Senior Swimmers Get the Short and the Long of It In Charlotte

11/19 - While the rest of the team was having a quiet weekend, eleven of our of our Senior swimmers were attending a unique short course/long course meet in Charlotte.

The meet featured long course prelims and then a super finals in short course yards. (Super finals have full heats of consolation heats but a head-to-head heat for the top two.) Baylor and Collier Stanton and Hannah-Claire Jowers all qualified for evening yards swims. Baylor posted some very fast in-season times winning four of his six events. Collier threw down a fourth place finish in the 800 and Hannah-Claire was 6th in the 100 breast.

In addition Jowers picked up her first AAA (All-Star) and Futures cuts of the year while Nate Beeney got his first AA, and he and Sarah Heppe got their first state cuts.

Up next will be the first Invitational and prelim/finals meet of the season, the Woodie B Malone meet at Dynamo. 

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Swim-A-Thon In the Books

11/17 - All the groups have now finished their swims for the 2024 Swim-A-Thon and now all that's left is to finish collecting donations and for the last couple swimmers to make up their swims. 

The honor of most improved group goes to Blue this year, dropping 31 seconds per 100 over last year's swims. Gold team was 2nd dropping 21s/100! Junior Team was 3rd dropping 13 seconds per 100. 

Currently we have raised over $17,000 toward our goal of $30,000*.  But only about 60% of the team has participated.  (Gold Team leads fundraising and the race for the pizza party with over $5000.)  Jenna Inlow leads the individual race with Reynolds Bowers in 2nd. In the past we got a big bump on Giving Tuesday using the matching program on Facebook.  It looks like that will no longer be taking place so we encourage everyone to make their donations now as we will wrap up the S-A-T on the 30th

*not all funds will be reflected in the on-line total. Facebook, check and cash donations will only be added if they bring the swimmer over one of the national Swim-a-Thon prize thresholds. 

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Fall Series Wraps Up With Meet #3 - The Spooktacular

  Spartan Sweeps All Three Meets, Wins Fall Series

11/4 - Spartan Aquatics made a clean sweep of it taking the third and final meet of the GA Fall Series at Freeman Aquatic Center this weekend. Gwinnett Aquatics was second in the meet by just enough to take over 2nd overall in the series after trailing Lifetime through the first two meets. Peachtree Aquatics was fourth.

The meet featured the longer distances in fly and breast and a 1000 free/400 IM session on Sunday, as well as the first relays of the year! It was one of the largest IM/1000 session since the series began.

At the conclusion of the meet the series high point winners were announced. It included 4-time winners Baylor Stanton and Abigail Heizer in the 15O age group. The high point winners were:

• 8U Reynolds Bowers (GA), Andrew Chen (LIFE)
• 9-10 Ava Zielinski (SPAC), Riley Pynn (GA)
• 11-12 Aliana McCann (GA), Ian Hwang (LIFE)
• 13-14 Emily Hardy (GA), Lance Grimm (SPAC)
• 15-18 Abigail Heizer (SPAC), Baylor Stanton (GA) 

For Gwinnett Aquatics Reynolds Bowers, Kate Breiding, Jude El-Alam, Emily Hardy, Aliana McCann, Riley Pynn, Baylor Stanton, Vincent Tuck, and Emery Wells all won events. 

In addition Tuck got his first AA of the season.  Sarah Heppe, Riley Pynn, Lillie Robinson, Addi Shaffer and Ella Wells earned their first A times and Alli Burns and Yuchelle Wong got their first BB times. Nyziah Barnaby, Violet Pincombe, and Isabella Powell got their first B time. 

Ella Wells and Alex Matveev had their first state qualifying swims of the season. 

Up next will be the first Invitational and prelim/finals meet of the season, the Woodie B Malone meet at Dynamo.  All swimmers should attend. 

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Swimmers Stretch Their Legs at Fall #2

10/21 - Swimmers from Spartan, Gwinnett Aquatics and Lifetime competed in some longer events this weekend at the Fall Series second meet at GAC.  Spartan came out the winner followed by GwinAq then LIFE (just 13 points back).  Events this time included the longer free, back and IM events as well as the 500 (140 swimmers participated in that event Sunday!) 

