GwinAq Fifth at Swim Meet of Champions

3/11 - A select group of Gwinnett Aquatics senior swimmers competed at the Southeastern Swim Meet of Champions (SMOC) this weekend in Augusta.  Against a pretty stacked field of teams from all over the eastern seaboard GaGa finished fifth overall and third in the boys.  

Baylor Stanton led the way with six event wins, including one team record (200 free) and six meet records. Collier Stanton added three medals of his own and Hannah-Claire Jowers and Tadd Duffield finaled in multiple events.

Nate Beeney and Brandon Noble also scored for Gwinnett Aquatics and Beeney, Duffield, and the two Stantons won the 800 free relay. Additionally Hannah-Claire picked up a new team record in the 50 free and Cate Joyce got her first ever Sectional cut. 

Next up is the Divisional Champs for ALL swimmers in two weeks in Athens!!

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GwinAq/SPAC Raffle Extravaganza

3/2 - Gwinnett Aquatics and Spartan Aquatics hosted the 5th Annual Raffle Meet this weekend at GAC.  The Raffle Meet targets swimmers who did not compete at the State Champs (or those who did in events they don't have the cut).  This year over 250 swimmers competed for the chance to earn raffle "tickets" for a variety of prizes. 

Swimmers earned a raffle chance for every best time, heat winner, and new time standard achieved. In just three short sessions over 1600 chances generated and we gave out over 70 prizes through the weekend including caps, goggles, Squishmallows and Dancing Cacti.  At the end of the meet Lifetime swimmer Ethan Kim took home the grand prize, a $300 VISA gift card!

Gwinnett Aquatics Results

For Gwinnett Aquatics it was clear our swimmers love winning stuff as we had over 60% best times which was even higher than the percentage we had at age group state or the qualifier!  Even though we had fewer swimmers than in the past (because so many qualified for state this year!), twenty-one swimmers won events!

They were: Lucas Babcock, Elisa Basic, Justin Bennett, Henry Boltin, Lucy Bower, Reynolds Bowers, Emma Gonzalez, Gatlin and Kendall Granberry, Morgan Henry, Emily Hillensheim, Zoe Jinadu, Jaidyn Joiner, Arina Kovalenkov, Grant McGee, Valarie Monroe, Lily Nejman, Lillie Robinson, Eva Saldana, Jude Stanton, and Emery Wells.

Additionally Riley Pynn picked up his first ever AA time, James Chang got his first BB and Josh Liu and Skylar Smith got their first B times. 

Next up is the Meet of Champions this weekend for our top Senior swimmers and then the Divisional Champs for ALL swimmers in three weeks in Athens!

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Gwinnett Aquatics Twelfth at Age Group State

  Hardy, Relays break five team records!

2/24 - Gwinnett Aquatics had one of its bigger state teams go down to Savannah this weekend. We had more swimmers score and more swimmers achieve new standards than the past couple years. Unfortunately not very many of those swims were in the A-final so we only managed a 12th place team finish, one lower than last year.

Aliana McCann led all scorers with three top-8 finishes. Kate Breiding, Emily Hardy, Vincent Tuck, and Aaron Passman also had top-8 swims. Others scorers were Lucas Babcock, Jasmine Coe, and CJ Gast.

Along the way Hardy broke a 22 yr-old team record in the 13-14 girls 50 free and nine swimmers combined for records in the 11-12 200 and 400 medley relays and the 13-14 200 medley and free relays. They were: Hardy, Breiding, Ella Wells, Sophia Quinn, Bri Exil, McCann, Gast, Coe and Lucy Bower.

Coe, Gast, and Tuck picked up their first ever AAA (All-Star) times while Passman and Quinn got their first AAs and Lucas Babcock his first A time.

Next up is the raffle meet this weekend for swimmers who did not compete at state and for those who did to swim some other events. Then it's four weeks to our big end of season champs, Divisionals at UGA March 28-30! 

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Gwinnett Aquatics Fourth at GaTech 10U State Champs

  Lots of new state qualifying times fall at PeachState

2/18 - Gwinnett  Aquatics finished fourth at the PeachState Champs at Ga Tech this weekend. The meet combined the 10U Champs that was scored with an 11-14 junior champs that was not scored. A second identical meet was being held in Warner Robbins.

GaGa had five swimmers score. Leading the way were Riley Pynn and Emery Wells who both had top ten swims. Gatlin Granberry, Reynolds Bowers, and Andrian Strokan also scored. But the relays made the real difference with us having our largest group ever at 10U state, and all but two are still 10U for this summer's state champs, seven of whom made some new cuts this weekend!

In the 11-14 Jacob Matthew picked up a new state cut and Victoria Tannure picked up her first state cut. Next up is the 11-14 State Champs in Savannah this weekend followed by the Raffle Extravaganza Mar 1-2 at GAC. That meet is a "no-faster-than" meet where swimmers can only swim events they don't have state times in.

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GwinAq Swimmers Lead Local High School Teams at State Champs

2/11 - Gwinnett Aquatics swimmers played an outsize role in this weekend's Georgia High School State Champs at Ga Tech. Ten different GaGa swimmers scored for Brookwood who won both the boys and girls meet and Parkview whose boys and girls were 14th and 10th respectively. 

