Gwinnett Aquatics Defends Title @ Lanier Winter Invite!

12/19 - Gwinnett Aquatics won the Lanier Winter Invite in Gainesville this weekend, defending its title from last year.   With our Senior group and most of Sr2 not participating it was our Sr3, Prep, Junior, Gold, Blue and Pre groups carrying most of the scoring. In fact our 8&Us scored more than ever before!

10 swimmers, Garrett Adams, Kate Breiding, Gatlin Granbery, Emily Hardy, Sarah Heppe, Jenna Inlow, Cate Joyce, Aliana McCann, Aaron Passman, and Collier Stanton led the team to our biggest point total yet extending our championship run to four in a row.  

In addition we had another 17 swimmers place top-3 in an event! Six swimmers picked up new time standards, four got some new state cuts and quite a few more got new JO cuts.

Additional top 3 finishers: Nik Beeney, Abby Bold, Reynolds Bowers, Aubrey Chisolm, Lannon Clinansmith, David Duong, CJ Gast, Kendall Granberry, Paige Johnson, Jaidyn Joiner,Cameron Jones, Sean Lin, Vivian Moulder, Riley Pynn, Sophia Quinn, Jude Stanton, and Elsie Wethington-Mercer.
Standard Breakers:AAA - Collier Stanton: AA - Hardy, Heppe, Joyce; A - Chisolm, Duong, Jones, Justin Bennett, BB - Nicholas Ramdeo; B - Anna Buckley, William Buckley, Nolan Clinansmith, Morgan Sevier.
New State Qualifiers: Wethington-Mercer, Lucy Bower

Now we have one of the most beneficial training times for swimmers all over the country, Christmas training!  All swimmers should look to increase their number of practices during this break from school.  Swimmers whose families are traveling should make arrangements to train where you are going. 

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Stanton Takes Bronze in 400 IM at Juniors

12/11 - Baylor Stanton made his first podium at Junior Nationals this weekend, taking third in the 400 IM in Greensboro, SC.  He scored in all four of his events at the meet including a 6th in 200 back, 10th in the 200 IM and a 15th in 100 back.   All four were new team records and qualifying time for the US Nationals Champs this June in Indianapolis.  That meet will be the selection meet for the US World Champs as well as some other international meets later that year. 

Jack Dunbar and Nolan Patterson also competed in multiple events and Russell Hart filled out our two medley relays at the meet.  It was our first time having three individuals and relays compete at Juniors. 

Up next is the Lanier Winter Invite that will wrap up this first half of the season next weekend, December 16-18. 

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Gwinnett Aquatics Seventh at Senior State Champs
   4 Team Records Fall. Patterson gets first ever Jr cut

12/5 - Gwinnett  Aquatics finished seventh at the Georgia Senior State Champs at Ga Tech this weekend, fourth in the boys.  While it was not as high as last year it was actually an even better performance since this year our Junior National swimmers only participated partially.  They head to that meet on Tuesday. 

Russell Hart and Baylor Stanton both won events while Jack Dunbar, Kate Johnson, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Sean Lin, Nolan Patterson, Cate Rovie, Brandon Shepard, Jeffrey Xu and Coach Natalie all scored. 

Hart, Stanton, and Patterson combined to break four team records and the teams of Stanton, Patterson, Hart, and Dunbar broke the 200 free and 200 medley relay records.  Patterson picked up his first ever Junior National cut and will now be heading to Greesnboro with the others this week. 

This weekend was also the 10U Winter Champs meet and we had 11 swimmers there.  Garrett Adams, Alex Matveev, Aaron Passman and Alianna McCann all had top-10 finishes.  In addition we had lots of new standard achievers at both meets.  They were:

AAAA: Hart (2), Patterson
AAA:  Jack Dunbar, Kate Johnson, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Jeffrey Xu
AA: Brighton Gunawan,Jaden Henry, Max Inlow
A: Alex Diaz Hernandez, Caitlyn Diehl, Aliana McCann
BB (10U Winter Champs):  Lucas Babcock, CJ Gast, Victoria Tanure
Junior National Qualifiers: Patterson
Futures Qualifiers: Dunbar, Hart, Jowers,
Sectional Qualifiers:  Adam Dockstader, Nik Beeney, Brighton Gunawan, Max Inlow, Hannah-Claire Jowers

Up next is Junior Nationals for our four Senior swimmers and then the Lanier Winter Invite that will wrap up this first half of the season on December 16-18. 

