Girls Take 3rd at Metro Championships; 20 New State Times Clocked

On Friday and Saturday, Jan. 20-21st, the swimmers and divers competed in the Metro Atlanta Championship meet at Westminster. The meet is always the last culminating meet of the season where kids have one last chance to clock their best times before the end of the regular season. The meet runs diving on Friday and then a prelims/finals format on Saturday for swimmers so athletes get to practice what they will be expected to do at the state meet.

The girls took third place out of 18 teams and the boys took seventh place out of 20 teams.

Diving

On Friday, the divers performed their routines in the same environment they will be competing in for the state championship. While the swimmers will be at Georgia Tech, the divers will be at Westminster. The competition at this meet is always the toughest with judging being the most strict they see all season. The Cambridge girls rose to the occasion and took advantage of the opportunity to practice and performed well.

Brooklyn Petit took fourth place with a score of 259.35, which is very strong. Petit displayed her talent for clean lines and high difficulty dives. She will be having her second state meet experience next week and look to improve from her third place finish last year. Senior Captain Hana El-Gazairly took 22nd with 160.65 points. El-Gazairly will use her role to lead the girls to their best performances next week. Lilah Versluis took 23rd with a score of 155.75. Versluis will be having her first state experience next week, but she looks more than ready to take on the challenge and have a great performance.

Swimming

On Saturday, the swimmers competed in prelims in the morning and finals in the evening.

In the 200-medley relay, the girls (Caroline Gaines, Jamie Walsh, Kate Kerber, Jennifer Griner) took third in prelims with a time of 1:56.82 and dropped almost three-seconds in finals to finish in fourth with a time of 1:53.58.

The boys medley relay (Cale Coleman, Aaron Grann, Gavin Schoeling, Gavin Grann) took fifth in prelims with a time of 1:47.25 and dropped almost four seconds to jump to third in finals with a new bested state time of 1:43.99.

In the girls 200-freestyle, Kate Kerber took fifth in the preliminary round and came back to win the event with a new bested state time of 1:54.26, shaving off almost five-seconds from prelims. Jamie Walsh took 18th in prelims, but came back to take 12th with a state qualifying time of 2:04.70. Olivia Skinner took 17th in prelims, but came back to take 14th in finals. Audrey Lampa swam a new best time in prelims.

In the boys 200-freestyle, Gavin Grann took 10th in prelims with a new state qualifying time of 1:54.75, and maintained 10th in finals. Yan Berezitsky took 14th in prelims and came back to maintain that in finals with a new best time. Jax Jackson took 15th in prelims and maintained that in finals with a new best time. Elijah Edison took 22nd.

In the girls 200-individual medley, Jennifer Griner took second in prelims and third in finals with a new best state qualifying time of 2:14.22. Samantha Hamilton took ninth in prelims and eighth in finals with a new state qualifying time. Abby Harber took 17th in prelims and Hayden Whalen took 23rd in prelims.

In the boys 200-individual medley, Gavin Schoeling took 12th in prelims and 13th in finals, but he swam a new state qualifying time in that finals event. Matthew Harper swam a new best time in prelims to take 24th and Ian Grann took 30th.

In the girls 50-freestyle, Ana-Clare Grann took 35th, Mihika Ayyagari took 54th, Abigail Marzullo took 56th with a new best time, and Sela Guy took 62nd.

In the boys 50-freestyle, Bryson Mynatt took 37th, Tate Robertson swam a new best time and took 48th, Pranav Kolathaya took 57th with a new best time, and Aneesh Ayyagari took 59th with a new best time.

In the girls 100-butterfly, Audrey Lampa swam new best times in prelims and then again in finals and finished in 16th. Abby Harber took 23rd in prelims and came back to take 19th in finals with a new best time. Molly Thompson took 26th and Abigail Marzullo took 34th, both girls competing in that event for the first time.

In the boys 100-butterfly, Cale Coleman took 14th in finals with a new best time and came back in finals to clock a state cut of 57.26 and take 11th. Gavin Schoeling took 15th in prelims and maintained in finals. John Murphy took 18th in prelims and came back to take 16th in finals with a new best time.

In the girls 100-freestyle, Alana Drevet took 19th in prelims and 14th in finals. Mihika Ayyagari took 43rd in prelims with a new best time, and Sela Guy took 46th with a new best time.

In the boys 100-freestyle, Bryson Mynatt took 36th, Ryan Robertson took 37th with a new best time, Pranav Kolathaya took 52nd with a new best time, and Aneesh Ayyagari took 54th with a new best time.

In the girls 500-freestyle, Kate Kerber took 3rd in prelims and came back to maintain in finals with a new best time of 5:11.36. Samantha Hamilton took 11th in prelims. Molly Thompson took 18th in prelims and finished in 15th in finals with a new best time. Hayden Whalen took 20th in prelims and finished in 16th in finals with a new best time. Both girls were swimming the event for the first time!

In the boys 500-freestyle, Jax Jackson took 3rd in prelims and maintained in finals. Jackson clocked a state cut in prelims of 5:09.63, which is a time drop of over 11-seconds. Yan Berezitsky had a similar performance with an amazing state qualifying performance in prelims (5:15.10) and maintaining sixth place position in finals. Berezitsky had a similar time drop to Jackson to make his state cut. Zach Andersen took 8th in prelims and maintained in finals with a new best time. Matthew Harper took 12th.

In the 200-freestyle relay, the girls (Samantha Hamilton, Jamie Walsh, Olivia Skinner, Abby Harber) clocked a new improved state qualifying time in finals of 1:46.82, which improved their finish to eighth place.

In the 200-freestyle relays, the boys (Aaron Grann, Jax Jackson, John Murphy, Zach Andersen) took 10th in finals with a time of 1:38.11.

In the girls 100-backstroke, Caroline Gaines finished in fifth at prelims but jumped to second in finals with an amazing performance and a new best state qualifying time of 1:00.02. Jamie Walsh jumped from 13th in prelims to 11th in finals with a new best state qualifying time of 1:03.66. Ana-Clare Grann took 23rd.

In the boys 100-backstroke, Gavin Grann jumped from 12th to ninth in finals and clocked a state qualifying time of 59.62. John Murphy took 14th and clocked his first state qualifying time of 59.84. Aaron Grann took 17th and Ryan Robertson took 32nd.

In the girls 100-breaststroke, Alana Drevet took fifth in prelims and maintained in finals. Jennifer Griner took ninth in prelims with a new state qualifying time and then shaved even more time in finals to finish in 1:13.77. Olivia Skinner took 15th in prelims and came back to jump to 12th in finals with a new state cut of 1:14.62.

In the boys 100-breaststroke, Cale Coleman took 15th in prelims and jumped to 13th in finals with a new best time of 1:08.74. Zach Andersen took 17th in prelims and jumped to 14th in finals with a new best time. Ian Grann took 25th in prelims and jumped to 17th in finals with a new best time.

The girls AND the boys clocked new best times in the final relays of the day!

The girls (Kate Kerber, Caroline Gaines, Samantha Hamilton, Jennifer Griner) finished in third with a time of 3:38.45, which improves their state time by almost two-seconds. Kerber led off the relay with a new best state time of 53.79. Gaines and Hamilton also clocked best season relay splits.

The boys (Gavin Grann, Aaron Grann, Gavin Schoeling, Cale Coleman) took sixth in finals with a new best state time of 3:25.37.

This was the team's last regular season meet. The State Championship will be held on the 31st for divers and February 4th for the swimmers.