Swimming Tigers open 2017 at Excel Invitational
The USN HS swim team returned to the Williamson County Indoor Sports complex last Saturday to compete in the Excel Invitational, a meet featuring over 450 swimmers from 20+ teams.
The boys’ team finished fourth overall, while the girls’ team finished eighth, which gave the combined team a fifth place finish overall. The team score race was particularly tight; our combined team was only four points behind Ravenwood and only half a point ahead of CPA.
Our primary focus at this meet was to earn new Region and State qualifying times, and to make steps towards getting ready for our championship meets in January and February. Our results here were a bit of a mixed bag. While we didn’t add any new individual qualifiers, some swimmers added to their slate of events, and others took big steps to get within striking distance of new cuts.
On the boys’ side, Curtis Patey led the way with two best times. In the 50 free, he finished fourth, and his time of 23.14 earned him his first individual spot on the USN all-time Top 10 list. In the 100 freestyle, Curtis dropped a little over a second and improved from 11th to third.
Fellow junior classmate Josh Twillie also placed in the top 8 in both the 50 and 100 freestyles and added two very good relay splits (24.82 on the medley relay swimming butterfly, 22.69 anchoring the 200 freestyle relay.
Fellow junior classmate Josh Twillie also placed in the top 8 in both the 50 and 100 freestyles and added two very good relay splits (24.82 on the medley relay swimming butterfly, 22.69 anchoring the 200 freestyle relay.
Other strong swims from our boys came from Clayton Jelsma, who dropped almost seven seconds in the 100 freestyle and three more in the 100 backstroke. He also broke a minute for the first time in the 100 free, which helped him earn our swimmer of the meet honors. Ittai Eden continued to show some strong improvement in every race, finishing just .03 off the Region qualifying time in the 50 freestyle. Graham Shockley emerged from holiday training with two excellent swims in the 200 and 500 freestyle and looks very capable of punching his ticket to the State meet.
Our girls were led by Trudy Zou, who had the performance of the day in winning the 100 breaststroke. Her time of 1:10.30 was a personal best and stands as fourth on the USN all-time top 10 list. Trudy also took third in the 200 IM and added a strong butterfly split on the 200 medley relay (28.9). She was unanimously named our girls’ swimmer of the meet.
Mia Pretorius also added some good swims and continues to demonstrate her versatility as an athlete. She was particularly strong in the 100 back, where she scored in the top 16 in her first time racing the event as a high schooler, and also in anchoring the girls’ 200 free relay.
Jessica Mei swam as a relay-only swimmer at this meet and took advantage of the opportunity, posting some particularly strong splits. She anchored the “B” 200 freestyle relay in 29.1, her fastest split ever.
The team travels to Sewanee this Saturday to compete in the Snowball Invitational, which was one of the highlights of our season last year. Our final dual meet of the year will be next Wednesday, January 18, against CPA and Central Magnet. We’ll honor our seniors, Puja Jagasia and Trudy Zou, prior to the meet.
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Contact
Edgehill Campus
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.