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Fast Swimming at Woodie B Invite

11/21 - We had a very exciting weekend at the Woodie B Malone Invite this weekend at Dynamo.  With over 100 athlete competing there was tons of fast swimming and lots of GaGa new time standards achievers and championship meet qualifiers. 

Baylor Stanton won seven events and posted a couple nation-leading times.  Jenna Inlow, Aliana McCann and Riley Pynn also won events. An additional 13 other athletes medaled (top 3).  They were: Garrett Adams, Kate Breiding, Jude El-Alam, Gatlin and Kendall Granbery, Russell Hart, Kate and Paige Johnson, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Alex Matveev, Nolan Patterson, and Collier Stanton.

We also had 18 swimmers achieve new standard breakers and numerous swimmers with their first Futures, Sectional and State cuts of the season. 

AAA:  Patterson
AA: Nik Beeney, Lindsey Diehl, Russell Hart, Kate Johnson, Jowers, Sean LIn, Cate Rovie, Brandon Shepard
A: Adam Dockstader, Jenna Inlow, Paige Johnson, Jonathan Malonza
BB:  Justin Bennett, Lucy Bower, Lannon Clinnansmith, Justice Parker, Keziah Ponder
Futures Qualifiers: Patterson
Sectional Qualifiers:  Shepard, Jeffrey Xu
State Qualifiers: El-Alam, Cole Wright (1st ever!)

Up next is the Senior State Champs and 10U Winter Champs in two weeks at Ga Tech followed by the Lanier Winter Invite that will wrap up this first half of the season on December 16-18. 

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Swim-A-Thon In the Books

11/14 - All the groups have now finished their swims for the 2022 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 Gold this year, dropping 24 seconds per 100 over last year's swims and 8 seconds/100 better than any other Gold group ever! Blue team was 2nd and Junior Team 3rd dropping 20 and 13 seconds respectively. 

Currently we have raised nearly $15,000 toward our goal of $25,000*.  But only about 50% of the team has participated.  (Senior Team leads fundraising, Prep lead participation).  Usually we get a good bump on Giving Tuesday which is November 29 this year. If you want to pledge then you can use Hugh's Facebook Donation Page or even make on of your own!  All money will be due December 1 so we hope the remaining families will join in by then. 

*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

10/30 - 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 and Lifetime 3rd.  The meet featured the longer distances in fly and breast as well as a 1000 free/400 IM session on Friday night as well as the first relays of the year - mixed freestyle relays!

At the conclusion of the meet the series high point winners were announced.  There were:

• 8U Alexandra Budihardjo, Dzuy Nguyen
• 9-10 Aliana McCann, Garrett Adams
• 11-12 Mary Sloan Brown, Ryan Qi
• 13-14 Abigail Sutter, Collier Stanton
• 15-18 Abigail Heizer, Baylor Stanton 

For Gwinnett Aquatics Garrett Adams, Sarah Heppe, Jenna Inlow, Kate Johnson, Aliana McCann, and Baylor and Collier Stanton all won events.  Baylor picked up his first AAAA time while Kate Breiding, Jack Dunbar and Landon Plumlee all got their first AA's.  Heppe, Lindsey Diehl, Brighton Gunawan, Max Inlow, and Reagan Miller earned their first A times and Nathaniel Beeney, Henry Breiding, Jude El-Alam, and Jacob Matthew got their first BB times.  Jack Drennan got his first B time. 

Gunawan, Johnson, Plumlee and Jenna Inlow had their first state qualifying swims of the season while Dunbar and Russell Hart got their first Sectional times. 

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

10/11 - 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.  Events this time included the longer free, back and IM events as well as the 500 (140 swimmers participated in that event Friday night!) 

With just one meet left to go in the series current high point leaders are: Ava Zielinski (SPAC), Ethan Van Maanen (SPAC), Aliana McCann (GA), Garrett Adams (GA), Mary Sloan Brown (SPAC), Ryan Qi (SPAC), Abigail Sutter (SPAC), Collier Stanton (GA), Abigail Heizer (SPAC), and William Gavin (LIFE).

Only a couple of those races are runaways so the action should be exciting at the third and final meet in two weeks, October 28-29 at GAC.  That meet will feature the longer fly and breast races as well as 11 and over 400 IMs and 1000s! 

Gwinnett Aquatics was led by Collier Stanton who won all four of his events.  Kendall and Gatlin Granbery, Emma Gonzalez Alex Matveev and Aliana McCann also won events.   Collier also picked up his first AA of the season.  Kate Johnson, Cate Joyce, Sean LIn, and Landon Plumlee got their first A times while Matveev, Owen Breiding, Jaidyn Joiner, and Aaron Passman got their first BB times. 

