ACAC Swims in 2 States
ACAC Swims in 2 States
By: Emilie Cooper
(ATLANTA, GA & KNOXVILLE, TN) Mother’s Day weekend, Atomic City Aquatic Club took on not just 1, but 2 swim meets in the same weekend! When the team found out that the long course pool was not available at TNAQ for the originally planned meet, Coach Corcoran surprised the team with an alternative.13 swimmers traveled to take part in the Dyna Spring Splash long-course meet, while 19 buckled down at home to compete at the TNAQ May Invitational swimming short-course meters.
Both meets were unique as compared to other meets of the year. The TNAQ meet was a dual meet, meaning only two teams, Atomic City Aquatics and TN Aquatics, were in the competition. This made it a quiet meet as compared to the usual large productions that the team is used to at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center. The team saw fast swimming and numerous personal bests achieved that day.
The Dyna meet gave the ACAC swimmers opportunities to experience different methods of swim-meet execution. On Friday, they swam their longest distances in split lanes, sharing the lane with another swimmer. On Saturday, they had positive check-ins for every event, something many of the less experienced swimmers had never done before. On Sunday, they used chaser starts to keep the meet flowing as fast as possible. No one claimed the $20 incentive that Coach offered to any swimmer who could manage to catch the swimmer in their lane from the heat before!
At Dyna, the team achieved more than 50 personal bests across the swimmers’ events with 25 1st place finishes. “ACAC won a ton of races while focusing on race strategy and getting comfortable in the Long Course 50 meter pool again,” said Coach Sarah Corcoran.
For swimmer Sam Duby (12), she set personal bests in all 7 of her events. She knocked off more than 30 seconds from her 800 Free and then went on to achieve the highly sought-after Southeastern cut times in the 50 Back, 100 Free, and 200 Free and a bonus time in the 50 Free!
The team is off to a great start and will soon transition to practicing at the large Oak Ridge Outdoor Pool which is more suited to practicing long-course skills. Come support ACAC at their next long-course meet at the TNAQ June Invitational, June 16-18!
Andrew Chou, Leo Karnitz, Connor O’Neil
