BIG GaGa Weekend in Three States!

6/08 - Gwinnett Aquatics had an epic weekend with swimmers at three different meets. Baylor Stanton was at the US National Championship Meet in Indianapolis, about 60 swimmers were at the first prelims/finals meet of the season at the Summer Invite at Dynamo and nearly 30 swimmers, youth AND masters were at the Death Valley Open Water meet in Clemson.

In Indy it was a very dramatic week as this meet was not only the fastest meet of the year, it was also the selection meet for both the World Champs team and the World Juniors team. For Baylor it was that second meet that he was shooting for, having three good chances to qualify (make the top 2 18 and Under in the event). The first event was 200 back where he just missed out taking a close 3rd (but was still top 16 in the country overall!) The 2nd event was the 400 IM where he again was close. Finally, on the last day and after those previous disappointments, he had his best chance in the 200 IM. But of course there still was drama as the officials were making good use of their underwater camera reviews and had disqualified a half dozen swimmers in the event. All the swimmers at night trying to make the Worlds or Juniors team were justifiably very anxious. But Baylor pulled through as the top 18U in the event and made the team! Along the way he knocked off three team records. Now it will be off to Romania in August to compete against the world's best 18U swimmers.

Closer to home we had a number of swimmers make some big jumps at their first prelims/final meet at Dynamo. Even with some of out top swimmers out for the open water swim we were very competitive.

Reynolds Bowers, Aliana McCann, and Collier Stanton all won events while CJ Gast, Emily Hardy, Cameron Jones, Jacob Matthew, Sophia Quinn, Andrian Strokan, and Vincent Tuck all placed.

Bowers, Quinn, and Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro all earned their first AA times of the season while Strokan, Jacob Matthew, and Lillie Robinson got their first A times. John Matthew got his first BB and Nyziah Barnaby got her first B time. Additionally Santiesteban-Pizarro, Brianna Exil, Sarah Heppe, Jacob Matthew, Brandon Noble, and Jude Stanton got their first State cuts of the season and John Matthew and Allen Zhu got their first ever state cuts!

Finally we had a large group  of youth and Masters swimmers compete at the Death Valley Open Water (DVOW) swim in Clemson Saturday.  Over 30 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 seven swimmers doing all four races for a total of 9.5k yards of swimming (and earning the Anna K Sams award!)  Emery Wells was the top finisher with a 2nd in her age group in the 1k. Ella Wells and Aliana McCann were 4th in their age group divisions, Wells in the 13-14 5k and McCann in the 11-12 3k. Jude El-Alam was the top performer for the boys, taking 6th in the 11-12 boys 3k. Our Anna K Sams winners were Lucas Babcock, Henry Boltin, Kendall Granberry, Alex Matveev, James Sears, Addi Shaffer, and Ella Wells,

For the masters Amelia Campbell and Pola Pynn went 1-2 overall in the adult division (men and women!) of the 3k, both winning their age groups, as did Olivia Almendares. 

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

Sign-up Now Open for Evaluations for the 2025-26 Season 

6/2 - Registration in now open for new swimmers evaluations for the 2025-26 season.  Getting your eval done and registering early will give you the best chance of getting a spot. 

Evaluations are currently available Mondays and Fridays at 530pm through Aug 8.  Beginning Aug 12 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 11 with the full schedule starting September 8.  The first meet will be October 4.  We are looking forward to a very exciting year with one of our strongest teams ever!

Smaller Group Competes at Dunbar Invites

6/02 - Gwinnett Aquatics had two different small squad of swimmers at the Betsy Dunbar Invite at Georgia Tech this weekend. Most were using it to catch up for missed sessions earlier this season.  This meet was also faster than the previous ones but we still managed a few top 8 finishers: Lucy Bower, Reynolds Bowers, Hannah-Claire Jowers, Aaron Passman, Vincent Tuck, Ella and Emery Wells, and Yuchelle Wong. 

Passman and Wong earned their first AA times of the season while Bri Exil, Jude Stanton and Cole Wright got their first A times. Hailey Lord got her first BBs and Yusuf Besic got his first B time. Additionally Passman and Victoria Tannure got their first State cut of the season and Kat Jacobsen got her first B-State cut.

This weekend is a BIG one with Baylor in Indy at US Nationals, a large group competing at the Dynamo Summer Invite Thursday through Saturday and about 40 swimmers will take on the Death Valley Open Water swim in Clemson on Saturday. Whew! There will be no practices Thursday through Saturday.

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