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Spartan Wins Pentathlon, Next Up Fall Series 2 October 14-15

10/1 - SPAC won the first meet of the Fall Series today at their pool at GAC with a commanding lead (888 pts) over LIFE (483) and GA (445) respectively. The meet tracked times in one race of each stroke and an IM for a cumulative time. 

Based on cumulative time for all five events (4 for 8U's) the T-Shirt winners for best times in each age group were:
8U: Ava Zielinski and Henry Peake | 9 yr olds: Aliana McCann and Mackay Bishop
10 yr olds: Grace Lee and Jude Stanton | 11 yr olds: Mary Sloan Brown and Zachary Budihardjo
12 yr olds: Cate Joyce and Ryan Qi | 13 yr olds: Abigail Sutter and Jason Park
14 yr olds: Lucca Ray and Micah Kim | 15O: Abigail Heizer and 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 we were able to win one age group (9-10) and had some fantastic individual efforts to keep us pretty competitive even without as many swimmers.  71 swimmers achieved their first time standards of the season, and 15 their first state cuts, including some for the first time. Lillie Robinson got both her first BB time while Qadira Crumblin, CJ Gast, Morgan Henry, Josh McLemore, Blake Pickeral, and Gavin Zhang all got their first B times! 

The next meet in October 14-15, back at Freeman Aquatic Center at the Greater Atlanta Christian School, with some new longer events.

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Gwinnett Aquatics Shines in Post Season
 Stanton scores at Juniors, moves to #2 all-time in 200 IM

8/2 - While most of the team wrapped up their season a week or more ago, eight Gwinnett Aquatics swimmers still had their most important meets of the season this weekend at the Futures Champs in Cary NC and all this week at Junior Nationals in Irvine, CA. 

At Futures Jack Dunbar, Russell Hart, and Andy Zhu all got second swims with Dunbar and the 400 medley relay (Dunbar, Hart, Zhu, and Nolan Patterson) scoring.  The relay even brought home a medal (8th)!  Dunbar, Hart and the relay also broke team records and Dunbar picked up his first ever Junior National qualifying time!

Now this week Dunbar and Baylor Stanton and Dylan Yin were at Junior Nationals in Irvine CA taking on the fastest 18 and Unders in the country.  Stanton had two evening swims, including a 13th place finish in the 200 IM.  He broke the state record and moved into the top ten all time nationally in all four of his events (100 & 200 Back and 200 & 400 IM). He is now 2nd all time in the 200 IM, behind only Michael Andrew (but ahead of Michael Phelps!). Yin picked up two team records in the 50 free and 100 fly, which he broke twice.  

And don't forget pre-season 2022-23 starts next Monday, August 8! 

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Partial Squad 11th @ Senior State Champs
   Stanton, Hart, Simmon, Wenham break 5 team records

7/25 - Gwinnett Aquatics had a great showing with a reduced squad at the Senior State Champs at UGA this weekend. With eight swimmers still preparing for other upcoming championship meets we still managed a top 12 finish and numerous team records and new standards and meet cuts. 

Jack Dunbar, Sarah Jahns, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Brandon Shepard, Baylor Stanton, and Abby Wenham all had Top-8 swims while Russell Hart, Graham Simmon, and Dylan Yin also scored. 

Stanton took down another state record and a couple team records. Wenham, Hart, and Simmon also broke team records.  The Senior boys relays also broke three records comprised variously of Stanton, Yin, Dunbar, Nolan Patterson and Andy Zhu. 

Dunbar picked up his first AAAA.  Yin got his first Junior cut this season, Wenham, Jahns, and Simmon their first Futures cuts and Max Inlow and Jeffrey Xu their first sectional cuts. 

Up next six Senior swimmers go to the Futures Champs in Cary starting Wednesday and two more to Junior Nationals starting next Monday in L.A.

And don't forget pre-season 2022-23 starts in just 2 weeks on August 8! 

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Gwinnett Aquatics Wins Division III @ Age Group State
   Stanton adds two more state records

7/18 - Gwinnett Aquatics successfully defended its Division III state title at the 14U State Champs this weekend at Ga Tech.  We had eight different swimmers score and finished 8th overall.  We had our largest group ever attend state from the Gold group.

