Stuart Heights Finishes Second In 50th Annual Gathering
by John Hunt
posted July 18, 2009
The odds of the Signal Mountain Green Giants winning the Chattanooga Area Swim League’s City Meet is about like betting on whether or not the sun will rise tomorrow.
With more than twice as many individuals as any other team in the field, the Green Giants won their third straight City Meet title and 12th in the last 13 years.
They finished the two-day meet at Baylor’s spacious Natatorium with 2,740 points.
The Stuart Heights Sharks claimed the runner-up trophy with 2,599.5 points while Dalton was a distant third with 1,330.
Red Bank and Ringgold rounded out the top five teams in the 16-team field with 1,141.5 and 927 points, respectively.
Saturday’s final day produced record-breaking performances in four individual events and at least two relays.
Kristen Vredeveld , who finished the two-day meet with 96 points, added her name to two more individual records and one relay mark after setting a new standard Friday in the 100 free.
Vredeveld actually broke four individual marks on Saturday, but in just two events.
The first came in the 50 free where she posted a lickety-split time of 24.83 seconds in the prelims before dropping it even further with a 24.65 in the finals.
She did the same in the 50 back with a new mark of 29.01 in the prelims and a blistering time of 27.95 seconds in the finals.
She was also part of the 200 free relay team that set a new standard.
Country Club’s McCay Mathis had a similar story.
After setting the mark of 27.72 seconds in the 50 fly, she went even faster in the finals to finish with a time of 27.40 seconds.
Unfortunately, Fort Oglethorpe’s Kristen Myers was a little better and now owns that record after her winning time of 27.17 seconds.
Mathis made sure the same thing didn’t happen a second time in the 50 back.
She broke the record in the prelims with a 29.34 while dominating the field with a 28.78 second timing in the finals.
Red Bank’s Hannah Peiffer finished second behind Vredeveld in the 50 back with a time of 28.43 seconds, which was also better than the standard set earlier in the day.
Signal Mountain’s quartet of Matt Limerick, Josh Sosna, Jake Sosna and Wes Russell trimmed more than a second off the 200 free relay time with a 1:27.23.
Stuart Heights’ coach David Clark, who scored 86 points during the meet and finished second to Signal’s Limerick for High Point honors, was honored as a recipient of the Jennifer Fugate Award.
Ringgold’s Chris Chow was the other winner.
The award honors a young lady who used to swim for Ringgold in the early 80s, but died unexpectedly at the age of 14.
Her family established a pair of $500 scholarships for the winners, which are presented each year on Saturday before the final session begins.
Clark will attend Auburn in the fall after graduation from McCallie while Chow will be headed to Georgia Tech after finishing his high-school career at Ringgold.
Other nominees included Signal Mountain’s Limerick, Fairyland’s Julia Simon, Cleveland’s Dan Henley and Ringgold’s Zannie Carabo.
Most folks who follow swimming and know anything about this league figured it would be a two-team battle between Signal Mountain and Stuart Heights.
Add to the drama the fact that Clark was a long-time member of Signal’s team before moving to coach the Sharks and it was indeed interesting to observe.
The Green Giants stretched their lead to 334.5 points before Saturday night’s finals began, but the Sharks made a fast charge and came up just a little bit short for their championship run.
Despite the second-place finish, Clark was really happy with the way things turned out.
“I’m tired,” he said after winning the final race of the day – the 50 backstroke.
“I’m obviously very pleased with my kids as we had a ton of kids in the finals tonight. We set ourselves up for a good day with great effort this morning and we improved our times and places across the board tonight.
“It was another great day for Kristen (Vredeveld). She just loves to race and she’s an incredible swimmer.
"I was also really proud of Annie Smith as she had a great meet as well. And our 13-14 girls really pulled us through,” he added, praising the group that included Vredeveld, Mikaya Reynolds, Mary Grace Arnold and Ryan Satterfield.
“Overall, it was a great meet for our team. We finished second in the City Meet and I’m pleased with that. We gave Signal Mountain a run for the money and I’m happy about that as well. It’s been a great summer,” Clark concluded.