With just one meet left to go in the series the high point races in a couple age groups is very tight.  You can see the top five in each using the link below.  The current leaders are: Reynolds Bowers, Thomas Nicely, Ava Zielinski, Riley Pynn, Aliana McCann, Ian Hwang, Dakota Stanfield, Lance Grimm, Abigail Heizer, and Baylor Stanton.

The final meet will be in two weeks, November 2-3 at GAC.  That meet will feature the longer fly and breast races as well as 11 and over 400 IMs and 1000s! 

Gwinnett Aquatics had a number of extraordinary individual efforts.  Six swimmers combined to win 16 events: Reynolds Bowers, Kate Breiding, Aliana McCann, Lily Nejman, Riley Pynn, and Baylor Stanton. 

McCann and Collier Stanton picked up their first AAA (All-Star) times of the season. Nate Beeney, Kendall Granberry, Paige Johnson, Cate Joyce,
Aaron Passman, Sophia Quinn, Vincent Tuck, Jimmy Wang, and Cole Wright all got their first A times of the season, while Sarah Heppe, Emily Hillensheim, Jaidyn Joiner, Valarie Monroe, and Jude Stanton got their first BB times and Anna Buckley, William Buckley and Abby Wong got their first B times (Wong's first ever!). 

Meanwhile Jude El-Alam, Kendall Granberry, Cate Joyce, Aaron Passman, Vincent Tuck, and Cole Wright got their first state cuts of the season. 

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Spartan Wins Pentathlon in Close Race, Next Up Fall Series 2 October 19-20

10/6 - SPAC won the first meet of the Fall Series today at their pool at GAC in one of the tightest 3-way races we've had. SPAC scored 654 points to GA's 489 (3rd) and LIFE's 534 (2nd). New member of the Fall Series League, Peachtree Aquatic Club (PAC) scored a respectable 145 with a smaller squad.  In addition swimmers were ranked based on their combined time in all five races with the winners in each age group winning a special "Pentathlon Champion" Fall Series T-Shirt Based on cumulative time for all five events the T-Shirt winners for best times in each age group were:

8U: Reynolds Bowers, Ben El-Alam & Thomas Nicely
9 yr olds: Valarie Monroe, Jaden Bae
10 yr olds: Mokara Collier,Aaron Campbell
11 yr olds:  Aliana McCann, Jacob Kim
12 yr olds: Isabel Traynor, Ian Hwang
13 yr olds: Madison Pierce, Vincent Tuck
14 yr olds: Karoline Groves, Lance Grimm| 15O: Abigail Heizer, Baylor Stanton.

The meet was also the first of the Fall Series for which there will be High point winners. There is a link to this meet's high point leaders below.  The High point winners in each age group (standard double year) at the end of the series will receive a High Point winner towel! 

For Gwinnett Aquatics after a slow start we were able to win 4 of the 6 age groups in the afternoon to keep it close.  66 swimmers achieved their first time standards of the season, and 19 their first state cuts, including some for the first time. Those numbers included Emery Wells who got her first AA times while Morgan Henry and Zoe Jinadu got their first BB's and Knox Estep, Arina Kovalenkov, Valarie Monroe, Andrian Strokan, and Yuchelle Wong got their first B times!  In addition Jinadu and Strokan got their first ever state cut. 

The next meet in October 19-20, back at Freeman Aquatic Center at the Greater Atlanta Christian School, with some new longer events.

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Gwinnett Aquatics Seniors Wrap up Long Course 2024

7/30 - The last nine swimmers wrapped up the 24 long course season this past weekend at two of the top senior meets of the year. The Futures meet was in Huntsville, AL while the Georgia Senior State Champs were in Athens. 

Baylor Stanton led the way at Futures scoring all six of his events, winning three.  Collier Stanton and Hannah-Claire Jowers also scored four times to make this quite the power trio. 

At State it was a very different experience withfully half of the group of six at their first ever Senior State Champs. Nonetheless four of them, Nate Beeney, Jack Dunbar,Sarah Heppe and Brandon Noble all scored. 

Along the way Baylor picked up another team record and Jimmy Wang picked up his first even AA time!  Collier and Brandon were 100% best times. 

Now everyone gets a couple weeks off before we start it up all over again.  Pre-season 2024-25 starts August 12!  Regular schedule starts Sept 9 with the first meet just 4 weeks later. 

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Ga⚡Ga Seventh at Age Group State Champs!