Even though he was swimming a reduces schedule as he prepares for Junior Nationals at the end of the month, Baylor Stanton led the way winning five events, setting team records in six and breaking two more state records.  Jonathan Malonza, Jude Stanton, and Sarah Heppe also had some top 10 swims while Kate Breiding, Emily Hardy, Collier Stanton, and Alex Matveev all scored (top 20).  In addition the 13-14 quartet of Baylor and Collier Stanton, Malonza and Jimmy Wang broke two team 13-14 boys relay records. 

And between the state and JO meet there were some impressive time standards achievements with swimmers picking up numerous USAS standards and over 15 new state cuts.  Breiding and Hardy picked up their first AA times and Cameron Jones also picked up his first state cuts. 

Up next many of the Senior swimmers go to their State Champs in Athens next weekend and then we will have swimmers competing at Futures in Cary and Juniors in L.A.

And pre-season 2022-23 starts August 8. 

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Registration for Swim Team 22-23 Now Open
   Two groups already full. Schedule your evaluation now!

8/15 - Registration for all 2022-23 Gwinnett Aquatics programs are now open. Most groups now have a waiting list but we do hope to be able to move a few off the list and into programs in September so if you are still interested get signed up right away. 

All new swimmers must complete an evaluation before registering.  Evaluations are for swimmers who can already swim 25 meters free and back.  9 and older swimmers should already know breast and fly and older swimmers should be proficient in all four strokes.  If are looking to learn those things check out our lessons program on the lessons page. Sign up for an evaluations here: https://forms.gle/C1m1PSvf9mBcSR1y8. 

You can get complete info about our team training groups using the links below.  Once you are placed, registration for the team is $70 (pre-team is $50) but there will now be a second USA registration required that will be $67. 

Registration is also open for the 13&Over training clinic as well as the Homeschool Program and the Middle School clinic (5th-8th).  More info is on the clinics page.

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First Wave of GaGa Swimmers Kick Off Championship Season @ Coda Meet

7/11 - 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 pick up a few more cuts for the State Champs coming up the next two weekends.

Overall GaGa swimmers achieved over 30 new time standards and 23 new state cuts, including 10 swimmers earning their first cuts of the season! 26 swimmers medaled (top 3) and eleven won events.  They were: Justin Bennett, Lauren Diehl, Kendall Granberry, Jaden Henry, Paige Johnson, Jonathan Malonza, Landon Plumlee, Cate Rovie, Addi Shaffer, McKenna Thacker, and Cole Wright.

Jaden Henry and Lucas Johnson picked up their first AA times of the season while Vivian Moulder and Brandon Noble got their first BBs and Lucas Babcock and Victoria Tanure got their first ever B times.  Henry, Moulder, Thacker, Wright, Nik Beeney, Henry Breiding, James Chang, Alex Diaz Hernandez, Caitlyn Diehl, and Jaidyn Joiner all got their first state cuts! Henry and Beeney also picked up their first ever Senior Sectional cuts. 

Meanwhile many of our swimmers participated in the Gwinnett County Summer League Champs with Hannah Claire Jowers, Jonathan Malonza, Baylor Stanton, and Jude Stanton all winning events. We also had GaGa affiliated people serving as head coaches at eight of the 30ish teams! 

Now all that remains are the State, Regional and National Championship meets in the next couple 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 this week and next for the age groupers. 

And pre-season 2022-23 starts August 8. 

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Senior Swimmers Have Final Tune-Up at Bulldog Invite

7/5 - As the younger swimmers were busy this weekend getting ready for their upcoming championship meets, our senior group, who has a little longer before theirs, were getting one final tune-up at the Bulldog Invite at UGA this weekend. 

The meet included some fast collegiate swimmers from the southeast (UGA, GaTech, UF, UA, UT) as well as top club swimmers from Georgia. 

For most it was a chance to get some extra races in while maintaining their training.  Nonetheless most swimmers were able to pick up a few best times and Hannah-Claire Jowers and our own Coach Natalie even made an A final.  

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Second Half of Team Competes at Gold Summer Invite

6/27 - In a replay of the meet two weeks ago, Gwinnett Aquatics again had a meet for the swimmers who weren't competing in Florida the previous weekend. 

Unlike two weeks ago it (and like their counter parts in Florida), out swimmers took full advantage of the opportunity.  Numerous swimmers earned finals swims and even more achieved new cuts and standards. 

