Swimming Tigers Open the Season

The USN Swimming Tigers opened the season with a divisional meet against Hume-Fogg, MLK, Hillsboro, and Lipscomb Academy on Tuesday at Pearl Cohn High School.

After several weeks of solid training, we were excited to see what the team could do in our first true competition setting, and how they could perform in an unfamiliar short course meters pool. The Tigers’ combined team defeated Hume-Fogg (142-124), MLK (194-33), Hillsboro (198-24), and Lipscomb Academy (195-29).

The boys’ team earned victories over Hume-Fogg (80-48), Hillsboro (96-6), Lipscomb Academy (90-18), and MLK (91-14). Although the boys’ team scores weren’t particularly close, there were a number of exciting close races in the meet. The USN boys’ 200 medley relay (Stefan Pretorius, William Grobmyer, Sage Sasaki, Ian Brash) squeaked out a narrow victory to open the meet, and many other events were similarly competitive. Coming almost directly off the end of his cross country season, Ian was just edged out in the 50 free, while posting an impressive early season time well below the state qualifying time. Stefan also battled to a close second in the 100 backstroke, and also punched his ticket to the state meet in the process as well. Ian won the 100 freestyle, and Sage won the 200 IM in a state qualifying time. The same medley relay lineup came back to win a close 200 freestyle relay as well. Other strong swims came from Owen Block in the 100 breaststroke, and Wyatt Washko, who had a major time drop in the 200 freestyle.

USN’s girls fell to Hume-Fogg (76-62) but earned wins over Lipscomb (105-11), MLK (103-19), and Hillsboro (102-18). Hume Fogg’s girls’ team showed some strong depth and a bigger roster, but the Tigers battled well in each event all day long. Senior Abby Liff was our lone event winner of the day. Abby won the 200 IM going away, earning a state-qualifying time in the process; junior Lauren French finished second to solidify a 1-2 finish for USN. In the 100 free, a trio of USN girls – Lucy Mauries, Ivy Cochran, and Caroline Cramer – finished 2-3-4, earning some valuable points. Other second-place finishers included Kursten Griffin in the 100 back and Caroline Cramer in the 200 free. Kursten also earned a State qualifying time in the 50 freestyle, where she finished third.

Our swimmers of the meet were Stefan Pretorius, on the occasion of earning his state cut, and Ivy Cochran, who had some outstanding sprinting throughout the entire meet. The Tigers return to competition on November 12, when they take on St. Cecilia Academy and Lipscomb Academy at Vanderbilt’s Recreation and Wellness Center. The meet begins at 5 p.m.