7/17 - Gwinnett Aquatics took seventh overall this weekend at the Georgia Age Group State Champs, third in the Medium Teams division (against much larger teams, and even beating all but one of the teams from the Large Teams Division).  

Like last year, scoring was shared by a large group of swimmers. We had fourteen swimmers score, almost as many as last year just not quite as highly.  This is actually a great achievement as so many of those top swimmers from last year are now in the bottom of their age groups.  Led by our top scorer Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro we had seven swimmers with top ten finishes.  Others were Kate Breiding, Emily Hardy, Jude Stanton, Ella Wells, and Cole Wright.  Also scoring were Eddie El Osta, Cate Joyce, Aliana McCann, Riley Pynn, Vincent Tuck, Emery Wells, and Benicio Zimmerman, who now heads off to Texas! :-(

But the real catalyst for our high finish were our great relays with over 35 swimmers getting in on the scoring action.  That included two relays that broke team records.  Breiding, Hardy, Joyce, and Brianna Exil broke the 13-14 200 medley and Cameron Jones, Justin Bennett, Nic Ramdeo, and Andy Zhu broke the 200 free relay. 

On top of all that Hardy and Wright earned their first AAA (All-Star) times (Cole's first ever!), while Joyce, Stanton, Bri Exil and Andy Zhu picked up their first ever AA's and Zimmerman got his first ever A times.  In addition Alex Matveev all got his first state cut.

Now it will be the Senior swimmer's turn as most of them start their State and Futures Champs this weekend. Everyone else now has a break and we look forward to seeing them back for preseason August 12. 

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Registration Now Open, Only a Few Spots Left 

7/31 - Registration in now open for new swimmers.  Most groups are officially on a waiting list but we should still be taking some new swimmers, especially in our elementary school groups.   Getting your eval done and registering early will give you the best chance of getting a spot. 

Evaluations are currently underway. You can sign up for a slot on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7pm through Aug 7.  Beginning Aug 13 they will move to Tuesdays and Thursdays at 530pm.  

Evals are free and take about 10 minutes but sometimes we have quite a few swimmers in attendance so it takes a little longer. Just use the link below to register.  High school aged swimmers should email coach Hugh Convery for a pre-registration meeting rather than an evaluation. 

Our pre-season will start August 12 with the full schedule starting September 9.  The first meet will be October 5.  We are looking forward to a very exciting post-Olympic year including a new format for 14 and Under State Champs (11-14 State will be in Savannah while 10Us and 11-14 Junior Champs will be at Ga Tech) and a return to UGA for Divisionals.

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GaGa Swimmers Kick Off Championship Season @ Coda Meet

7/15 - About 60 GaGa swimmers got the end-of-season Championship meets started with a bang at the Coda Invite at Dynamo this weekend.   For most it was the last meet of the long course season while a few were trying to tune up for the State Champs coming up the next two weekends.

Overall GaGa swimmers achieved over 50 new time standards, a couple state cuts, and a bunch of new JO qualifying times. That's down compared to last year but for the best reason - we have more than ever before already qualified for state!

Even without those state swimmers we still had 18 swimmers with top-3 finishes including Jenna Inlow, Riley Pynn, Sophia Quinn, Addi Shaffer, Ella and Emery Wells, Jimmy Zhang, and Jimmy Wang who all won events.  Other top-3 finishers were Tadd Duffield, Eddie El Osta, Gatlin Granberry, Sarah Heppe, Paige Johnson, Alaeelah McMahon, Lillith Mendonca, Nicholas Ramdeo, Victoria Tannure, and Benicio Zimmerman.

Shaffer and SteveMichael Bennett picked up their first AA times of the season while Inlow, Quinn and James Sears got their first A times.  Abby Bold and Jacob Matthew got their first BBs and Will Buckley and JJ Sanchez got their first ever B times. Jimmy Wang and Andy Zhu picked up their first state cuts (Jimmy's first ever!)

Meanwhile many of our swimmers participated in the Gwinnett County Summer League Champs with Baylor Stanton, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Reynolds Bowers, Cameron Jones, Ella Wells, Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro, Jude Stanton, and Giselle Davis all finished in the top-3 for their age groups - that's eight of our swimmers taking home a trophy!!!’!

Now all that remains are the State, Regional and National Championship meets over the next two weekends, starting with the Age Group State Champs next weekend.  For swimmers not in those meets practice is now over but we we do have fun day practices next week for the age groupers. 