Nik Beeney earned his first AA time of the season while Justin Bennett, Alex Diaz Hernandez and Keziah Ponder got their first A times.  Kendall Granberry, Cameron Jones and Elise Wethington-Mercer all got their first BB times this summer and Violet Pincombe made her first B.  Additionally Granberry got her first ever state cut, Gold group's 12th state qualifier! 

Next up are the Championship meets starting with CODA in two weeks and then the two state champs the weekends after.  (A small group of Senior swimmers is going for one last tune-up this weekend).  Let's finish strong!

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On the Road Again!

6/22 - Gwinnett Aquatics was on the road this weekend with nearly 40 swimmers traveling to the Sarasota Shark Open in Florida. As has been the case most years, GaGa swimmers took to the Shark tank and made their presence knows with numerous wins and top 3 finishes as well numerous new time standard achievers and state and sectional meet qualifiers.

Baylor Stanton won the high point award while breaking numerous team and Georgia State Records while also posting some nationally top ranked swims. Jonathan Malonza also won an event and medaled in others while Jack Dunbar, Nolan Patterson and Andy Zhu all had top-3 swims as well. 

Hannah-Claire Jowers, Collier Stanton and Tyler Wooldridge all picked up their first AAA (All-Star) times of the season. Jowers also got their first Sectional cuts. David Duong, Sarah Heppe, Kate Johnson, Sean Lin and Cate Rovie all earned their first AA's this season while Henry Breiding, Caitlyn Diehl and Paige Johnson all got their first A times. Duong, Johnson and Rovie, as well as Lucas Johnson also got their first State cuts. 

Next up is the Gold Invite this weekend where the younger swimmers, as well as those older swimmers that didn't go to Florida will get their last big meet before the championship meets start. 

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Second Half of Team Competes at Summer Invite

6/13 - Gwinnett Aquatics was back at it this weekend, with a meet at Dynamo for the swimmers who weren't competing last weekend. 

Like last weekend it was a mixed bag with some senior swimmer in the middle of peak training racing well below their top times while some age group swimmers were very fast.  Starting with Jonathan Malonza who won some events and got his first ever AAA time and including Jude Stanton who got his first AA time!  In addition Jude El-Alam got his first BB and Vincent Tuck his first B time while Jacob Matthew got his first ever state cut.  .

Next up we will again be splitting up for two different meets with over 30 swimmers headed to Sarasota FL for the SYS Invite this Thursday and the rest of the team going to Cumming for the GOLD Invite in two weeks. 

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Team Splits for Open Water, Dunbar Invite

6/06 - Gwinnett Aquatics had two different squads in competition this weekend. Saturday over twenty swimmers competed at the Death Valley Open Water (DVOW) swim in Clemson while most of the rest of the team competed at the Betsy Dunbar Invite at Georgia Tech.  On Sunday many of the open water swimmers joined their teammates at Tech! 

At the Open Water meet swimmer competed in the 5k, 3k and 1k   and .5k distances with twelve swimmers doing all four races for a total of 9.5k yards of swimming!  In the 5k race Thomas Wooldridge finished 7th in the 15-18 boys, Baylor and Collier Stanton went 1-2 in the 13-14 boys and Cate Rovie was 4th in the 13-14 girls.  In the 3k Rovie and Stanton won the 13-14s, Kate Johnson was 2nd and Sean Lin 5th in 15-18.  Rovie and Stanton also won the 1k an .5k races.  Complete results are linked below. However they are a little difficult to read since the South Carolina swimmers and non-South Carolina swimmers' results are separate. 

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.  It was a very good meet for or younger swimmers with three more 10U swimmers, Garrett Adams, Jude El-Alam and Aaron Passman,  getting their first new state cuts!  Additionally Adams, Passman and Justice Parker all got their first BB times and Nicholas Ramdeo got his first B time.

 

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Big Early Season Swims at Two Meets This Weekend

   Stanton picks up two state records, Junior cuts.

5/16 - At just the second weekend of meets this season GaGa swimmers posted some late season times at the Atlanta Classic at Ga Tech and the Spring Splash at Dynamo. Seventeen swimmers picked up new time standards and out list of state qualifiers swelled to over 30 with two months still left in the season. 

At the Atlanta Classic 15 of our Senior swimmers went up against some of the areas best swimmers from clubs and colleges.  Baylor Stanton finaled in all six of his swims, picking up two new Georgia State records and two new Junior National qualifying times.  Meanwhile Nolan Patterson picked up his first AAAA and Brandon Shepard, Graham Simmon, Thomas Wooldridge, and Andy Zhu all got their first AAAs. Hanna Burke, Russell Hart, and Max Inlow earned their first AAs and Adam Dockstader got his first A time. Patterson also picked up a Futures cut and Shepard and Simmon their first Sectional cuts of the season.