Signal Mountain coach Brian Gill said that he expected Saturday’s results to be more productive for his team and he was right.
“I thought today was a better day, but I knew coming in it would be. We had some fantastic swims from all our kids, but those guys in 15-18 were great. We knew that each of them had to average 22 seconds per 50 and they did it. They really laid it on the line.
“Our kids always come up big in this meet, but this is what we point toward. We achieved our goals, which included having fun, improving as we went and enjoying success. We did all three.
“I’m very pleased with a solid effort across the board. We racked up a ton of points in relays this morning and those are always important. Winning a meet like this is fun, but that’s not always the most important part of what we do,” Gill added.
Final team scores and legend included: 1. Signal Mountain (SM) 2,740; 2. Stuart Heights (SH) 2,599.5; 3. Dalton (D) 1,330; 4. Red Bank (RB) 1,141.5; 5. Ringgold (Ring) 927; 6. Cleveland (CAT) 860.5; 7. Fort Oglethorpe (FO) 721; 8. Ooltewah (O) 670; 9. Hamilton YMCA (Ham) 657; 10. Country Club (CC) 618.5; 11. Ridgeside (Rid) 547.5; 12. Fairyland (Fair) 525; 13. Mosby Park (MP) 423.5; 14. Cumberland Youth Foundation (CYF) 328; 15. Calhoun (Cal) 151; 16. East Ridge (ER) 45.
High-point scorers for each age group included:
8-Under Girls: 1. Jamee Mitchum (SM) 94; 2. Gwendolyn Davis (SH) 89; 3. Grace Hall (SM); 81; 4. Amanda Seay (SH) 74; 5. Dorothy Goocher (O) 73.
8-Under Boys: 1. Nathan Wagoner (RB) 86; 2. Max Ransom (SH) and Sky Kim (FO) tied with 77; 4. Oscar Chenard (D) 69; 5. Ross Valdez (D) and Drew Lowry (SM) tied with 60.
9-10 Girls: 1. Lee Schemel (CC) 97; 2. Hollie Porter (FO) 91; 3. Erin Brown (FO) 82; 4. Maggie Crump (CC) 75; 5. Riley Engels (SM) 67.
9-10 Boys: 1. Brian Wagoner (RB) 89; 2. James Fuller (D) and Carter Miller (O) tied with 86; 4. Ethan Bevill (Fair) 80; 5. Brandon Edge (FO) 73.
11-12 Girls: 1. Kristen Myers (FO) 97; 2. McCay Mathis (CC) 91; 3. April Forsthoffer (SH) 86; 4. Brianne Holsomback (CYF) 76; 5. Maggie Stovall (SM) 75.
11-12 Boys: 1. Will Raines (SH) 97; 2. Ryan Smith (SH) 84; 3. Andrew Tallent (Ham) 82; 4. Tanner Storey (D) 76; 5. Jon Pat Ransom (SH) 70.
13-14 Girls: 1. Kristen Vredeveld (SH) 96; 2. Mikaya Reynolds (SH) 89; 3. Hannah Peiffer (RB) 88; 4. Kimmy Wiley (Ham) 79; 5. Patrice Porter (FO) 73.
13-14 Boys: 1. Ryan Forsthoffer (SH) 100; 2. Sam McHugh (SM) 88; 3. Mitch Chow (Ring) 80; 4. Daniel Sawyer (SM) 75; 5. Mark Garaguso (CAT) 73.
15-18 Girls: 1. Joana Rosales (D) 96; 2. Sarabeth King (SM) 82; 3. Annie Smith (SH) 78; 4. Elizabeth Sosna (SM) 77; 5. Susanna Kirby (CC) 75.5.
15-18 Boys: 1. Matt Limerick (SM) 93; 2. David Clark (SH) 86; 3. Stephen Jones (D) 81; 4. Omar Farag (D) 74; 5. Nash Bowen (SH) 71.
(Email John Hunt at tnmoose2002@aol.com)
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