And pre-season 2024-25 starts August 12!

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Younger Swimmers Take Over at Gold Invite

7/1 - After the big weekend the older swimmers had a week ago in Indy, it was time for the younger swimmers to show their stuff this last weekend in Cumming.  Nearly 50 swimmers, mostly 12 and Under, had their final tune-up before the big championship meets at the GOLD Summer Invite.   

Riley Pynn and Emery Wells led the group with 6 top-8 finishes each.  CJ Gast, Nic Ramdeo Benicio Zimmerman, Lucy Bower, Eddie El Osta, Gatlin Granberry, Aeden Hills, Sophia Quinn, and Eva Saldana also had top-8 finishes. 

Pynn and Ramdeo also picked up their first A times (Pynn's first ever).  Hills, Anna Buckley, Jude El-Alam, and Kitkat Jacobsen got their first BB times, while Gabriel Zimmerman got his first B time.  Jacobsen and Reynolds Bowers got their first ever state cuts! 

Next us will be the first of four championship meets in July, the CODA Classic at Dynamo.  

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Stanton a Top 18U in Three Events at Olympic Trials, Teammates Try to Emulate at FRST Invite!

6/24 - Baylor Stanton swam three races at his first ever Olympic Trials last week in Indianapolis.  In those three events he moved up a combined 83 places to move into the top 30 in all three events.  He was also top 3 for 18Us in two of them.  All three were a personal best and a team record.  All three were the fastest 15-16 times in the country this year and the 200 IM was a Georgia state record and the 7th fastest 15-16 time in US history. Whew, what a meet!   And on his final day he was cheered on by over thirty of his teammates who made the trip up to support him and take in the action of Olympic Trials.

Inspired by all Baylor's successes, his teammates then took to a pool nearby and turned in a similarly impressive effort.  At the FRST Summer Invite in nearby Franklin, Indiana a group of 32 GaGa swimmers posted a third place finish among 20 plus teams from all over the Midwest. They were 2nd in the Boys and 2nd in the 11 and Older age groups. 

Hannah-Claire Jowers led the way with six wins and her first ever Junior National qualifying time! Collier Stanton (4), Cameron Jones (3), and Aliana McCann all also won events. 

Justin Bennett, Kate Breiding, and Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro picked up their first AAA (All-Star) times. Tadd Duffield, Brandon Noble, Vincent Tuck, and Cole Wright goth tier first AAs, while Brianna Exil, Justice Parker, and Aaron Passman got their first A times. 

Exil, Parker, Nate Beeney, Sarah Heppe, and Morgan Sevier earned their first state cuts of the season bringing up to 35 the total number of swimmers headed to state.

Our next meet will be the GOLD Invite this weekend in Cumming for all those swimmers who did not make the trip to Indy.  Then it's a weekend off (!) and then the start of Championship meets the remaining weekends in July. Get ready.   

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GaGa Takes to the Open Water

6/9 - Gwinnett Aquatics had a large group  compete at the Death Valley Open Water (DVOW) swim in Clemson this weekend.  Nearly 40 swimmers participated and Gwinnett Aquatics was definitely one of the strongest teams there.

Swimmers competed in the 5k, 3k and 1k and .5k distances with ten swimmers doing all four races for a total of 9.5k yards of swimming (and earning the Anna K Sams award!)  Baylor Stanton won the 5k while Collier Stanton and Cole Wright had top ten finishes in their age group.  Jude Stanton, Ella Wells, Kendall Granberry, and Aliana McCann were all top 10 in the 11-12 division of the 3k. Our Anna K Sams winners were Jude Stanton, Grant McGee, Emily Hillensheim, Anna Buckley, Lilith Mendonca, Addi Shaffer, Cole Wright, Emily Hardy, Jenna Inlow, and Nate Beeney. 

Now we get one last quiet weekend before we have a run of 8 meets all over the country in the next 8 weekends.  Buckle Up!

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Team Splits for Bulldog and Dunbar Invites

6/03 - Gwinnett Aquatics had two different squads in competition this weekend. Thursday-Saturday five senior swimmers were at a the Bulldog Grand Slam in Athens while most of the rest of the team competed at the Betsy Dunbar Invite at Georgia Tech. 

