ACAC Attends June Spectacular

Alicia Franklin

ACAC Attends June Spectacular 

By Emilie Cooper

 

Back:  Coach Chris Franklin, Andrew Chou

Middle:  Coach Sarah Corcoran, Sam Duby, Emmy Zimmer, Dorian Volcansek

Front:  Colin Sudderth, Leo Karnitz, Avery Fischer


 

June 16-18, Atomic City Aquatics Club attended the June Spectacular hosted by Tennessee Aquatics.  This meet had a diverse set of competitors with swimmers traveling from Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Colorado! 

 

Requiring 2 50 meter pools in order to host, the meet took over both the Allan Jones Aquatic Center and Student Aquatic Center at the University of Tennessee for 3 days. Since it was a prelims/finals meet, swimmers placing in the top 16 in most events got to swim again the same night.

 

ACAC saw stellar performances from swimmers of all ages across the team. 

 

Natalie Steger (17) swam personal bests in every event and took a full 1 minute and 18 seconds off of her 400 free!  Coach Chris called out her achievement across all events, saying “she swam so well!”

 

The Grubb sisters Hollins (9), Rhett (11), and Gretchen (13) all swam impressive lineups and achieved personal bests in nearly every event.  Gretchen topped the list by dropping nearly 50 seconds off of the 400 free, Rhett dropped over 30 from her 100 Fly, and Hollins over 20 from her 200 free.

 

Dropping over 5 seconds for a new personal best in the 100m breast, Avery Fischer (11) earned her first southeastern qualifying time in the 11-12 year old age bracket.  

 

Sam Duby (12) had 7 personal bests and 7 finishes in the top 10.  She continued to improve upon her previously qualifying time for the 100 free and earned a bonus time in the 50 fly. She saw a big improvement in her 200 individual medley, dropping 7 seconds and placing 5th. Coach Sarah Corcoran commented that this was “a fun one for me because she hesitated on wanting to do it, but proved her atomic awesome anyway!”

 

Jessi Schaefer (13), having just moved into a new age bracket, swam well coming off of a hard week of training.  She set 8 personal bests, dropped nearly 23 seconds in the 200 fly, and achieved southeastern qualifying times for the 100 and 200 back.

 

Emmy Zimmer (12) only attended 1 day of the meet, but left her mark in that short amount of time.  She placed 1st in both the 50 free and 100 back and finished 5th in the 50 breast. All three swims were personal bests at southeastern qualifying speeds.  

 

Jeffrey Nichols (13) set best times in 6 of his events, including a best time in finals, dropping over 2 seconds on his 50 breast.

 

Connor O’Neil (15) set personal bests in nearly all of his events and dropped nearly 7 seconds in his 400 free. 

 

Showing huge time improvements in both the 50 and 100m Breast events, Colin Sudderth (16) set new personal bests.  He qualified for southeasterns with his 100m swim at 1:11.75. 

 

Leo Karnitz (17) took 4th and 6th respectively in the 50 and 100m Fly events.  Earning personal bests in both events, his time of 58.92 on the 100m fly qualified for Sectionals.

 

Andrew Chou (16) had a rough night during finals when the ledge malfunctioned on his 200m backstroke start. Despite this, he still achieved a 3rd place finish in the event.  His mother, Kathryn Chou, commented that he had “sweet redemption” during his 100 back, however, when everything came together at the end of a long meet for a 1st place finish with a time of 58.84. He has already qualified for Futures in these events, but these times continue to show he is performing at or above qualifying speeds.

 

Brothers Dorian (12) and Mateo (10) Volcansek earned a whopping combined 139 points for the team.  Dorian earned 5 first place finishes, 3 second place, and a 4th.  He already had many southeastern cuts, but continues to swim at qualifying speeds that are near those of the next age group.  

 

Mateo set an amazing 7 personal bests, took 6 first places, and 2 second places.  Mateo swam so fast that he finished nearly 18 seconds ahead of his competitors in both the 100 Fly and 200 IM.  In fact, all but 2 of his times were fast enough to achieve southeastern qualifiers for children 2 years his senior.

 

ACAC’s men’s team took 4th overall at the meet.

 

The last chance for southeastern qualifying times is coming up the weekend of July 7th in Kingsport with the Red Piranhas Long Course Open.