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Gwinnett Aquatics Wins Lanier Winter Invite!
12/13/21 - Gwinnett Aquatics won the Lanier Winter Invite in Gainesville this weekend, defending its title from 2019, the last year we attended (Covid!). With our Senior team not participating it was our Sr2 and 3, Prep, Junior, Gold and Blue groups carrying most of the scoring.
Led by event winners Caitlyn Diehl, Eddie El Osta, Emily Hardy, Kate Johnson, Sean Lin, Jacob Matthew, Reagan Miller, Ella Moulder, Collier Stanton and Elsie Wethington-Mercer the team was able to post one of our biggest point totals in over 10 years of going to this meet.
In addition we had another 21 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: Abby Bold, Peter Buckley, Jack Drennan, Laney Eriksson, Gatlin Granbery, Sarah Heppe, Jenna Inlow, Lucas and Paige Johnson, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Cate Joyce, Emily Krall, Jonathan Malonza, Alex Matveev, Grant McGee, Brandon Noble, Cate Rovie, Eva Saldena, Jude Stanton, Jimmy Wang and Zoe Wilson.- Standard Breakers:AA - Diehl, Johnson, Miller; A - Conde Britton, BB - McGee, Andy Zhu (Jr Team)
Meanwhile at Junior Nationals in Greesboro NC Baylor Stanton competed in four events and qualified for finals in 200 back where he broke the Georgia state record and got his first ever Summer Junior Nationals cut!
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.
Gwinnett Aquatics Fifth at Senior State Champs
2 State and 12 Team Records Fall
12/6/21 - Gwinnett Aquatics had its highest finish ever at the Georgia Senior State Champs at Ga Tech this weekend, finishing fifth overall and second in the boys. Baylor Stanton won the Outstanding Swimmer of the meet en route to two new state records and two new Junior National cuts. Russell Hart also broke a team record in the 200 Breast and the teams of Stanton, Nolan Patterson, Thomas Wooldridge and Jack Dunbar and Lindsey Diehl, Hanna Burke, Hannah-Claire Jowers and Sofie Rees broke the 800 free and 200 medley relays records respectively.
Stanton broke the Georgia Swimming State records in the 200 free and 400 IM as well as the 13-14 team records in all of his events and the Open team records in the 100 and 200 back. In addition Patterson picked up his first AAAA, Burke her first AAA and Futures cut, and Max Inlow and Jeffrey Xu their first AA. Dunbar, Hart and Andy Zhu also got their first Futures cuts this season ad Inlow, Jowers, Xu and Adam Dockstader their first Sectional cuts.
Next weekend the younger swimmers get their chance at the Lanier Invite in Gainesville Friday-Sunday. This will be a prelim/final meet for 13 and over and timed finals for 12U.
Fast Swimming, State Records, National Cuts, Oh My!
11/22 - 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 set a new STATE RECORD in the 200 free and picked up his first ever Junior National qualifying time in the 200 back all while breaking nine club records. Hannah-Claire Jowers added a club record in the 100 IM.
Jowers, Stanton, Hanna Burke, Emily Hardy, Cate Rovie,Collier Stanton and Thomas Wooldridge combined to win 21 events while Jack Dunbar, Russel Hart, Jenna Inlow, Paige Johnson, Alex Matveev, Grant McGee, Reagan Miller, Nolan Patterson, Brandon Shepard, Jude Stanton and Elsie Wethington-Mercer all medaled. In addition we had A LOT of new standard breakers:
AAA: Dunbar, Hart, Wooldridge
AA: Hardy (1st ever!), Lindsey Diehl,Sean Lin, Landon Plumlee (1st ever!), Graham Simmon
A: Abby Bold (1st ever!), Henry Breiding, Caitlyn Diehl, McKenna Thacker
B: Aliana McCann (1st ever!), Cole Wright (1st ever!)
Sectional Qualifiers: Hart, Simmon, Wooldridge, Shepard, Sofie Rees
State Qualifiers: Matveev (1st ever!), Miller, Plumlee (1st ever!), Rovie, Shepard, Wooldridge, Lindsey Diehl, David Duong, Kate Johnson, Brandon Noble (1st ever!).
Swim-a-Thon Wraps Up With Fast Swimming, Highest Funds Ever Raised!