At Dynamo Abby Bold, Emily Hardy, Kate Johnson, and Jude Stanton swam to their first A times while Ian Chen, Jacob Matthew, Isabella Powell, Sophie Quinn, and Brandon Saye got their first B times.  Hardy, Stanton, Aliana McCann and Jimmy Zhang got their first state cuts (first ever for McCann and Zhang!).

Up next will be another two meet weekend on June 3-4 as some swimmers will go to the Death Valley Open Water swim and others to the Betsy Dunbar Invite. 

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Swimmers Get the Season Started at Long Course Kickoff  

5/2 - The 2022 Long Course season got off to a fast start this weekend at the GA Long Course Kickoff hosted by Gwinnett Aquatics at Georgia Tech.  Over 450 swimmers got their first licks in on the long course pool.   

Gwinnett Aquatics had a great start with eight swimmers winning events and many swimmers already picking up state qualifying times.  Event winners were Jack Dunbar, Sarah Heppe, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Jonathan Malonza, Grant McGee, Landon Plumlee, Baylor Stanton and McKenna Thacker.  17 swimmers picked up state cuts including first timers Addie Shaffer and Andy Zhu (jr team). 

With it being the first long course meet since last July for most swimmers there were a ton of best times (25 swimmers had 100% best times!).  In fact the coaches had a little side bet gong on which swimmer dropped the most per 100 with the win going to Justin Bennett 52-second drop in 100 breast (from 3 years ago).  Hannah Reeves was tops for swimmers who swam last year with a 36-second drop, also in breast. 

Additionally Reeves and Peter Buckley picked up their first B times while Aliana McCann picked up her first ever BB time.

Up next is the Spring Splash May 13-15 at Dynamo. Replies are closed so if you missed it be sure to email your coach. 

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Gwinnett Aquatics Second at Divisionals

   For just the third time since 2009.

3/28 - Gwinnett Aquatics finished 2nd at this weekend's Divisional Champs at UGA posting on of our highest scores in years.  It was just our third 2nd place finish in the last 13 years.  We were led by 8 yr old Morgan Henry with her eight event wins and Baylor Stanton with his seven, including four new state records.  He now has 13 of the 15 state records for 13-14 boys.  In addition 11 other swimmers combined to win an additional 14 events for a total of 29: Hanna Burke, Jack Dunbar, Sarah Heppe, Edie-Cate Jowers, Cate Joyce, Alex Matveev, Reagan Miller, Harrison Riggle, Cate Rovie (2), Jude Stanton (3) and Thomas Wooldridge. Overall a whopping 78 swimmers scored, 57 in the top 8! Baylor Stanton broke seven team records and picked up 2 new Junior National cuts and Russell Hart broke the Senior boys 100 breaststroke record. 

The team also, once again, showed great team spirit. and voluntarism. Thanx to all the parents who helped organize the posters, 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:

• First AA Times - SteveMichael Bennett, Henry Breiding, Kayden Clinansmith, Sarah Heppe, Lucas Johnson and McKenna Thacker
• First A Times - Justin Bennett, Paige Johnson and Cate Joyce
• First BB Times - Jack Drennan and Cole Wright
• First B Times - James Chang, Jacob Matthew and Victoria Tannure
• First State Cuts - Breiding, Clinansmith, Joyce, Elisa Basic, Justin Bennett, SteveMichael Bennett, Conde Britton and Morgan Sevier

In addition all those new best times moved us up inthe VCC ranking to 8th in GA Swimming and moved a number of swimmers up in the National IMX rankings, including Baylor Stanton to #1

Now we get a few fun practices and a little rest until after spring break when we start up the long course season April 11!

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Brick Campaign Phase 2 Resumes January 1

12/6 -  Gwinnett Aquatics is happy to announce Phase 2 of our Donor Brick Campaign!  We love our new clubhouse, but now that it's done we are hoping to replenish our Capital Campaign Fund by letting our members and alums purchase a brick to go on the wall in our reception/meeting room. Proceeds from the Donor wall will help fund the third and final phase of our capital campaign - the renovation of our 25m training pool to an eight-lane 25y, deeper training pool.

If you haven’t had a chance to see the new building take the video tour here. It includes a new reception/meeting room, weight room, coaches’ office and bathrooms! Now help us with the finishing touch: a brick Donor wall in the meeting room (see left).