The Athens meet proved to be one of the fastest this year with many of the areas fastest high school and college aged swimmers trying their last chance to make trials and many did!  Over 20 new trail cuts were posted.  For most of our swimmers it was a chance to post some fast in-season times and many did!  Baylor Stanton got to swim some events he hasn't done in a while and in so doing took down the team record in the 200 breast!  He also improved his 400 IM record.  In addition Collier Stanton and Hannah-Claire Jowers picked up their first AAAA times and Nate Beeney got his first ever AAA (all-star) time.  Stanton also got his first Futures cut of the season. 

Meanwhile at the Dunbar Invite many swimmers competed in their third long course meet of the season but most were still doing many events for the first time.  This meet was also faster than a year ago but we still managed a few top 6 finishers: Kate Breiding, CJ Gast, Emily Hardy, Cate Joyce, Aliana McCann, Brandon Noble, Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro and Ella Wells.  Paige Johnson earned her first AA time of the season while Jimmy Wang got his first A times. Arthur Bombard, Lucy Bower, and Victoria Tannure got their first BBs and Henry Copeland got his first B time. Johnson and Elisa Basic, Kendall Granberry and Aaron Passman got their first state qualifying times as well. It was Basic's first ever!

This weekend about 40 swimmers will take on the Death Valley Open Water swim in Clemson while the rest of the team prepares for our next meets in two weeks. 

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GwinAq Senior Swimmers Racing in the Big Leagues at Atlanta Classic 

5/20 - Some of our senior swimmers competed this weekend at one of the biggest Olympic Trial tune-up meets so far.  With names like Ledecky, Finke and Dressel, the Atlanta Classic at Georgia Tech also had Stanton, Stanton, Jowers and Dunbar.  (sounds like a legal firm)

Baylor Stanton took it all in stride making three A finals finishing up with two fifths and a seventh and right on his best times in the IMs and backstrokes.  Collier Stanton and Hannah-Claire Jowers earned second swims as well with Jowers picking up her first AAA times and Futures cut of the season. 

Next up is the Betsy Dunbar Meet June 1-2 at GaTech. Replies are past due now so please email your coach if you missed the deadline. 

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GwinAq Swimmers Finding Their Long Course Legs at Spring Splash  

5/13 - At just the second meet of this season, GaGa swimmers already posted big improvements in their long course swimming at the Spring Splash at Dynamo.  We think they were doing it for their moms, who clebrated Mothers Day with them at the pool.  Thanx Moms!

Four swimmers won events and twelve swimmers picked up new time standards. Kate Breiding, Eddie El Osta, Hannah-Claire Jowers, and Addi Shaffer all won events.  Collier Stanton picked up his first AAA time of the season; Justin Bennett got his first AA time; SteveMichael Bennett, Aubrey Chisholm, CJ Gast, and Sarah Heppe got their first A times; Emily Hillensheim and James Sears got his first BBs and Lucas Babcock, Jude El-Alam, Aura Holder, and Kaylin Lee got their first B times. 

This week some of our top senior swimmers will compete at a very fast Atlanta Classic starting Thursday at Ga Tech.  After that is the Betsy Dunbar Meet June 1-2 at GaTech. Replies are past due now so please email your coach if you missed the deadline. 

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Records and Trials and PRs Oh My!

   1st Meet of the Olympic Long Course Season Provides Lots of Excitement

4/29 - If the first meet of the 2024 Long Course season is any indication, we're in for a big Olympic summer.  The meet this weekend at Ga Tech had a Masters national record (as well as some state records), an Olympic Trial qualifying time and tons of individual PR's. And for most of the swimmers it's only been 2-3 weeks of training since they got back from short course season.   

Jennifer Mihalik set a new 45-49 age group national record in the 100 back while Baylor Stanton picked up his Olympic Trials cut in the 200 back.  Coach Lucas said (after Baylor's two previous attempts to get the cut) "he just needed to get back to training and forget about it"...and then he made it!   

And the heat sheet was practically worthless with huge drops coming from all heats.  Complete results can be viewed using the link below. 

Gwinnett Aquatics had a great meet with four swimmers winning events, another nine placing (top 3) and many swimmers already picking up state qualifying times. 

Kate Breiding, Emily Hardy, Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro, and Baylor Stanton all won events while Cameron Jones, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Aliana McCann, Grant McGee, Riley Pynn, Jude Stanton, Ella and Emery Wells, and Cole Wright (Gold) all placed. 

