Team Splits for Bulldog Invite and Summer Kickoff

5/19 - Gwinnett Aquatics had two different squads in competition this weekend. Six senior swimmers were at the Bulldog Grand Slam in Athens while most of the rest of the team competed at the Summer Kickoff at Georgia Tech. 

The Athens meet proved to be one of the fastest so far this year with many of the areas fastest high school and college aged swimmers posting some fast early season times.  For most of our swimmers it was a chance to post some fast in-season times.  For Baylor it was one last meet before he heads off to the US Nationals June 3-7. He had some solid swims in his Nationals events and also picked up a new team record in the 200 fly.  In addition Nate Beeney got his first ever AA of the season. 

Meanwhile at the Summer Kickoff many swimmers competed in their second long course meet of the season but most were still doing many events for the first time.  GaGa swimmers were impressive in the smaller competition with fifteen swimmers winning events: Lucas Babcock, Lucy Bower, Kate Breiding, Giselle Davis, Ben El-Alam, CJ Gast, Emily Hardy, Cameron Jones, Cate Joyce, Aliana McCann, Brooks Pynn, Ainara Sanchez, Ernesto Santiesteban-Pizarro, Andrian Strokan, and Emery Wells. 

McCann earned her first AAA time of the season while Nicholas Ramdeo got his first AA times and Yuchelle Wong her first A. Emily Hillensheim, Abbie Lee, and Abby Wong got their first BBs and Skylar Smith got her first B time. Ella Wells and Yuchelle Wong got their first state qualifying times of the season as well.

Up next about 40 swimmers will attend the Dunbar Invite at Tech followed by the Dynamo Summer Invite and the Death Valley Open Water swim in Clemson the following weekend.

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LC Kickoff is Green City

   1st Meet of the Long Course Season Off With a Bang!

5/5 - The 2025 Long Course season got off to a very fast start this weekend. Anybody following along on Meet Mobil was treated to a sea of green, indicating tons of dropped time! The meet this weekend at Ga Tech was rife with PR's and great races. And for most of the swimmers it's only been 2-3 weeks of training since they got back from short course season.   

In may heats swimmers might drop six or seven seconds and still move down!   Complete results can be viewed using the link below. 

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

Kate Breiding, CJ Gast, Emily Hardy, Aliana McCann, Vincent Tuck, and Emery Wells all won events while Lucas Babcock, Reynolds Bowers, Ben and Jude El-Alam, Paige Johnson, Andrian Strokan, and Ella Wells all placed. 

22 swimmers picked up state cuts while a whopping 76 swimmers (nearly 75% of our swimmers) got at least a B time, many for the first time. Morgan Henry and Alex Matveev got their first A times, Aaron Vu got his first BB and Giselle Davis got her first B time. Brooks Pynn got his first ever State Qualifying time.

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 Sophia Holtzclaw who had a 31-second drop in 50 breast. 

Meanwhile we had a second group of swimmers at the TYR Pro meet in Fort Lauderdale. That meet was a Who's Who of swimming stars with much of the last Olympic team competing. Hannah-Claire Jowers, and Baylor and Collier Stanton attended and got to race alongside the likes of Katie Ledecky and Gretchen Walsh, who both broke world records at the meet. It was Ledecky's first record in seven years.

Despite some illness that kept him from competing on his best day, Baylor didn't do too shabby either, making the A final in the 200 IM racing Olympic champs Leon Marchand and US stars Shaine Casas and Carson Foster. He was the only swimmer in the heat under 20, finishing a respectable eighth.

Up next is the Summer Kickoff back at Tech May 17-18. Replies are closed so if you missed it be sure to email your coach. 

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