The swimming portion of the Swim-a-Thon is now wrapped up, with a number of highlights: Baylor Stanton broke the all-time record for the 2400 for time! We've only had two swimmers break 28 minutes on that prior to this year, and we doubled that number, with Stanton and Thomas Wooldridge both dipping under that mark! There were lots of improvements when comparing times from this and last year, and the group that dropped the most time on average was Gold, with swimmers going more than 16sec faster per 100!!! Jr Team was not too far from that (13sec/100), and Blue and Prep were just about even in 3rd place. Meanwhile, Pre-Team swimmers did 25 laps in their swim-a-thon, quite a bit for them! You can check out complete results in the link below.
As a fundraiser it was our best year ever taking in a whopping $28,000. In the team race to see which group raises the most, Sr2 tok the tilte with some big late additions, including the fundrasing champ Reagan Miller and averging over $600 per swimmer! Senior1 and Jr Team were 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Individually, we had 54 swimmers raise our goal of $150 or more, 18 of which at or above the $250.00 mark! Our $300+ had an elite 15 fundraisers!
Select Group Takes on Long Course Competition in Augusta
11/15 - A select group of athletes competed in a Senior long course meet in Augusta this weekend. It was a great way to keep their long course chops sharp while getting to race some fast senior swimmers. Baylor Stanton, Nolan Patterson and Andy Zhu all won events while Hanna Burke and Hannah-Claire Jowers finaled. Stanton also broke three team records and he and Patterson picked up their first Futures cuts of the season. Burke and Jack Dunbar got their first Sectional cuts this year and Jowers and Zhu got their first AAA's. Max Inlow earned his first state cuts of the season.
Our next meet will be the Woodie B Invite this weekend November 19-21. It will be a prelim/finals meet for 11 and Overs!
SPAC Takes Fall Series Meet #3 to Win Series
11/1 - Spartan Aquatics won the third meet of the Fall Series this weekend and also the crown for the 2021 Fall Series. Gwinnett Aquatics was second this weekend and Lifetime Aquatics was 3rd. For the series, Lifetime took second with GwinAq in third.
Individual high point winners for the series were: Hari Jang, Alex Van Maanen, Savannah Carter, Noah Cruceanu, Abigail Sutter, Jason Park, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Baylor Stanton, Hanna Burke, and Kamal Muhammad.
The next SPAC/GA collaboration will be a RELAY MEET January 29 at GAC! Near as we can tell no one has offered a relay meet in the last 20 years and we are really excited for this unique opportunity to race.
For Gwinnett Aquatics, Baylor Stanton took down another team record (1000 free) while Cate Rovie picked up her first AA time of the season. Meanwhile Alex Diaz Hernandez, Jaden Henry and Reagan Miller got their first A times; Rashmika Babwani, Jenna Inlow, Paige Johnson, Alex Matveev, Brandon Noble and Harrison Riggle got their first BB times; and Karam Alhmoud got his first B time.
Our next meet will be the Woodie B Invite November 19-21. It will be a prelim/finals meet for 11 and Overs!
Fall #3 Results | Fall #3 High point | Fall 1-2 High Point Leaders
GwinAq Results | GwinAq Standard Breakers
LIFE Wins Fall Series 2021 #2
10/17 - Lifetime Swimming won the Fall Series #2 meet this weekend. It was much closer than the first meet with all three teams within 100 points of each other. SPAC retains the overall lead.
The high point race was also shaken up. Hari Jang, Alex Van Maanen, Savannah Carter, Noah Cruceanu, Katie Kessel, Jason Park, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Baylor Stanton, Hannah Burke and Kamal Muhammad currently lead the races for high point in their age groups. Top Ten totals for each age group are available below.
Please note: The final meet of the series will now be October 30-31 as we no longer have access to the pool on the 29th. The 30th will be longer fly and breast events and shorter free and back. Sunday the 31st will be quick 400 IM or 1000 free session for 11 and over swimmers.
For Gwinnett Aquatics Baylor Stanton got back to his record breaking ways, taking down the 200 back record while posting the top times in the nation in that event as well as the 200 IM. Additionally Sofie Rees and Brandon Shepard picked up their first AA times, while Ryan Haskins, Max Inlow, Kate and Lucas Johnson, Sean Lin, Landon Plumlee and Cate Rovie picked up their first A times of the season. Ella Moulder, Addie Shaffer and Zoe Wilson got their first BBs and Blake McCluggage and Harrison Riggle got their first B times.