For $300 you can purchase a stock 4x8 brick with 3 lines of your own text or add a stock graphic.  For a little more you can add your own custom graphic or artwork. 

Or for $1500 you can get a special 8x8 brick that includes a mini replica for you to keep and A LIFETIME FREEZE ON DUES.* 

Either way, your support for Gwinnett Aquatics will be there through the years for all to see. To purchase one email hugh at hugh@gwinnettaquatics.com

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GwinAq 10th at Senior Sectional Champs
   Stanton Breaks Five More State Records, Nears National Record!

3/14 - Gwinnett Aquatics senior swimmers had their biggest meet of the season last weekend at the Senior Sectional Champs in Cary NC.  It was one of the fastest winter sectionals ever, featuring Olympians, National record holders and numerous national qualifiers.  Nonetheless the team had a great showing placing tenth overall and fourth in the men's category. 

They were led by Baylor Stanton, competing against much older swimmers, yet scoring all six of his swims, picking up a new Junior National cut and 5 more state records along the way.  He even got within one second of a National Record in the 400 IM!  He also got to race world record holder Coleman Stewart in the finals of the 100 back! 

Thomas Wooldridge was our only other individual scorer, taking 13th in the mile and picking up his first Futures cut.  He joined Stanton, his brother Tyler, Jack Dunbar, Russell Hart and Andy Zhu to score in all three relays and set a new team record in both the 800 free and 400 medley relays.   The 800 free girls relay of Hanna Burke, Lindsey Diehl, Hannah-Claire Jowers and Sofie Rees also scored. 

In addition Dunbar, Hart and Zhu also all earned second swims which was very difficult in this meet. 

Next up is the Divisional Champs next weekend at UGA for ALL swimmers!

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Everyone Wins at Raffle Meet

3/7 - Gwinnett Aquatics and Spartan Aquatics hosted the 2nd Annual Raffle Meet this weekend at GAC.  Even though there were fewer swimmers than last year they generated a ton of great swims.  Swimmers earned a raffle chance for every best time, heat winner, and new time standard achieved and there were over 1200 chances generated! 

We gave out over 50 prizes through the weekend and then ASL swimmer Emma Frey who took home a $400 VISA gift card!

For Gwinnett Aquatics Elisa Basic, Kate Breiding, Kayden Clinansmith, Caitlyn Diehl, Jude El-Alam, Andrew Guo, Emily Hardy, Sarah Heppe, Kate and Lucas Johnson, Jonathan Malonza, Alex Matveev, Grant McGee, Reagan Miller, Brandon Noble, Nolan Patterson, Landon Plumlee, Cate Rovie, McKenna Thacker, Cole Wright and Jeffrey Xu all won events! Additionally Keziah Ponder and Morgan Sevier earned their first BB times of the year and Nolan Clinansmith and Jimmy Zhang got their first B times. 

Next up is the Senior Sectional Champs this weekend in Raleigh, NC for our top Senior swimmers and then the Divisional Champs for ALL swimmers in two weeks at UGA!

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GwinAq Seniors Lead Local High School Teams at State Champs

2/7 - Gwinnett Aquatics swimmers played an outsize role in this weekend's Georgia High School State Champs at Ga Tech. Led by five scoring GaGa swimmers Parkview claimed the boys championship (their first in nine years) while Brookwood girls rallied for a fourth-place finish with the help of four scoring GaGa swimmers. 

Overall we had fourteen swimmers score (top 20). Jack Dunbar led the way as the team's only swimmer to podium, taking 3rd in the 100 back.  He combined with Hanna Burke, Russell Hart, Sofie Rees, Thomas and Tyler Wooldridge and Andy Zhu to record eleven top-10 finishes.  Also scoring were Lindsey Diehl, Adam Dockstader, Max Inlow, Kate Johnson, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Brandon Shepard, and Graham Simmon. 

Additionally Adam Dockstader picked up his first AA time while Nik Beeney got his first Sr State cut. 

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Gwinnett Aquatics 11th at 14U State, Wins Medium Team Division
   Stanton Breaks Five State Records!

2/28 - GaGa finished 11th at this weekend's 14 and Under State Champs at Georgia Tech.  Even though this is a little lower than some of our best finishes in the last five years, it was a HUGE accomplishment for this squad, who won the medium team championship.  At the beginning of this season only five swimmers had state cuts and our relays weren't likely to score. Now we have 15 swimmers with cuts and nearly all our relays scored!

