 100-breaststroke and took fourth overall. Zach Andersen took 17th, and Tate Robertson took 29th.
In the girls event, Caroline Gaines went a new best state qualifying time of 1:08.47 which earned her the county champion title, but the officials made a questionable call that disqualified Gaines. Alana Drevet took fifth, and Jamie Walsh took 10th.
In the boys 400-freestyle A-relay (Yan Berezitsky, Oscar Ryzhkov, Jax Jackson, Gavin Schoeling) took seventh with a time of 3:35.23. The B-relay (Zach Andersen, Bryson Mynatt, Elijah Edison, Ryan Robertson) took 12th.
For the girls, the A-relay (Kate Kerber, Caroline Gaines, Abby Harber, Jennifer Griner) took 3rd with a season-best time of 3:41.75. The B-relay (Molly Thompson, Mikhika Ayyagari, Alexis Walkenhorst, Hayden Whalen) took 14th.
The Bears will travel to Greater Atlanta Christian next week for Region Championships. Swimming prelims will take place on Friday and then diving and swim finals will be on Saturday.