The Morgan County swimming and diving team hosted its first and only home meet of the season on Jan. 16.
The boys brought home the gold, while the combined teams earned a second-place overall finish. The meet, held at the Morgan County Aquatic Center, also saw 18 Swim Dogs on both teams record personal best times.
Morgan County delivered a strong showing with multiple gold, silver, and bronze medal performances.
Sidney Fisher won gold in the 200-meter freestyle, while Gus Hanson captured first place in the 100-meter freestyle. The Swim Dogs also swept the 400-meter relay events, as the girls’ team of Fisher, Brooklyn Behrndt, Jessica Shafer, and Ella Grace Fortson, and the boys’ team of Barrett Newsome, Justin Bailey, Nicholas Carter, and Seth Mullins each earned gold. Silver medals were claimed by Dautry Garner in the 200-meter individual medley and 500-meter freestyle, Seth Mullins in the 500-meter freestyle, Justin Bailey in the 100-meter backstroke, and Barrett Newsome in the 100-meter breaststroke, while the boys’ 200-meter relay team of Hanson, John Metheny, Cade Linton, and Luca Molinari finished second. Bronze medals were added by Libby Catterton in the 100-meter backstroke and Kenton Davidson in the 500-meter freestyle.
Morgan County head coach Patrick Kicklighter was proud of his swimmers’ efforts in front of the home crowd.
“It was a good home meet,” Kicklighter said. “Oconee County is pretty stiff competition, and I was happy with this group. We’ve been having to work with limited practice time this season, and it’s been a rebuilding year. We lost a lot of our state swimmers to graduation last year, but we got a lot of really great up-and-comers.”
The Swim Dogs will wrap up the regular season this Saturday with a meet at Westminster in Atlanta, weather permitting. The team’s focus will be on hoping as many swimmers as possible achieve qualifying times for the GHSA state meet, scheduled for Jan. 31 at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta.
Morgan County currently has one team member who has earned a qualifying mark for the state meet — diver Caroline Jenkins. She’s represented the Swim Dogs at the state level for the last three years and will again next week.
“Swimming is interesting because you can qualify for the state meet as early as the first meet of the season by hitting a state-qualifying time,” the coach said. “Once you hit that time, you’re locked in for the state meet. Last year, for example, our girls’ 200 freestyle relay qualified at our second meet. Right now, we have a few swimmers who are just seconds away from qualifying, and the Westminster meet usually brings out the best in them because of the high-level competition. It’s not a long shot, but we’ll have to really show up. There’s definitely a chance we could slip a couple more in.
“The only limit is that each swimmer can only compete in two individual events and two relays, so you have to choose where they’ll perform best. Right now, the only athlete we’ve officially qualified is our diver, Caroline Jenkins, but we have several swimmers right on the cusp. So, we’re really gonna have to bring it at Westminster.”