19 swimmers picked up state cuts while a whopping 72 swimmers (nearly 75% of our swimmers) got at least a B time, many for the first time. Ella Wells picked up her first AA time while her sister Emery and Cole Wright got their first A times.  Gatlin Granberry, Abbie Lee, and Hailey Lord earned their first ever BB times while Aiden Green, Harper Lee, Violet Pincombe, and Victoria Tannure got their first Bs.

With it being the first long course meet since last July for most swimmers there were a ton of best times (over 30 swimmers had 100% best times!).  In fact over 20 swimmers had events that they dropped over 8s per 50 with top honors going to Zoe Jinadu who had a 36-second drop in 100 free. 

Up next is the Spring Splash May 10-12 at Dynamo. Replies are closed so if you missed it be sure to email your coach. 

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Gwinnett Aquatics Swimmers in Texas

4/8 - While most of the team was back home getting back into training and helping get the facility ready for the summer, Jack Dunbar and Baylor Stanton were in San Antonio, Texas, racing against some of the best swimmers in the world!

In a stacked meet, Stanton broke two team records (in both Backstrokes) and also made his first ever A-Final in a Senior-level national meet! Once back home Dunbar got the good news that he'll be swimming for the Ga Tech Ramblin' Wreck next year. Congrats Jack!

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Gwinnett Aquatics Third at Divisionals

   Stanton Breaks National 15-16 200 Back Record

3/25 - Gwinnett Aquatics was third this weekend at the Northeast Divisional Champs in Augusta.  It was a drop of one place for us as we faced two much larger teams in ASL (who won after being third last year) and ABSC who both had twice as many swimmers as us. 

The Sr boys and the 8U boys won their age groups, while the 9-10 boys and girls and the 11-12 boys were 2nd.  Individually, Reynolds Bowers led the way with 8 event wins followed by Baylor Stanton's six. Eight other swimmers won events (for a total of 25 events!), 14 more were top-3  But truly it was a total team effort as 85 different swimmers scored, 60 in the top 8! (topping last year for our highest ever). 

Of course one of the most exciting swims I've ever watched (and definitely the most exciting with one of our own swimmers) was Baylor Stanton's 200 back where he touched in 1:40.5 to break the National record for 15-16 boys, our first ever national record holder.  Stanton also broke three other team records. 

The team also, once again, showed great team spirit and voluntarism. Thanx to all the parents who helped organize the car decorations, shirts, theme-ware and the catered meals too. It really helped make this a special weekend for the swimmers. Standard breakers for the meet were:

• Event Winners - Bowers, Stanton, Jack Dunbar, Ben El-Alam, Kate Johnson, Aliana McCann, Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro, Emery Wells, and Gabriel Zimmerman
• First AAA Time - Justin Bennett
• First AA Times - SteveMichael Bennett
• First BB Times - Henry Boltin, Reynolds Bowers, Nolan Clinansmith, Emily Hillensheim
• First B Times - Aeden Hills
• First Senior Sectional Cuts - Brandon Noble
• First State Cuts - SteveMichael Bennett, Henry Breiding, Grant McGee, Aaron Passman, and Benicio Zimmerman

Now we get a few fun practices and a little rest until after spring break when we start up the long course season April 10!

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GwinAq Boys Take Second at Swim Meet of Champions

3/12 - A select group of Gwinnett Aquatics senior swimmers competed at the Southeastern Swim Meet of Champions (SMOC) this weekend in Augusta.  After an exciting final session on the fourth day of the meet the boys managed a 2nd place finish. It was a rare chance for the distance guys to be the heroes, entering the final event, the 1000 free, in 3rd with just a few points separating 2nd-4th, the group was able to get three scoring swims including Collier Stanton's victory, to move to second. 

Collier was the 2nd event winner that day, perhaps inspired by teammate Kate Johnson's earlier win in the same event. They joined Baylor Stanton, who won 4 events and set a new team record in the 200 breast, as the team's only event winners.  Jack Dunbar, Lucas Johnson, and Hannah-Claire Jowers all finaled while Nate Beeney,Max and Jenna Inlow, Paige Johnson, and Sean Lin all also scored for Gwinnett Aquatics. Baylor also picked up two new team records, one short course (200 breast) and one long course (200 back). 

