MOR Places 3rd At Jr. Nationals, Winning 7 Events

Courtesy of MOR

The Marlins Of Raleigh Swim Team (MOR) won 7 events and finished in 3rd place out of over 300 teams at the National Club Swimming Association Jr. Nationals held in Orlando March 13-17.  The meet brought together over 1500 of the top 18-Under swimmers in the US and is a hotbed for college recruiters.  Over 250 swimmers competed in most Preliminary events and 5 heats of 8 swimmers made finals with the A, B, C finals all scoring points.  MOR won the most events of any team at the Meet which included Madison Homovich winning the 1000 (9:33.63) and 1650 Free (16:05.15), Grace Countie won the 50 (22.30) and 100 Free (48.88), Abby Arens won the 100 Breast (1:00.01) and Zach Brown won the 200 Fly (1:43.96)  MOR won the women’s 200 Medley Relay (1:39.96)  consisting of Madison Homovich, Ashley McCauley, Abby Arens, Grace Countie.

Team Scores were as follows with MOR in 3rd for Women and Combined and 10th in Men.  New Wave Swim Team of Raleigh finished 11th in the Women scoring:

Women:

1-Nations Capital  Washington DC  1229
2-Aquajets   Minneapolis                867.5
3-MOR        Raleigh                      820
4-Nova        Richmond                  650
11-New Wave    Raleigh                301

Men

1-Nation’s Capital                        1159
2-Academy Bullets   Chicago        753
3-New Trier           Chicago           458
4-Long Island       NY                    456
10-MOR              Raleigh             290

Combined

1-Nation’s Capital                        2388
2-Aquajets                                    1224
3-MOR                                       1110
4-Academy Bullets                        1081.5

MOR swimmers broke 3 NC Swimming Age Group State records.  Madison broke the 15-18 1000 Free.  Abby broke the 15-16 100 Breast and Zach Brown broke the 15-18 200 Fly record.  All these swimmers held the previous record.

MOR Swimmers who placed in the top 8 included:

• Abby Arens    16    Soph    St. Mary’s School    Raleigh
  • 9th highest scoring female in the meet
  • 100 Breast 1st    1:00.01
  • 100 IM    3rd    55.19
  • 50 Breast 3rd    28.27
  • 200 Breast    2nd    2:10.04
• Zach Brown    17    Sr.     Athens Drive HS    Cary (committed to NC State)
  • 1000 Free    8th    9:14.25
  • 200 Fly    1st    1:43.96
  • 100 Fly     2nd    47.66
  • 50 Fly       5th    22.04
• Grace Countie    18    Leesville Rd HS        Raleigh (committed to UNC)
  • 100 IM    2nd    55.16
  • 100 Free    1st 48.88
  • 100 Back    4th    52.94
  • 50 Back    3rd     24.44
  • 50 Free     1st     22.30
• John Healy    17    Green Hope HS    Cary    (committed to NCSU)
  • 200 Back    7th    1:45.92
• Madison Homovich    17    Woods Charter School    Pittsboro (committed to U. of Georgia)
  • 1000 Free    1st 9:33.63
  • 200 Back    4th    1:54.15
  • 200 Fly    5th        1:58.15
  • 400 IM     2nd        4:10.92
  • 500 Free    3rd      4:41.95
  • 1650 Free    1st    16:05.15
• Ashley McCauley    17    Leesville Rd HS    Raleigh
  • 100 Breast    5th    1:01.01
  • 200 Breast    3rd    2:10.20

MOR Swimmers who placed in the 9-16 and 17-24 places scoring valuable points for MOR included:

• Connor Dalbo    18    Green Hope HS    Cary (committed to SMU)
  • 100 Breast    23rd    57.29
• Jaden Kring    17      Sanderson HS     Raleigh
  • 200 Fly    12th    1:48.54
• Josh Legge    17    Millbrook HS        Raleigh    (committed to George Washington U)
  • 1000 Free    11th    9:16.48
• Ashley Worden 16       Cardinal Gibbons HS    Raleigh
  • 200 Fly    20th    1:59.43

MOR Swimmers who placed in the D and E finals included

• Adrianna Cera (1000 Free), Sammy Lucht (200 Breast), Sean Quinn (1000 Free, 1650 Free), Rachel Strickland (200 Back).

MOR relays were dominant as the following relays scored points.  Relays are crucial as they are awarded double the point value of individual events.

• Women’s Relays
  • 800 Free Relay    2nd    7:15.79    (Countie, Arens, Homovich, Adrianna Cera)
  • 200 Medley Relay 1st     1:39.96    (Homovich, McCauley, Arens, Countie)
  • 400 Free Relay      6th    3:22.71    (Arens, Countie, Homovich, Madison Duracinsky)
  • 200 Free Relay      6th    1:32.81    (Sophie  Clayton–Luce, Arens, Countie, Homovich)
  • 400 Medley ‘A’ Relay 4th    3:42.22 (Countie, Arens, Homovich, Duracinsky)    “B” Relay    23rd    (Clayton-Luce, Genna Joyce, Ashley Worden, Izzy Barnette)
• Men’s Relays
  • 800 Free Relay    12th    7:47.73    (Hunter Pigg, Brown, Healy, Legge)
  • 200 Medley Relay    5th    1:31.83  (Healy, Dalbo, Brown, Pigg)

“I am so proud of our swimmers.  To win 7 events at a meet of this level is impressive and is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of these athletes. MOR was the talk of the meet all week.  No team from Raleigh has ever  performed as well at the National level as our current group of Marlins.   In addition, they overcame a lot of adversity as 9 of our 33 swimmers came down with the flu while at the meet and therefore could not compete later in the meet.  This caused some late night room changes but they  took it all in stride and competed to win.”  said MOR head coach Paul Silver.