The Woodstock-based club team now has a total of 25 victories going into today’s finale of the Stu Hixon Invite at Mountain View Aquatic Center.
Nathan Hufnagel, Lexi Glunn, Emma Cole and Jaclyn Hill were all two-event winners in the long-course meet.
Hill came from behind after the final turn to beat out Britheny Joassaint in the girls 11-12 division of the 200 freestyle with a time of 2 minutes, 14.10 seconds. She also won the 400 individual medley (5:35.01), more than 20 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Addison Smith of the Knoxville, Tenn.-based Pilot Aquatic Center.
Cole, who swam in the girls 13-14 division, was in a tight race in the 400 freestyle against Pilot’s Elizabeth Gallmeier before winning by 0.62 seconds with a time of 4:36.31. She went on to win the 200 butterfly in 2:29.40.
Glunn, another girls 13-14 swimmer, took the lead before the final turn of the 200 breaststroke before finishing with a secure lead in 2:52.34. She also took the 50 freestyle (8.86).
“Everything Emma Cole did (Saturday) turned to gold,” Gold coach Pat Murphy said. “And Lexi Glunn has come out of her plateau and is totally back in business.”
Hufnagel, a Walton High School standout, clinched both the 200 butterfly and 200 breaststroke rather convincingly in the boys 15-18 division. He won the breaststroke by more than 7 seconds, finishing in 2:28.27 seconds. He needed more than 2 seconds of separation to win the butterfly in 2:10.06.
Recent Woodstock High School graduate Erika Staskevicius, who will be swimming at Georgia Tech next year, outlasted Pilot’s Ally Hardesty in the 50 freestyle (27.48). Incoming Walton freshman Nicholas Froemming won the boys 13-14 50 freestyle (26.59), and Austin Sumrall won the 15-and-over boys 50 freestyle (25.05).
Rising Walton junior Kira de Bruyn won the 200 breaststroke in 2:46.97 for Gold, Logan Belt (boys 13-14) won the 200 breaststroke (2:43.82), Jonathan Yuen (boys 13-14) won the 400 freestyle (4:33.55) and Jonathan Young (boys 11-12) won the 400 IM (5:22.30).
Pilot’s Caleb Harrington, 12, set new records in the 100 butterfly (1:03.07), 200 freestyle (2:08.14) and 100 backstroke (1:04.88). Rising Lassiter Jimmy Yoder was the previous record-holder in all three events.
Andy Yap, of Stingrays Swimming, eclipsed Yoder’s mark in the 200 freestyle (2:08.79) and 100 backstroke (1:05.12), but he finished second to Harrington.
“He loves to win, and not winning fires him up,” Stingrays assistant coach Pike Hightower said of Yap. “He’s learning a lot about technique and learning how fun it is to race, and that’s huge.”
The Stingrays who did win included rising Etowah junior Taylor Weiss in the 200 butterfly (2:24.38), rising Walton sophomore Mary Beckwith in the 100 backstroke (1:08.67) and Tyler Harper in the 400 freestyle (4:15.04).
Melissa Postoll of the Stingrays, also a rising Kennesaw Mountain senior, won the 100 backstroke (1:05.48) in a tuneup for this week’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb.
Joassaint, of the Marietta Marlins, won the girls 11-12 100 backstroke (1:12.03).










