Cambridge Takes Region Runner-Up Title
On Friday, January 19th and Saturday, January 20th, the Bears traveled to Greater Atlanta Christian to compete in Region Championships. Friday was preliminary heats for swimming, where the top 16 returned for finals that were held on Saturday. Diving competed during the Finals for swimming for their own event. While Cambridge had many standout performances, the numbers game prevented the title from coming back to the Bridge. With a short roster, there was only so much the Bears could do. With a smaller roster than other teams, the Bears managed to take home the Runner-Up trophy, which was a huge accomplishment. This was the second year in a row the Bears have been Region Runner-Up.
Boys Team Scores
- Greater Atlanta Christian - 506
- Chattahoochee - 395 and Cambridge - 395
- Centennial - 186
Girls Team Scores
- Greater Atlanta Christian - 515
- Cambridge - 414
- Chattahoochee - 371
- Centennial - 328
Combined Team Score
- Greater Atlanta Christian - 1021
- Cambridge - 806
- Chattahoochee - 766
- Centennial - 514
Swimming Prelims Recap
To start off the meet, the boys 200-medley relay (John Murphy, Zach Andersen, Gavin Schoeling, Oscar Ryzhkov) finished with a time of 1:48.03 and took fourth place overall to secure their return to finals. The B-relay (Ryan Robertson, Elijah Edison, Maor Bigio, Raj Malik) finished not far behind in 6th. Only one relay team could return for finals, so the B-relay was done but they had excellent splits.
For the girls, the A-relay (Molly Thompson, Caroline Gaines, Jamie Walsh, Kate Kerber) took third overall with a time of 2:02.59. The B-relay (Alexis Walkenhorst, Alana Drevet, Audrey Lampa, Ana-Clare Grann) took sixth.
For the boys 200-freestyle, Yan Berezitsky took third with a time of 1:54.22, followed by Ryan Robertson in seventh, Aneesh Ayyagari in 11th and Pranav Kolathaya in 13th. All four secured their spot in finals.
For the girls event, Alana Drevet swam a new best time of 2:12.40 to take fifth overall, followed by Alexis Walkenhorst in 10th. Both earned their spots in finals.
In the 200-individual medley, Gavin Schoeling took fourth with a time of 2:06.97, Oscar Ryzhkov took sixth, John Murphy took seventh with a new best time, and Zach Andersen took eighth. All four earned a spot in the finals. Additionally, Maor Bigio took 10th, but each team was only allowed to return four athletes to finals.
For the girls, Kate Kerber took third with a time of 2:14.94, followed by Jamie Walsh in sixth, and Mihika Ayyagari in 12th. All three earned spots in finals.
In the boys 50-freestyle, Bryson Mynatt took ninth with a new best time of 24.85, Tate Robertson took 18th with a new best time, Raj Malik took 20th with a new best time, and Shane Merille took 26th with a new best time.
For the girls, Audrey Lampa took fourth with a new best time of 26.72, followed by Abby Harber in seventh, Ana-Clare Grann in tenth, and Christine McVicker in 23rd. Lampa, Harber and Grann earned spots back for finals.
In the boys 100-butterfly, Maor Bigio took fifth and Aneesh Ayyagari took 12th. Both earned spots back for finals.
In the girls event, Kate Kerber took second with a time of 1:00.56, followed by Audrey Lampa in sixth, and Alexis Walkenhorst in 10th with a new best time. All three earned spots in finals.
In the boys 100-freestyle, John Murphy took eighth with a time of 54.42, followed by Bryson Mynatt in 11th with a new best time, Tate Robertson in 16th, and Pranav Kolathaya in 20th. Murphy, Mynatt and Robertson earned their spots in finals.
In the girls event, Abby Harber took fourth, Hayden Whalen took sixth with a new best time, and Mihika Ayyagari took 12th. All three earned spots in finals.
In the boys 500-freestyle, Jax Jackson went a new best time of 5:06.68 and took second, Oscar Ryzhkov took fourth, and Gavin Schoeling took fifth. All three returned for finals.
In the girls 500-freestyle, Jamie Walsh took fourth, followed by Molly Thompson took sixth with a new best time. Both girls earned their spot back for finals.