Leading the way was Baylor Stanton who broke the team record in all eight of his events and BROKE THE STATE RECORD IN FIVE!  And he did this all after a hard training camp in Florida last weekend and skipping his best 4 events (he's getting those ready for Senior Sectional Champs in two weeks).  Also scoring individually: Edie-Cate Jowers, Jonathan Malonza (2x), Reagan Miller, Cate Rovie (2x) and Jude Stanton (4x; who also managed a top-ten finish moving up 7 places for ninth in the 50 fly).

Rovie also picked up her first ever AAA (All-Star) time, Malonza his first AA and Jude Stanton his first ever A time.  Meanwhile Jenna Inlow picked up her first state cuts and Kate Brieding her first state cut and A time as an 11-12. 

Up next is the Raffle meet for almost everyone this weekend and then it's on to the Divisional Champs in Athens Mar 25-27!

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Wow!  GaGa Swimmers Post Stellar Times at Qualifier

2/14 - Of course I'm partial but our Gwinnett Aquatics swimmers had one of their best meets in a couple years this past weekend at the Qualifier meet.   We won a ton of races and our older swimmers had a great tune-up for their upcoming meets.  Our 14 and under swimmers were over 80% best times with so many new standards (over 100, 4 pages worth) that we can't even list them all!

What we can tell you is that seven swimmers got their first state cuts, seven swimmers got their first Junior Olympic qualifying times and 18 swimmers moved up to the next level of USAS time standards.  Here they are:

New State Cuts: Abby Bold, Lannon Clinansmith, Emily Hardy, Sarah Heppe, Edie Cate Jowers, Harrison Riggle and Collier Stanton. 
New JO Cuts: Justin Bennett, Jack Drennan, Jenna Inlow, Vivian Moulder, Addie Shaffer, Jimmy Wang and Elsie Wethington-Mercer
A Times:  Kayden and Lannon Clinansmith, Sarah Heppe, Addie Shaffer
BB Times: Elisa Basic, Justin Bennett, Owen Breiding, Blake McCluggage, Jimmy Wang
B Times: Garrett Adams, Lucy Bower, Jack Drennan, Kendall Granbery, Morgan Henry, Justice Parker, Aaron Passman, Isabella Powell and Nicholas Ramdeo. 

Up next is the 14 and Under State Champs and Junior Olympics for 33 of our swimmers Feb 25-27 and then the Raffle meet for almost everyone the next weekend.  Check our our state team using the link below. 

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First Ever Relay Invite

1/31 - After years of intersqaud relay meets Gwinnett Aquatics finally got to race some other teams with SPAC and LIFE joining in this year for the first of its kind relay meet.  And although we don't really keep track of times (it is an unsanctioned events) a quick look at the splits our swimmers had shows why we thing this is such a great event.

Again, these are not sanctioned times and relay splits are usually pretty quick (especially with a good relay start) but the splits below are really fast.  All the ones in green were a drip of at least one second!  Many of the others were best times. 

Now let's see if we can match these times at the upcoming Qualifier a week from Friday!

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Eastern Classic Kicks Off 2022

1/17 - Gwinnett Aquatics got 2022 off to a fast start with some great swimming at the Eastern Classic Invite at Dynamo this weekend.  We had more finalists, medalists (top 3) and event winners than ever before.  And we got to play in the snow!

Baylor Stanton led the way with 9 wins and 4 new team records.  He now holds every record in the 13-14 age group.  He also picked up his fifth state record, this one in the 1650 freestyle.  Sarah Heppe, Collier Stanton, Reagan Miller, Brandon Shepard and Cate Rovie also won events and other medalists were Abby Bold, Jack Dunbar, Russell Hart, Jenna and Max Inlow, Jude Stanton, McKenna Thacker and Andy Zhu (Sr). 

In addition Collier Stanton and Brandon Shepard picked up their first AAA times (Collier's first ever!) and Nik Beeney and Jonathan Malonza got their first A times. Malonza and Cate Rovie both got their first state cuts as well.   

Meanwhile at our own pool we had our first ever Winter Inter (squad) meet on Saturday.  Nearly 30 swimmers competed in short fun session.  At that meet Edie-Cate Jowers got her first BB time and Jude El-Alam and Vivian Moulder got their first B times. 

Next up we have the RELAY MEET in two weeks followed by our own Winter Qualifier two weeks after that.   Those are one of our most fun meets and one of our top performance meets of the year.  All swimmers except Sr1 should attend both these meets. 

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