Spartan Wins First Meet of Fall Series
10/2 - SPAC won the first meet of the Fall Series today at their pool at GAC with a commanding lead (855 pts)over LIFE (551) and GA (403) respectively.
The winners of the single year age group Pentathlon scoring were Alisa Vlaic, Mary Brown, Jude Stanton, Alek Brooker, Cate Joyce, Abigail Sutter, Ryan Qi, Jason Park, Sophie Hamilton, Abigail Heizer, Daniel Goshko, Baylor Stanton, Hanna Burke and Andy Zhu. They will receive a special Pentathlon Winner T-shirt later this month. The current High point leaders are listed 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 70 swimmers achieved their first time standards of the season, and 18 their first state cuts, including some for the first time. Cameron Jones got both his first BB time and state cut while Grant McGee and Vincent Tuck both got their first B times!
The next meet in October 15-16, back at Freeman Aquatic Center at the Greater Atlanta Christian School, with some new longer events.
Pentathlon Results | Pentathlon Scores | High Point Leaders
GwinAq Results | GwinAq Standard Breakers
Gwinnett Aquatics Shines in Post Season
8/2 - While most of the team wrapped up their season a week ago, six Gwinnett Aquatics swimmers still had their most important meets of the season this weekend at the Zones Champs in Tupelo and Futures Champs in Huntsville.
At Zones Baylor Stanton, swimming for Team Georgia, won two events and scored in three others while breaking six team records. His times in the100 back and both IMs as well as his final IMX score are all ranked first in the nation for 13 yr olds! (his 200 back at zones would be first by 3 seconds but he was called for an underwater kickout past 15m on the start!)
At Futures Graham Simmon and Andy Zhu both broke team records while the relay team of Zhu, Jack Dunbar, Nolan Patterson and Dylan Yin broke the record in the 400 medley and free relays. This meant that all six boys swimming in post season meets this past weekend were involved in record breaking efforts!
Zone Meet Results | GwinAq Zone Results
Futures Results | GwinAq Futures Results
Time Standard Achievers
Gwinnett Aquatics Tenth @ Senior State Champs
7/26 - Gwinnett Aquatics had another great showing at the State Champs, this time at UGA for the Senior champs. We had four swimmers score top 8 and four more in score top 16.
Emma Morris won the women's 1500 while Ryan Haskins, Thomas Wooldridge, and Andy Zhu all had top 8 finishes. Hanna Burke, Russell Hart, Sarah Jahns and Nolan Patterson also scored.
Zhu also broke the team record in the 100m breast while Burke, Jahns, Lauren Diehl, Hannah Claire Jowers and Sophie Rees combined to break two senior girls relay records (200 free and 400 medley).
In addition Haskins, Jack Dunbar, Brandon Shepard and Tyler Wooldridge all picked up their first AAA (All-Star) times while Rees got her first AA. Shepard also picked up his first sectional cut.
Not all our Seniors were completely focused on this meet as they were looking ahead to the Futures Championships that start this Wednesday in Huntsville.
Gwinnett Aquatics Ninth @ Age Group State
7/20 - Gwinnett Aquatics had a great showing at the 14U State Champs at Georgia Tech this weekend. We had nine different swimmers score and even though we are one of the smaller teams in the state we finished 9th overall and third in division III.
Baylor Stanton led the way winning eight events, setting team records in seven and winning high point. Hannah Claire Jowers and Emily Hardy also had award (top 10) swims while Kate Breiding, Sarah Heppe, Collin Severtson, Collier and Jude Stanton, and Elsie Wethington all scored (top 20). In addition the 13-14 quartet of Jowers, Sophia Papania, Caitlyn Diehl and Cate Rovie broke the team record in the 200 free relay.
And between the state and JO meet there were some impressive time standards achievements. Jowers added her name to the list of team All-Star (AAA) swimmers, Cate Rovie and Collier Stanton their first AA times and Emily Hardy got her first A times. Caitlyn Diehl and Cate Rovie also picked up their first state cuts.
