SMAC dominates small teams at Virginia Senior Championships

The Waynesboro Y Swim Team (SMAC) competed in the Virginia Senior Championships from March 5-8 in Christiansburg.

The meet has the fastest qualifying times of all meets held at the state level.  The meet was the championship for the older swimmers at the State level for the short course season.  Short course swimming means all events are swum in 25 yard pools, which is the same as NCAA swimming, but not Olympic swimming, which is swum in 50 meter pools.   Swimmers who perform exceedingly well can qualify for Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals or YMCA Nationals.  SMAC chooses to participate in YMCA nationals since we are a Y Team.  Swimmers of any age can qualify for the Virginia senior champs, but generally it is high school age athletes who can make the very fast qualifying standards.

Congratulations to the following SMAC swimmers who qualified for and swam in the highest level state meet:  Jessie Arnold (18), Bobby Carey (17), Alexander Flowers (16),  Norah Hunt (17), Aaron James (17), Morgan James (15), Claudia James (13), Sarah Loomis (15), Justin Merritt (17), Jordan Miller (16),  Maggie Riggan (16), Remedy Rule (18), Brazil Rule (18), Charlotte Rumsey (15), Keelin Wolfe (17) and Jake Zamalis (16).

SMAC was the overall high point winner for the girl’s small team and the combined boys and girls small team.  If this were a baseball game they would have ended it with the slaughter rule as the SMAC girls scored 349 points and the 2nd place small team scored 20.  SMAC also scored more than all medium sized teams (the highest score was 192) and placed 5th overall out of all teams.  SMAC is comprised of approximately 75-80 swimmers and a small team is one with less than 100 swimmers and a medium team is between 100 and 250 swimmers and a large team has over 250 swimmers.

Remedy Rule tied for the high point award by winning the 200 fly, 200 back, 200 IM and 400Im and placing second in the 100 back and 100 fly.  In the final event of the championship, Rule needed to win in the 200IM to tie for the high point award.  She sprinted to a lead in the first two legs of the IM (butterfly and backstroke) then fell behind in the breast stroke leg, but she finished strong on the final 50 free to earn the victory.  Points are awarded based on the swimmers place in the race.  First through sixteenth place earn points with scoring going from 20 points for first place, 17 for second and down to 1 point for 16th place.

Highlights of the meet included: 1) the girls 400 and 800 free relay comprised of Remedy Rule, Brazil Rule, Arnold and  Hunt placing 4th , 2) the girls 200 free, 200 medley and 400 medley relay placing in 5th , 8th and 7th respectively,(Rumsey swam on the medley relays and Morgan James swam the 200 free relay with the Rule sister and Arnold), 3) Merritt making his first Y national time cut in the 200 fly, 4) Brazil Rule making Y national cuts in the 50 free, 200 free and 100 fly, 5) Hunt placing 5th in the mile and 3rd in the 1,000, 6) Arnold placing 2nd in the mile, and 5th in the 500 & 1,000 and Remedy Rule setting 4 new SMAC Records in the 100 fly, 100 back, 50 free and 200 IM.

The SMAC swimmers that have achieved the Y national standard will be competing at the Y National Championships in Greensboro, NC.

The SMAC swim team is a Waynesboro Y program and practices are held at the Waynesboro Y, Augusta Health and Ridgeview Park Pool.  There are numerous swim programs at the Y from swim lessons to long course training to summer swimming.  For more information regarding swimming contact Coach Hailey Hewitt or Kendra Hogg at the Waynesboro Y at 942-5107 or email them at [email protected] or [email protected]

For more information about SMAC, please visit their website: www.smacswimming.org.