Region swim teams get shot at qualifying for state meet

Twelve local Georgia high schools will converge at the Columbus Aquatic Center natatorium on Tuesday for a regional swimming and diving meet. The Georgia High School Association sanctioned event will feature 12 schools from around the area and is a final qualifier for most before the state meet Feb. 3 at Georgia Tech.

Carver, Columbus, Hardaway, Jordan, Northside, and Shaw will compete from the Muscogee County School District, while Brookstone, Pacelli, and Calvary Christian will also participate from Columbus. LaGrange, Callaway, and Americus-Sumter round out the dozen schools who will attend Tuesday’s meet.

The meet was originally created as one for schools within Columbus but has recently been expanded regionally to other schools outside Muscogee County. The opening of the aquatic center and natatorium in the summer of 2013 allowed more capacity to host more schools in the event.

“We’ve been able to add more teams,” said Columbus swim coach Karen Waters. “Carver, Jordan, and Pacelli are new this year. We’ve also been able to add diving. The past few years, a lot of meet records have been broken, and that’s because of the speed of the pool and the incredible facility we have.”

“Everyone loves to come to Columbus,” said Casey Deridder, coach of the Northside swim team. “It’s a great pool with 20 lanes. It’s one of the biggest pools in the South. It’s an honor to just be able to practice in that pool on a daily basis. I know my kids love it.”

The “speed” of the pool that Waters mentioned is because of the Olympic-sized pool and building, compared to events prior to the opening of the aquatic center being held at the D.A. Turner YMCA in Columbus.

“The atmosphere in a huge building, with high, open ceilings, and scoreboards so everyone knows their times, the water temperature, even the blocks themselves, there’s a huge difference from other meets,” Deridder said.

The boys teams will begin first, with medley relays and individual events. After a break, the girls will take over the pool, featuring both swimming and diving events.

“In girls, it’s been us and LaGrange,” Waters said. “LaGrange has had some really strong girls historically.”

Among the boys’ teams, Columbus and Northside have battled in the area meet in recent years. Last year, Columbus beat Northside by just six hundredths of a second in the 4x100 individual relay.

“If you watch a meet, it’s not really exciting, but for an event that comes down that close, it is,” Waters said.

Each of the MCSD schools have four days a week to practice 90 minutes each at the natatorium, with practices starting in mid-October. The schools incorporate time in and out of the pool to prepare their swimmers for meets throughout the season.

“We are the only team in town with divers,” Waters said. “They needed time to practice, so on Thursdays and Fridays, we give them three or four lanes and do dryland training with the swimmers. It’s mostly pool time since we don’t have much time as it is.”

“We have dryland practice once a week that involves running, stairs, things like that,” Deridder said. “We didn’t stop during the breaks; we had practice over the Christmas holiday. It’s non-stop.”

Several area swimmers have already qualified to advance to the state tournament next month in Atlanta.

“We already have seven going to state, six of them boys,” Deridder said. “We have four who have already beaten all of our school records for relays in previous years, so they’re pretty strong. I’m hoping to put them in individual events they can win, too.”

“We have an extremely strong freshman class,” Waters said. “We’ll have at least one from every team at state since our freshman and sophomores are so strong.”

Both Columbus and Northside have notable swimmers who are looking to compete collegiately in their sport. From Columbus, three swimmers have had offers from colleges for swimming and diving: Ashlyn Steinbach from Georgia Southern; Allie Murphy from Liberty University; and Nyssa Goodroe from Berry College in Rome.

Northside’s Jacob Abeyta, arguably the strongest swimmer in school history, has had offers from Auburn University, the Air Force, and Navy. He will compete tomorrow in the 100-meter backstroke, the 200-meter individual medley, and the 4x100 freestyle, the latter of which they lost to the Blue Devils by the .06-second margin last year.

“Jacob’s looking to break his own school records,” Deridder said. “He’s also wanting to beat Columbus in his relay, so he’s looking to get revenge there. His goal is to leave the school holding every record.”

This story was originally published January 17, 2017 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Region swim teams get shot at qualifying for state meet."