State Champs was also hosted by us and although we did not have nearly the number of volunteers we have had in the past we pulled off another excellent meet, in trying circumstances, mainly thanks to the very hard work of our staff and a small group of parents. Special shout out to our officials, many of whom worked over 25 hours at the meet and to Noel Wooldridge for taking on the huge job of running hospitality.
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 Huntsville and Zones in Tupelo.
Age Group State and Junior Olympics
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7/19 - The 2021 Long Course Age Groups State Champs and Junior Olympics is now in the books. After 18 months since we last contested a full State Champs we had a full event with over 700 swimmers!
Congrats to Team Winners SwimAtlanta, Spartan Aquatic, Aiken-Augusta, and US Aquatics!
Thank you to all our volunteers and especially our officials who worked tirelessly through the long weekend.
Thank you as well to those parents and coaches who helped us pull off a great meet in challenging circumstances, Even though there were those who were determined to circumvent the rules regardless of how it might hurt our relationship with the host venue, so many more of you were so helpful and supportive that it was a reaffirming experience for us as host. Thx again!
Complete info is available on out Meet Page. Just click the link below.
Registration for Swim Team 21-22 Now Open, Some Groups Full
7/9 - Registration for the 2021-22 season of the Gwinnett Aquatics swim team is now open. After a most unusual past eighteen months we are looking forward to getting back to normal in the fall.
More normal yes, but not the same. This year we will be taking a number of steps to further fulfill out motto: Pursuing Excellence Every Day. We will be expanding our staff (including some new coaches!), expanding the number of training groups we offer and reducing the size of groups and decreasing the ratio of swimmers per coach.
You can get complete info using the links below. We do expect to have more interested swimmers than we will be able to take so please register early. Remember you have to have an evaluation before we can accept your registration. A couple of groups have already filled. However we will take a few remaining swimmers from the waitlist so interested swimmers should still register for the waitlist.
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.
Coda Meet @ Dynamo Kicks of Championship Season
7/12 - About 70 GaGa swimmers kickoff the end-of -season meets at the Coda Invite at Dynamo this weekend. For some it was their last meet of the long course season and others were tuning up, or trying to qualify for, the big State Champs coming up the next two weekends. And even though we had many swimmers not quite at their peak due to recent travels, we still had some great swims and accomplishments.
For one, Sarah Jahns, whose bigger meets are still to come broke her sister's team record in the 100 back! In addition Addie Shaffer and Jimmy Wang got their first ever JO cuts. Sarah Hepper, Alex Diaz Hernandez, and Zoe Wilson got their first A times, while Sophie Arscott and Justice Parker got their first BB times.
Many of our swimmers also participated in the Gwinnett County Summer League Champs with Hannah Burke, Baylor Stanton, Hannah Claire Jowers, Emily Harding and Alex Matveev all winning events and our own Coach Cathy Ruffing getting the Coach of the Year Award! Congrats Cathy!
Now all that remains are the State, Regional and National Championship meets in the next couple weekends, starting with the Age Group State Champs (hosted by US!) next weekend. For swimmers not in those meets practice is now over but we will have a fun day for Blue/Gold/Junior next Monday night and Prep next Tuesday morning. And don't forget our Olympic Watch Parties July 26, 27! And pre-season 2021-22 starts August 9.
Mid-summer Meets Phase 2
6/28 - The rest of Gwinnett Aquatics got to see how their training is going this weekend at the Mid-summer Invite in Cumming. And while, for me, the name conjures up memories of the VERY dark Midsommar movie that came out last year, four our swimmers it was a great chance to fine tune their skills before the big end of season Championship meets that start in two weeks.
For Cate Joyce and Harrison Riggle it was a chance to get their first BB times of the season while Elisa Basic, Vivian Moulder, Brandon Noble and Violet Pincombe got their first B times. Jude and Collier Stanton got their first state cuts of the season while Emily Krall and Nicholas Ramdeo got their first ever state cuts!
Up next is the end of season championship meet for those swimmers not going to State Champs, the Dynamo Coda Meet.
On the Road Again!
6/21/21 - After 18 months of no or limited competitions and what seemed like thousands of tiny sessions at the GAC pool, Gwinnett Aquatics was BACK on the ROAD this weekend! With nearly 40 swimmers it was our largest squad ever to attend the Sarasota Shark Open in Florida.