They were led by Baylor Stanton who won both his events and broke his own state record in the 200 IM.  Collier Stanton won the 500 free and was 2nd in the 200. Hannah-Claire Jowers was 2nd in the 100 breast and third in 100 fly while Tadd Duffield, Paige Johnson, and Brandon Noble also made A-Finals.  Other scorers were Nate Beeney, Sarah Heppe, Lillie Robinson, and Addi Shaffer. 

Up next is the PeachState Meet this weekend at Ga Tech followed by 11-14 State Champs in Savannah Feb 21-23. 

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Over 130 State Cuts Fall at 14th Annual Winter Qualifier

2/3 - This weekend at the 13th Annual Winter Qualifier Meet at GAC swimmers added 136 new championship meet cuts (61 state cuts, 75 PeachState cuts) over three days of racing.  The meet, co-hosted by GwinAq and SPAC saw some great racing from over 600 swimmers.  When the water finally settled the PeachState meet in two weeks and the 11-14 State Champs in three had gotten considerably larger.  The meet featured ribbon awards for 12Us and special tattoos for all swimmers getting a new State cut. 

A week after the state meet we'll be back at GAC for the very popular Raffle Spectacular March 1-2.  That meet offers swimmers the chance to race in any events they don't have a qualifying time for state and win chances for prizes and even a raffle for a $250 gift card!

GwinAq Results

For Gwinnett Aquatics it was a fantastic meet with some great racing and 17 swimmers picking up over 20 new State or PeachState cuts. Ten swimmers won events, four swimmers got their first State cuts and seven swimmers picked up new USAS time standards.  They were:

• Event Winners:Reynolds Bower, Kate Breiding, Giselle Davis, CJ Gast, Emma Gonzalez, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Aliana McCann,Lily Nejman, Brooks, Pynn, and Emery Wells.
• First State Cuts: Emma Gonzalez, Lily Nejman, Nicolas Ramdeo, and Yuchelle Wong
• First PeachState: Morgan Henry and Victoria Tannure
• New USAS Standards: Ramdeo 1st A time; Gonzalez, Pynn and Harper Lee 1st BB; Yusuf Besic, Nate Ramos, and Allen Zhu 1st B time. 

Up next will be the Peach State Champs February 15-16 at GaTech followed by the 11-14 State Champs is Savannah and then the Raffle Meet.  (While this meet is especially for swimmers not going to state, state swimmers should go at least one day and swim events they don't have cuts in.) Oh, and our High School Age swimmers will have their state champs this weekend at Tech.

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Winter Inter, High School County Bring Rest of Team Into 2025

1/29 - After many GaGa swimmers had their first meet of the new year last  weekend, the rest of the team got into the act at the Gwinnett County High School Champs and the Winter Inter (squad) this weekend. 

Nearly 30 swimmers took the opportunity to see how their holiday training had paid off at the Winter Inter.  There were lots of new bests times and a few new time standards.

Meanwhile all of our High School aged swimmers were competing at the Gwinnett County Champs. At that meet we had four champions in SEVEN events (Tad Duffield, Hannah-Claire Jowers, and Baylor and Collier Stanton),nine others who scored in the top ten and another seven qualify in the top 20.  That means 20 of our 21 Sr 1/2 swimmers were in the top 20 at the meet!  Duffield picked up his first ever AAA (All-Star) time, Justice Parker his first AA time, Henry Boltin his first BB, and Jarixa Aguilar her first ever B time.  Lillie Robinson got her first Sr State qualifying time. Brookwood won both the girls and boys meet and Parkview was third in both.   

Next up we have the Winter Qualifier February this weekend at GAC.  All swimmers should participate and all parents should volunteer. 

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GaGa Starts Year at Two Meets

1/21 - Gwinnett Aquatics got 2025 off to a fast start this weekend with some great swimming at the Eastern Classic Invite at Dynamo and the Novant LC Invite in Charlotte, NC. 

At the Eastern Classic a select group of GaGa swimmers competed with swimmers from . CJ Gast, Alex Matveev, Aliana McCann, Riley Pynn, Jude Stanton, and Jimmy Wang all had top three finishes while fourteen other swimmers had top 10 finishes. 

Meanwhile Ella Wells picked up her first AA time while Lucy Bower, Reynolds Bowers,and Abbie Lee got their first A times and Elisa Besic, Lily Nejman, and Cole Wright (Gold) got their first BBs. In addition a whopping eight swimmers got their first state cuts of the season! They were Bower, Lee, Lucas Babcock, Arina Kovalenkov, Jacob Matthew, Sophia Quinn, Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro, and JJ Sanchez.

Those results are even more impressive when you consider that six of our top Senior swimmers were being hosted by SwimMAC in Charlotte for a winter long course meet.  At that meet four swimmers had scoring swims including two wins by Baylor Stanton and top three finishes for Collier Stanton and Hannah-Claire Jowers. Nate Beeney also scored. Baylor also tied the team record in the 100 breast.

Next up we have the Winter Inter(squad) Meet this weekend for all the 14 and Under swimmers who did not go to Eastern Classic. There is no sign-up for this meet.  Just be at the pool at 1030am. The 14U Eastern Classic swimmers will have practice at a revised time. 

After that is our Winter Qualifier January 31-February 2 at GAC.  All swimmers should participate and all parents should volunteer. 

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