Peach State 18 and Under Championships
- December 10-13, 2020
- Freeman Aquatic Center
- Norcross, Georgia
- SCY (25 yards)
- Psych Sheets (PDF)
- Results on Meet Mobile: “Peach State 18 and Under Championships”
- Live Stream (Spartans YouTube channel)
The Peach State 18 and Under Championships got underway Thursday evening in Norcross, Ga., hosted by the Spartans Aquatic Club with several clubs teams competing from around the area including SwimAtlanta, Athens Bulldogs Swim Club and Gwinnett Aquatics.
Provided athletes had achieved the qualifying standards beforehand, swimmers competing will have their results count towards USA Swimming’s 18 & Under Winter National Championships.
With only a pair of relays and the 1650 freestyle being contested on opening night, the lone major highlight came from the Spartans Aquatic Club boys, who lowered the National Age Group Record in the 200 medley relay.
The team made up of Nathaniel Stoffle, Preston Lin, Kamal Muhammad and Peter Sacca combined for a time of 1:26.43 to break both the 15-18 and 17-18 NAGs of 1:26.47 set by the Nation’s Capital Swim Club in 2015. Stoffle is 18, while the three others are 17 years old.
That NCAP team featured some familiar names: John Shebat, Carsten Vissering, Andrew Seliskar and James Jones. You can read more about the record here.
OTHER EVENTS
The Spartans also placed first in the boys 800 free relay, competing against Gwinnett and the Athens Bulldogs, as Trey Carter, Luke Han, Charles Lu and Ayden Meierarend put up a time of 6:49.19. Carter had the top split, leading off in 1:40.86 to fall just four-tenths off his lifetime best set in August (1:40.44).
Gwinnett Aquatics (6:56.95) also had their top split come on the lead-off, where Darnell Mitchell was 1:41.62. Mitchell owns a PB of 1:40.70 from July.
Athens Bulldogs swimmer Ryan Wylie, 17, claimed the boys’ 1650 free in a time of 16:07.91, edging 15-year-old Joel Strauss (16:10.38) from SwimAtlanta. Wylie’s best stands at 15:47.91 from March of 2019, though he was 16:27.48 just last month, while Strauss’ swim was a PB by over three seconds.
In the girls’ 1650 SwimAtlanta’s Madeline Singletary, 18, won by nearly 20 seconds in 16:58.91, well off her best of 16:39.42 from March. Her 17-year-old teammate Samantha Bertschi was the runner-up in a lifetime best of 17:18.35.
In the girls’ relays, Spartans was the only club competing in the 200 medley (1:46.67), and the Athens Bulldogs were the only team racing the 800 free (7:41.95).