It was a full blown out door meet with hundreds of competitors from around the country and the most cooperative weather we have ever had at this meet. And GaGa was not about to waste the opportunity. We had numerous wins and top 3 finishes as well as 21 new time standard achievers!
Leading the way was Baylor Stanton who won the high point award while breaking team records in all eight of his events and posting four nationally top ranked swims. Seven swimmers earned their first AAA (All-Star) times of the season: Hanna Burke, Russell Hart, Emma Morris, Nolan Patterson, Graham Simmon, Thomas Wooldridge and Andy Zhu. Caitlyn Diehl, Lauren Diehl, Jack Dunbar, David Duong, Kate Johnson, Brandon Shepard and Jeffrey Xu got their first AA times while Nik Beeney, Kayden Clinansmith, Kayla Deckers, Lindsey Diehl, Adam Dockstader, Reagan Miller, Ella Moulder and Sophia Papania got their first A times. Burke, Dunbar, Duong, Morris, Shepard and Max Inlow earned their first state cuts of the season.
Team Splits for Open Water, Dunbar Invite
6/07/21 - Gwinnett Aquatics had two different squads in competition this weekend. Saturday nearly 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 distances with some choosing to do two races for as much at 8000 meters of swimming! In the 5k race Ryan Haskins and Tyler Wooldridge finished 4th and 8th respectively in the 15-18 boys, Baylor Stanton won the 13-14 boys and Cate Rovie was 8th in the 13-14 girls. In the 3k Haskins was 2nd while Rovie and Stanton won the event and Kayla Deckers and Kayden Clinnansmith placed 4th. In the 1k events Thomas Wooldridge won the 15-18 age group while Nolan Patterson, Henry Breiding and Lannon Clinnansmith all had top-3 finishes in their age groups. Complete results are linked below. However they are a little difficult to read since the South Carolina swimmers and non-South Carolina swimers' 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 in two years, or ever! Kate Breiding, Landon Plumlee and McKenna Thacker picked up their first A times while Kadar Felder and Alex Matveev both got their first BB times (Alex's first ever!). Justice Parker and Morgan Sevier got their first B times. In addition, Kate Breiding, Collin Severtson, McKenna Thacker and Elsi Wethington-Mercer all picked up some new state cuts.
Next up we will again be splitting up for two different meets with 36 swimmers headed to Sarasota FL for the SYS Invite in two weeks and the rest of the team going to Cumming for the GOLD Invite in three weeks.
Age Groupers Complete Second Half of Spring Splash
The 14U swimmers got the second half of the Spring Splash in this weekend at Dynamo with lots more swimmers adding new standards and meet cuts as they adapt to long course swimming after two years off.
Baylor Stanton again broke some team records, this time in the 200 IM and 100 free. Meanwhile six swimmers picked up their first long course state cuts of the season: Andrew Guo, Sarah Heppe, Reagan Miller, Sophia Papania, McKenna Thacker and Elsie Wethington-Mercer (her first ever!)
In addition Aubrey Chisholm, Lannon Clinansmith, Andrew Guo, Emily Krall, Emma Luo and Addi Shaffer all picked up their first BB times of the season while Ashlynn Clinansmith, Kadar Felder, Kaylin Lee, Haley Lindsay, Alex Matveev, Isabella Powell, Harrison Riggle and Jimmy Wang all got their first B times. These were the first ever for Clinansmith, Lee, Powell and Riggle!
Seniors Compete in First Half of Spring Splash
The senior swimmers got the second meet of the long course season started this weekend at their half of the Spring Splash this weekend at Dynamo. It looks like we are getting back in the long course swim of things with swimmers picking up lots of new long course time standards.
Andy Zhu, Thomas Wooldridge and Emma Morris all had event wins while Dylan Yin, Graham Simmon, Ryan Haskins and Hanna Burkeall had top-three finishes.
In addition Haskins, Morris, Wooldridge, Russell Hart and Jaden Henry all picked up their first long course AA times, Max Inlow, Sean Lin and Brandon Shepard got their first A times and Landon Plumlee got his first BB. Hart, Haskins, Simmon, Nolan Patterson and Thomas and Tyler Wooldridge all got their long course State Cuts while Patterson, Tyler Wooldridge and Dylan Yin picked up their Sectional cuts.