Additionally Collier got his first ever Futures cut, Tadd Duffield picked up his first ever AAA (All-Star) time and Tadd and Nate got their first Sectional cuts. Many of the swimmers wrapped up the exciting weekend with a Long Course time trial Sunday afternoon.  Check it all out using the link below.  (We haven't gotten the meet results yet but will update that link when we do). 

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

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Everyone Wins at Raffle Meet

3/4 - Gwinnett Aquatics and Spartan Aquatics hosted the 4th 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 about 200 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 two short sessions over 1000 chances generated and we gave out over 70 prizes through the weekend including backpacks, goggles, Squishmallows and Dancing Cacti.  At the end of the meet ASL swimmer Gabe Koch took home the grand prize, a $300 VISA gift card!

Next year it looks likely that the raffle meet will move to long course as Ga Swimming will add a new Peach State Champs meet (For state 10U and no-faster-than state 11-14 yr olds) in February that will likely take the place of this meet. 

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!  Thirty-six swimmers won events: Timi Ajigbolamu, Elisa Basic, Justin and SteveMichael Bennett, Abby Bold, Shaylah Bopp, Kate Breiding, Aubrey Chisolm, Tadd Duffield, Brianna Exil, CJ Gast, Kendall Granberry, Emily Hardy, Morgan Henry, Sarah Heppe, Cade Holder, Cameron Jones, Alex Matveev, Aliana McCann, Grant McGee, Brandon Noble, Aaron Passman, Riley Pynn, Nicolas Ramdeo, Lillie Robinson, Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro, Addi Shaffer, Jude Stanton, Jimmy Wang, Ella and Emery Wells, Elsie Wethington-Mercer, Cole Wright (Gold), Andy Zhu, and Benicio and Helena Zimmerman!

Additionally Ethan Tull picked up his first BB times and Rose Aguilar, Arthur Bombard, Emma Gonzalez, and KitKat Jacobsen 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 two weeks in Augusta!!

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Gwinnett Aquatics Eleventh at Age Group State

2/20 - Gwinnett Aquatics' 14 and Unders had a bittersweet outcome at the Georgia Age Group State Champs this weekend. By almost all measures we had a very successful meet with the athletes having a high percentage of best times and our relays going 100% (first time that's happened in my memory).  But because we had so many athletes swimming up in a new age group for the first time we had only enough scoring swims to finish 11th, our lowest finish in some years.   That's what pro teams call a great "rebuilding" year. 

Seriously though, the fast swims that we saw this weekend indicate a very bright future for our team at the next couple state meets. Collier Stanton was the exception to our youth movement, it being his last age group state champs.  And he made the most of it medaling in six events (2nd 4 times!) and picking up new senior sectional cuts.  Way to go old man.  While he was our only top ten finisher, Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro, Aliana McCann, Kate Breiding, Emily Hardy, Jude Stanton, Ella Wells, and Kendall Granberry all scored as well. 

In addition Hardy and Breiding picked up their first 13-14 AAA (All-Star) time while Cate Joyce and Lillie Robinson got their first AA times and McCann got her first as an11-12.  CJ Gast got her first A as an 11-12 and Alaeelah McMahon got her first BB. 

Next up is the raffle meet next weekend for swimmers who did not compete at state and for those who did to swim some other events. Then it's three weeks to our big end of season champs, Divisionals at UGA March 24-26! 

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GwinAq Seniors Lead Local High School Teams at State Champs

2/13 - Gwinnett Aquatics swimmers played an outsize role in this weekend's Georgia High School State Champs at Ga Tech. Eleven different GaGa swimmers scored for Brookwood whose girls won the meet and boys took third and Parkview whose boys and girls were 8th and 10th respectively. 

They were led by Baylor Stanton who won both his events and broke the state record in the 200 IM.  Hannah-Claire Jowers also made the podium, taking third in the 100 breast while Sarah Heppe, Kate Johnson and Collier Stanton also made A-Finals.  Other scorers were Nate Beeney, David Duong, Max Inlow, Lucas and Paige Johnson, and Sean Lin. 

Additionally Abby Bold picked up her first A time and Sr State cut of the season. 

Up next is the Age Group State Championship Meet this weekend at Ga Tech. 