In the 200-freestyle relay, the boys A-relay (Yan Berezitsky, Zach Andersen, Bryson Mynatt, Jax Jackson) took second with a time of 1:35.35. The B-relay (Maor Bigio, Tate Robertson, Raj Malik, Ryan Robertson) took sixth.
For the girls, the A-relay (Kate Kerber, Audrey Lampa, Caroline Gaines, Abby Harber) took second with a time of 1:47.91. The B-relay (Mihika Ayyagari, Hayden Whalen, Christine McVicker, Gabby Edwards) took eighth.
In the boys 100-backstroke, Elijah Edison took sixth with a new best time of 1:00.54, followed by Jax Jackson in seventh, Ryan Robertson took 10th, Raj Malik took 12th with a new best time, and Shane Merille took 13th with a new best time. Edison, Jackson, Robertson and Malik earned spots in finals.
In the girls event, Caroline Gaines took fourth, Ana-Clare Grann took eighth, Molly Thompson took ninth, and Hayden Whalen took 14th. All four girls earned spots in finals.
In the boys 100-breast, Yan Berezitsky took fourth with a new best time and state qualifying time of 1:04.95. Zach Andersen took eighth, and Elijah Edison took 11th. All three boys earned spots in finals.
In the girls event, Caroline Gaines earned the first place seed with a time of 1:11.63, followed immediately by Alana Drevet in second place. Both earned top slots for finals.
In the last event, the boys 400-freestyle A-relay (Gavin Schoeling, John Murphy, Jax Jackson, Yan Berezitsky) took third with a time of 3:34.26. The B-relay (Oscar Ryzhkov, Tate Robertson, Elijah Edison, Bryson Mynatt) took fifth.
For the girls, the A-relay (Abby Harber, Jamie Walsh, Molly Thompson, Alana Drevet) took fourth with a time of 4:10.88. The B-relay (Mihika Ayyagari, Alexis Walkenhorst, Hayden Whalen, Ana-Clare Grann) took sixth.
Finals - Swimming and Diving
To kick off finals, the boys medley relay (John Murphy, Zach Andersen, Gavin Schoeling, Oscar Ryzhkov) took third overall with an improved time from prelims of 1:47.36.
In the girls event, the A-relay added Jennifer Griner to the mix as she returned from illness, and they dropped over seven-seconds from their prelim time to improve to second place overall from a third place seed (Jennifer Griner, Caroline Gaines, Jamie Walsh, Kate Kerber).
In the boys 200-freestyle, Yan Berezitsky held his seed and finished in fourth with a time of 1:56.84. Ryan Robertson took seventh with an improved time from prelims, Aneesh Ayyagari took 10th with a new best time, and Pranav Kolathaya took 12th with a new best time.
In the girls event, Alana Drevet swam a new best time of 2:10.94 to take fifth, followed by Alexis Walkenhorst with an improved time from prelims and finishing in ninth, which moved her up one spot from her seed.
In the boys 200-individual medley, Gavin Schoeling moved up from fourth seed in prelims to a third place finish with a new best time of 2:02.01. Oscar Ryzhkov took fifth, moving him up from sixth place seed. Zach Andersen improved his place from an eighth place seed to a sixth place overall finish. John Murphy swam a new best time and maintained his seventh place seed.
In the girls 200-individual medley, Kate Kerber moved up from third to finish in second overall and new best time of 2:10.31. Jamie Walsh took sixth place, maintaining her seed.
In the boys 50-freestyle, Bryson Mynatt took eighth, which moved him up one spot from prelims, Tate Robertson finished in 14th, moving up from 18th place, Raj Malik took 15th, moving him up from 20th place, and Shane Merille took 16th, moving him up from 26th.
In the girls event, Abby Harber took fourth with an improved time from finals of 26.48, moving her up from seventh place seed. Audrey Lampa took seventh, and Ana-Clare Grann took 11th.
After the 50-freestyle, swimming took a break to allow for the dive event to take place.
In the boys event, Brandon Norfleet took second place overall with a new high score of 168.65. For the girls, Brooklyn Petit secured the Region Champion title for the second year in a row. Additionally, Petit's score of 300.75 marked a new pool record. Lilah Versluis took second place with a score of 227.60. This is the second year in a row the Bears have secured both first and second place Region Championships.
