Killer strokes, fierce competitiveness, and lots of water all met from February 1-3, as schools across Georgia competed head-to-head in the Georgia High School Association State Swim and Dive Meet at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This year, Chamblee Charter High School competed in the AAAA and AAAAA division, with the Chamblee boys placing third and the girls eighth.
The state swim meet is a cumulative event over the course of three days where both swimmers and divers compete to earn points for their schools. On Thursday night, three Chamblee divers dove to launch the meet. Then on Friday, swimmers swam in preliminary rounds, and the swimmers whose times were lower than a certain cut returned Saturday for the final rounds.
Junior Emi McCollum participated in the dive portion of the meet on Thursday night.
“I got [to Georgia Tech] at like 3 [p.m],” said McCollum. “[The divers] had to wait for the [AAAAAA and AAAAAAA] schools to finish. Then we started around 3:30, and warmed up till 4. Then from 4-7 we dove.”
Over the course of multiple meets throughout the season, divers culminate points that then count towards their qualification for state. For the first time in her diving career, McCollum’s point total met the established cut and she was able to participate in the state meet. However, at the meet itself, her point total did not qualify her to make it on past the first round.
“I didn’t really have any goals for the meet, because this is the first year that I went to state, and I so knew I’d get cut, but I was fine with it because at least I made it to state,” said McCollum.
At the dive meet, Chamblee swimmers Max Stephens and Andrew Stowe passed through multiple elimination rounds and earned lots of points for Chamblee.
“Andrew and Max started us off with at least 30 points just because of how they placed,” said swim and dive Coach Lorri Reynolds.
After a successful Thursday night of diving, Chamblee swimmers set off for Georgia Tech at noon on Friday for the preliminary portion of the meet.
“So Friday we left [Chamblee at] about 12, we went down to Georgia Tech and ate,” said Reynolds. “And then hung out for a while. We had the late session this year, so our session didn’t start until 5:30. Swimming prelims were Friday, and if [swimmers] placed top 30 with all the schools [they] came back for finals. And whoever finished in the final events scores points.”
Junior Teresa Maloney swam multiple events for Chamblee and was able to accumulate many points for the swim team.
“I swam the 100 Butterfly, 100 Backstroke, 200 Medley Relay, and 400 Free Relay,” said Maloney. “I got a personal best time in the 100 Butterfly at finals, which was really good. And then [my relay team] dropped time in both of our relays from what we had done the whole year. We were really proud of ourselves, and we did better than we thought.”
Le Changivy, a senior who swam the free relay with Maloney, felt a variety of emotions going in to the meet.
“I was nervous, excited, and actually kind of pumped because it’s my third time going to state,” said Changivy. “To work with other people is actually kind of fun, and to cheer each other on too.”
During the state meet, Changivy had mixed feelings about the end of her swimming career at Chamblee.
“It was bittersweet,” said Changivy. “Part of me really liked doing swim team because of all the friendships I’ve made, but at the same time I’m kind of happy it’s ended because I don’t have to wake up at 5 in the morning anymore.”
Coach Reynolds looks forward to the swim and dive team having another successful season next school year.
“I just hope that we get a lot of good ninth graders coming up, because we’re losing some good seniors,” said Reynolds. “But we should be really good, I’ve got Teresa Maloney and Jadé Foelske. Jadé is probably one of the best swimmers in the entire state and she’s going to be a senior next year, so that’s going to be kind of cool.”