Biggest Drops Ever at Long Course Kickoff, First LCM Meet in 2 years!
After over 20 months, we finally got back to LCM racing!!! It was a hoot watching the younger swimmers (but old enough to have been swimming two years ago drop oodles of time on most of their swims, even with the smaller, more quickly run sessions.
While it was mostly about just getting a feel back for long course there were some distinguishing swims. Baylor Stanton picked up where he left off setting a new team record in the 100 free. He, Kate Breiding, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Nicholas Ramdeo, Jude Stanton and Andy Zhu all won events. Nicholas and Elsie Wethington-Mercer got their first ever BB times, Addi Oliver her first B times and Sophia Quinn her first ever state qualifying time.
The number of 100% best times was too many to list and they were large. The biggest one belonged to Jenna Inlow who dropped 38 seconds in her 100 Butterfly!
But now that we've updated our long course times the real work begins. Our next meet is in two weeks for 15 and Overs and three for 14 and Under. Let's work really hard between now and then to see if we can keep the best times going!
Most Unique Season Ever Wraps Up at "Not" Divisionals
10 Individual, 8 Relay Team Records Fall
3/29 - Gwinnett Aquatics swimmers wrapped up this very unique season with the "Not" Divisional champs this weekend at Ga Tech. The meet featured the bigger teams from the North and Northeast Divisionals in a format that allowed for safe spacing but also a quality prelims/finals competition to end the season. The result was the largest haul yet of team records time standards breaking swims.
Darnell Mitchell, Baylor Stanton, and Andy Zhu combined for ten team records. And those three along with Nolan Patterson, Dylan Yin, Tyler Wooldridge, Jack Dunbar, David Duong, Henry Breiding, and Sean Lin combined for seven relay records along with the 13-14 Girls relay of Caitlyn Diehl, Hannah Claire Jowers, Ella Moulder and Grace Fleming.
Individually Jowers, Lauren Diehl, David Duong, and Baylor and Collier Stanton won ten events collectively while Breiding, Lin, Mitchell, Yin, Zhu, Hanna Burke, Caitlyn Diehl, Emma Morris, Sofie Rees, Collin Severtson, Jimmy Wang, and Thomas Wooldridge all medaled. Jowers picked up her first AAA (All-Star) time, Max Inlow and Cate Rovie their first AA, and Nik Beeney and Collin Severtson got their first A time. Justice Parker got his first B time. In addition Jaden Henry and Kate Johnson got their first State cuts.
Of course I couldn't end the season without mentioning the Herculean effort of the GaGa staff, our officials and all the volunteers who made our season one of the more normal ones in the entire country. We hosted 11 Covid-safe meets and helped set up another two all extending over many more hours that normal meets to keep our swimmers safe. We increased our practice hours and trained outdoors through all types of weather. And we did it with little fanfare but if you have been keeping up with the swimming news throughout the country you know how uniquely fortunate we have been. Thank you to our coaches and parents for making this possible.
Records and Best Times at Senior State, 10U Not Divisionals
3/22 - Gwinnett Aquatics swimmers competed at two different venues this weekend. The Senior swimmers were at the re-scheduled Senor State Champs in Cumming while the 10Us were at the Not Divisional Champs at GAC. Between the two there were a ton of new best times and some team records as well.
At Senior State Darnell Mitchell, Baylor Stanton, Dylan Yin and Andy Zhu combined for five team records. Zhu along with Graham Simmon and Thomas Wooldridge all won events while Mitchell, Stanton, Yin and Jack Dunbar, Russell Hart, Ryan Haskins and Nolan Patterson all medaled. Hart also picked up his first ever Futures cut while Jeffrey Xu got his first Sectionals time.
At the 10U meet Lucy Bower and Kate Breiding combined for five event wins while William Buckley, Emily Hardy, Alex Matveev, Sophia Quinn and Jude Stanton all had top-3 finishes. Emily Krall earned her first ever BB time and Harrison Riggle and first timer Elsie Wethington-Mercer swam multiple B-time swims!