Swimming resumed with the boys 100-butterfly. Maor Bigio took fifth with a time of 1:01.62, maintaining his seed. Aneesh Ayyagari took 10th with a new best time, improving his seed from 12th.
In the girls event, the race for the top finish was tight and intense. Kate Kerber, the top Cambridge seed, was trailing in the first 50-yards, but in the back half of the race, she propelled forward and swam a new season-best time of 56.99 to secure the Region Championship title. Audrey Lampa improved her time from prelims and took seventh, and Alexis Walkenhorst took 10th and maintained her seed position, but with a new best time by over three-seconds.
In the boys 100-freestyle, John Murphy swam a new best time of 53.66 to finish in sixth overall, improving his spot from eighth place in prelims. Bryson Mynatt improved from prelims to take 10th overall with a new best time. Tate Robertson took 12th, improving his place from 16th at prelims, with a new best time. Pranav Kolathaya also improved his time from prelims and jumped from 20th to 16th place.
In the girls event, Abby Harber jumped from fourth place to third place with a time of 57.63. Hayden Whalen had another amazing performance by jumping to fifth place with a substantially improved time by over 3.5-seconds. Mihika Ayyagari also swam a new best time and jumped to 11th place overall.
In the boys 500-freestyle, Jax Jackson had a breakout performance and broke 5-minutes to finish in 4:59.67, securing second place. Gavin Schoeling secured another state cut with a time of 5:12.89, a new personal best time and securing fourth place. Oscar Ryzhkov jumped to fourth place.
In the girls event, Jamie Walsh improved her time from prelims and maintained her fourth place finish. Molly Thompson swam a new best time again to take sixth place.
The boys 200-freestyle relay (Yan Berezitsky, Zach Andersen, Bryson Mynatt, Jax Jackson) took second place with a new season-best time of 1:34.61.
The girls relay (Kate Kerber, Jennifer Griner, Caroline Gaines, Abby Harber) took second place with a season best time of 1:41.55, making them very close to the school record.
In the boys 100-backstroke, Elijah Edison jumped from sixth to fifth place with a time of 1:00.67, followed by Jax Jackson, jumping to sixth place with a time improvement from prelims and new best time, Ryan Robertson jumped from 10th place to eighth place, and Raj Malik jumped from 12th to 10th place with a new best time.
In the girls 100-backstroke, Caroline Gaines jumped from fourth place to second place with a new best time of 1:00.14. Ana-Clare Grann took sixth place, jumping from eighth, Molly Thompson jumped from ninth to seventh, and Hayden Whalen dropped over 5.5-seconds to jump from 14th to 10th place with a new best time.
In the boys 100-breaststroke, Yan Berezitsky finished in fifth, Zach Andersen jumped from eighth to sixth with a new best time, and Elijah Edison took 13th place.
In the girls event, Caroline Gaines went into the event as the top seed and she maintained that all the way through and took home the Region Champion title for the event, dropping time from her preliminary race to finish in 1:09.93. Alana Drevet also maintained her second place seed and finished with a new best time.
In the final event of the day for the boys, the 400-freestyle relay (Gavin Schoeling, John Murphy, Jax Jackson, Yan Berezitsky) earned third place with a season best time of 3:28.69.
The girls final event came down to the very end. The girls 400-freestyle relay (Abby Harber, Molly Thompson, Alana Drevet, Jennifer Griner) was trailing in third place for the majority of the race. Griner entered the water with the Bears trailing a distance behind the Centennial relay. The Chattahoochee relay was a good distance ahead and not catchable. Griner began picking up speed on the Centennial anchor swimmer and closing the gap. In the final 25-yards of the race, Griner pulled side-by-side and gave it everything she had and out-touched the Centennial relay by 2/10ths of a second to secure the silver medal. Griner's unofficial split was 53.90. The last race was a critical win for the Bears to secure the runner-up title.
The Bears had a very successful last full-squad meet for the 2023 - 2024 season. The state roster of athletes will continue to train ahead of the state championship meet in February. The divers will complete on Tuesday, February 5th at Westminster and swimmers will compete in prelims in the morning and finals in the evening on Wednesday, February 6th at Georgia Tech.
The state roster is included below:
John Murphy (Innovation)
Brooklyn Petit - diver
Lilah Versluis – diver
