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Dalton High School Catamounts

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February 10, 2012

Prep swimming and diving: Dalton, Northwest head to GHSA Class A-4A state meet

By Devin Golden devingolden@daltoncitizen.com

Dalton High’s boys and girls swimming and diving teams will have 15 representatives — including nine in individual events — at the Georgia High School Association’s Class A-4A state meet when it starts at 9 a.m. today at Georgia Tech.

Dalton coach Charles Todd believes the best way to help prepare his teams for state is simply to keep them in the water as much as possible.

“I’m keeping them in the water every day up until state,” Todd said earlier this week, noting he starts his personal coaching tradition two weeks before the big meet. “I’m trying to make them a fish.”

Three Catamounts will swim the 100 butterfly — junior Taylor Dale (qualifying time of 51.13 seconds), senior Omar Farag (52.80) and sophomore Taylor Mathis (57.14). Dale is seeded first, while Farag has the No. 3 seed. In the 200 individual medley, Farag is the only Dalton swimmer entered, with a qualifying time of 2:02.22. Pierson Scarborough, a junior, is the only Cat competing in the 50 freestyle, with a qualifying time of 22.51.

Two Dalton boys will swim in the 200 and 500 freestyle — seniors Wil Cushman (1:48.62 in the 200; 5:03.33 in the 500) and Brandt Tharpe (1:54.57 in the 200; 5:17.43 in the 500) — the 100 backstroke — Dale (50.96, seeded first) and Mathis (59.47) — and the 100 breaststroke — Scarborough (1:01.58, seeded third) and Hunter Mulkey (1:07.73).

Todd singled out Mulkey as a surprise, especially for the event in which he qualified. The 100 breaststroke is “hard on the knees,” Todd said, which was a mountain to climb considering Mulkey had knee injuries and surgery toward the end of 2011, then had to sit out six weeks.

“It was pretty impressive that (Mulkey) qualified,” Todd said. “They let him back in the water on Dec. 10, and then we had Christmas break. So he couldn’t train that much.”

Chase Hair will compete in the 1-meter diving event, where he’s seeded second.

Senior Rebecca Davis is the only Lady Cat who will compete as an individual, and she will double her workload with the 200 individual medley (2:20.81) and the 100 breaststroke (1:12.84).

“We lost a lot of seniors last year, and it was going to be a rebuilding year (for the Lady Cats),” Todd said. “They’ve done better than expectations. When you lose 15 of your 30 swimmers, you’re going to be in a rebuilding year.”

Dalton will compete in six relay events. Dale, Scarborough, Farag and Cushman will swim the 200 medley (1:37.45) and 400 freestyle (3:20.53). Sophomore Taylor Mathis, senior Brandt Tharpe, junior Michael O’Brien and either Sam Reeves or Alan Trejo will represent Dalton in the 200 freestyle (1:31.26). Freshman Nineve Arriola, senior Anna Clarke, freshman Maddie Miller and Davis will swim the 200 medley (2:05.67) and 200 freestyle (1:48.62) for the Lady Cats. Arriola, Miller and Clarke again team up for the 400 freestyle (4:12.44) with Emilie Smith being the fourth swimmer.

For Northwest Whitfield, seniors Sawyer Locke and Nicholas Marcadis, junior Chandler Rickett and sophomore Matthew Pipkin are the only Bruins competing, having qualified for the 200 freestyle relay in 1:40.82.

Northwest, which started its swimming and diving team for the 2007-08 season, had to adjust this year after Dalton State College closed its pool, where the Bruins and Lady Bruins had practiced there for their first four years of competition. This season, they rented Dalton High’s pool for an hour-long session each evening.

“This year I was hoping that we would make some individual events, but with the pool situation we only got to swim for an hour,” Northwest coach Marta Hannah said. “Last year we were able to train for two hours. I’m surprised that we made state in one event this year.”

Still, Hannah believes the program is making progress each year.

The goal for the Northwest foursome is to do better than their qualifying time of 1:40.82, Hannah said.

“Hopefully they beat their (qualifying) time,” she said. “That’s the goal.”

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Dalton High School Catamounts