Tigers Shine at Region Swimming Championship

22 members of the USN swim team braved winter weather on Friday to compete at the Middle Tennessee Region Championships.  The entire team competed successfully against the best swimmers in the Region from public, private, and home school teams, finishing with 32 lifetime bests (78% of our swims). 

Led by junior Michael Ng, the boys’ team finished in 7^th place with 105 points (an improvement over their 9^th place finish last year).  Michael won the 100 backstroke, breaking his own school record and bettering the All-American consideration standard in the process.  He also finished third in the 100 butterfly, where he broke his own school record as well.

Michael joined with Logan Jones, McLain Gore, and Holt Akers-Campbell to break school records in the 400 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay, which finished 5^th and 6^th, respectively.  Logan also contributed scoring swims (12^th in the 50 and 100 freestyles) as did McLain (11^th in the 100 breaststroke, which earned him a new State qualifying time).

Our girls put together their fastest relays of the season, thanks to Alison Zhong, Ellen Jones, Sarah Alberts, Caroline Graham, and Logan Sweet. 

Another major highlight came from freshman William Doak, who earned a new State qualifying time in the 100 butterfly and a lifetime best in the 50 freestyle.

Other lifetime and season best times came from:

Holt Akers-Campbell (1 second in the 100 butterfly, 5 seconds in the 500 freestyle)

Sarah Alberts (1.5 seconds in the 100 butterfly)

John Coogan (5.5 seconds in the 200 freestyle)

Tom Coogan (50 freestyle)

Alister Fazio (2.5 seconds in the 100 butterfly)

Ben Ghertner (3.5 seconds in the 100 breaststroke)

Anders Hahnemann (6 seconds in the 200 IM; 2 seconds in the 100 backstroke)

Miro Hurdle (100 breaststroke)

Will Johns (100 freestyle)

Ellen Jones (100 breaststroke)

Will Knowles (50 freestyle)
Derek Shyr (100 freestyle, 100 breaststroke)

Logan Sweet (50 freestyle)

Cord Walker (1 second in the 50 freestyle, 1.5 seconds in the 100 backstroke)

Alison Zhong (100 freestyle)

Full results are available at www.excelaquatics.org.

The team’s final meet of the season will be the Tennessee State Championship, which will be held at Centennial Sportsplex on Friday and Saturday, February 12-13.

by Coach Justin Karpinos