School Records and New Qualifiers at Excel Invitational

The USN Swimming Tigers returned to the pool January 16 for their third meet in six days. It was an exciting and intense culmination of an exhausting week, in many ways even better than the earlier dual meets.  We started off a little slow, but as soon as we got going, we continued to win heats and get lots of lifetime and season bests.

The major highlights of the day were three school records, courtesy of Michael Ng’s 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, and the boys’ 200 freestyle relay (Justin Maffett, Michael, McLain Gore, and Logan Jones).  Michael’s 100 backstroke, which also earned All-American consideration, came just 9 minutes after the 200 free relay.

Several swims were also good enough to earn their way onto the USN All-time Top 10 list.  Justin Maffett joined the list for the first time with his 50 free, which ranks 8^th in school history.  The boys’ 200 medley relay moved up to third, and Holt Akers-Campbell’s lifetime best in the 500 free earned 6^th place on the list.

Additionally, Will Johns earned his first Region qualifying time in the 100 freestyle, and McLain Gore earned a new State cut in the same event.  Anders Hahnemann qualified for Regions in the 50 freestyle, and Allison Zhong and Sarah Alberts requalified in the 50/100 free and 100 fly, respectively.

Other lifetime bests were earned by Tom Coogan, John Coogan, Sarah Alberts, Ben Ghertner, Sophie Campbell, Hank Powers, Joey Simon, Cord Walker, Miro Hurdle, Brandon Waterman, William Doak, William Cooper, Will Johns, Justin Maffett, and Jaisal Merchant, which came with such remarkable consistency that they started to seem routine.

USN finishes this week with 10 new Region cuts, 2 new State cuts, 7 new USN all-time top 10 times, 3 school records, and the boys’ division championship. 

The Tigers return to competition on Thursday, January 21 in a non-division double dual meet with Riverdale High School and the Middle TN Home Educators’ Association Makos.

by Coach Justin Karpinos