And as a bonus many of the swimmers got to meet Olympic Silver medalist, NCAA champion and one-time American and World record holder Maritza Correia McClendon (pictured above) who showed up to time!
Gwinnett Aquatics 13th at Age Group State Champs
Baylor Stanton Wins High Point, Breaks State Record, Team Records
2/22 -
Gwinnett Aquatics finished 13th in this weekend's virtual Age Group State Champs led by a stellar performance by Baylor Stanton who, despite being in the bottom half of his age group, won the high point award, breaking one state and eight team records along the way. He broke the 100 IM state record and the team record in all 8 of his other events (ironically we do not have a 13-14 100 IM team record).
He was joined by twelve other teammates in scoring: Henry and Kate Breiding, David Duong, Emily Hardy, Jenna Inlow, Paige Johnson, Hannah Claire Jowers, Sean Lin, Ella Moulder, Colling Severtson, Collier Stanton and McKenna Thacker.
Kayla Deckers picked up her first State cut of the season while Paige Johnson got her first AA and Kate Breiding her first ever A time.
Up next will be the Not Divisionals meets: 10Us March 20-21 at GAC and 117Over March 26-28 at Tech.
Meet Results | Stream Links
GwinAq Results | GwinAq Time Standard Achievers
75 New Cuts at GA Winter Qualifier
2/15 - At the GA Winter Qualifier this weekends roughly 40 swimmers qualified for 75 new events for this weekend's Age Group State Champs, picking up either a new JO or State qualifying time.
For Gwinnett Aquatics 17 swimmers got new cuts. Adam Dockstader, Emily Hardy, Jenna Inlow, Collin Severtson and Jude Stanton picked up their first ever State cuts while Grace Fleming and Lannon Clinnansmith got their first JO cuts.
Additionally Hanna Burke picked up her first AAA (All-Star) times of the season and Dockstader and Jaden Henry got their first AA's. Owen Breiding, Kayden and Lannon Clinnansmith, Blake McCluggage and Jack Morris got their first BB times while Alex Mateev pickup up his first ever B!
Next up 26 14 and under swimmers will travel to Ga Tech for the Age Group State Champs starting Friday,
Meet Results | Stream Links
GwinAq Results | GwinAq Time Standard Achievers | AG State Team
14U New (Better!) Year Raffle Extravaganza Meet This Weekend
1/19 - The first ever 14U New Year Raffle Extravaganza meet was a huge success this weekend. Swimmers qualified for raffle numbers by getting best times, new time standards, or wins. Those numbers would then be drawn for prizes from Arena, Tyr and Friends Unlimited with one Grand Prize of a $400 VISA gift card. Over 1000 numbers were generated with tons of best times! The Grand prize winner was GaGa's Owen Brieding.
Gwinnett Aquatics were really wanting that loot, generating over 65% best times annd 57 new time standards! Wow! Additionally Baylor Stanton broke four more team records and earned his first Futures cut ever.
Grace Fleming, Lauren Jones-McCalla, and McKenna Thacker picked up their first A times of the season. Caroline Bold and Jimmy Wang their first BB's. Owen Breiding and Jack Morris got their first B times wile Reagan Miller got her first State cut. Wang and Sarah Heppe and Collin Severtson punched their tickets to state with their first ever JO cuts.
Next up will be the GA Winter Qualifier February 11-14 which will be the last chance for the swimmers to qualify for the State Meet. Because of COVID restrictions Georgia Swimming is using the JO qualifying times for 11-14 year olds at state champs this year.
Senior Kick Off 2021 at New (Better!) Year Invite
1/10 - The Senior New Year Invite was last weekend. Considering most swimmers are focusing on the upcoming High School Championship meets, there were a high number of best times. Next up for most of this group is the Gwinnett County High School Champs Jan 21-23 and the Georgia High School State Meet Feb 5-6.
Swim-A-Thon a Training and Fiscal Success
1/1 - Once all the dust (splash?) settled we had a terrific Swim-A-Thon this year. We had more swimmers compete more lengths than ever before and had some of the fastest timed swims ever, including a new record for 13-14 boys by Baylor Stanton. Financially our performance was even more extraordinary. Even though we fell just shy of our goal of $25,000 between Swim-A-Thon and the Facebook campaign we raised almost double our previous best, over $23,000!