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Spring Programs, Including Tune-Up, Now Open for Registration

2/12 - All spring programs including our small group lessons and the very popular Spring Tune-Up are now open for registration.   Both the group lessons and the Tune-Up generally fill quite early so interested participants are encouraged to register soon. 

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Over 170 State Cuts Fall at GA Winter Qualifier

2/4 - This weekend at the 13th Annual Winter Qualifier Meet at GAC swimmers added over 170 new state cuts (103 state cuts, 68 "B" cuts) over three days of racing.  The meet, co-hosted by GwinAq and SPAC saw some great racing from nearly 600 swimmers.  When the water finally settled the state meet in two weeks at GaTech had gotten considerably larger.  The meet featured ribbon awards for 12Us and special tattoos for all swimmers getting a new State cut. 

Two weeks after the state meet we'll be back at GAC for the very popular Raffle Spectacular March 2-3.  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 $300 gift card!

GwinAq Results

For Gwinnett Aquatics it was a fantastic meet with some great racing and 16 swimmers picking up over 30 new State or State B cuts. 15 swimmers won events, six swimmers got their first State or State B cuts and eleven swimmers picked up new USAS time standards.  They were:

• Event Winners: Reynolds Bower, Kate Breiding, Aubrey Chisholm, Jack Dunbar, Sarah Heppe, Jenna Inlow, Paige Johnson, Cameron Jones, Aliana McCann, Valarie Monroe, Eva Saldana, Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro, Jude Stanton, Ella Wells, and Cole Wright (Prep).
• First State Cuts: Gatlin Granberry, Eva Saldana, Cole Wright (Prep), and Jimmy Zhang
• First State B Cuts: Kaylin Lee, Morgan Sevier, and Andy Zhu
• New USAS Standards: Jimmy Wang, Ella Wells, Andy Zhu 1st A time; Saldana, Zhang, Benicio Zimmerman 1st BB; Lucas Babcock, Yusuf Besic, Ben El-Alam, Hailey Lord, Emma Seigler 1st B time. 

Up next will be the Age Group State Champs February 16-18 at GaTech followed by the Raffle Meet two weeks later.  (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 next weekend at Tech.

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Cold Temps, Hot Pool for GaGa High Schoolers

1/22 - While the rest of us were battling sub-zero wind chill our High School swimmers were setting the pool on fire at the Gwinnett County High School Champs. 

Baylor Stanton and Hannah-Claire Jowers combined for three wins. Max Inlow, Kate Johnson, and Collier Stanton combined for five more place swims and ten others qualified for A finals (that's 60% of our HS swimmers!)  Another nine qualified for B finals (85%, including our first Sr3 swimmer to make to 20).

Abby Bold picked up her first HS State Cuts.  Tad Duffield and Justice Parker for their first  Senior State Cuts and Henry Breiding, Lannon Clinanasmith and Cade Holder got their first A times of the season.   

Next up is our Winter Qualifier February 2-4 at GAC.  All swimmers should participate and all parents should volunteer. 

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GaGa Starts 2024 at Two Meets

1/16 - Gwinnett Aquatics got 2024 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 all over the country, including South Carolina, Ohio, New Mexico, and Arizona. Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro and Paige Johnson both won events while sixteen other swimmers had top 10 finishes: Nate Beeney, Kate Breiding, Eddie El Osta, Emily Hardy, Morgan Henry, Jenna Inlow, Lucas Johnson, Aliana McCann, Grant McGee, Aaron Passman, Riley Pynn, Jude Stanton, Vincent Tuck, Ella and Emery Wells, and Cole Wright (Gold). 

Paige picked up her first AA time while Kayden Clinansmith and Kendall Granberry got their first A times and Passman and McGee got their first BBs. In addition Lannon Clinansmith, Paige Johnson and Ella Wells got their first state cuts of the season!

Those results are even more impressive when you consider that seven of our top Senior swimmers were being hosted by SwimMAC in Charlotte for a winter long course meet.  At that meet five swimmers had scoring swims including two wins by Collier Stanton and two 4th place finishes by Jack Dunbar and Kate Johnson. Max Inlow and Hannah-Claire Jowers also scored.  (Baylor joined the long list of GaGa swimmers hit by the flu this winter).

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 830/9am. 

After that is our Winter Qualifier February 2-4 at GAC.  All swimmers should participate and all parents should volunteer. 

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