ATAC swimmers vie in Junior Olympics

Published 9:47 pm Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Staff report



The Thomasville ATAC YMCA swim team sent two of its athletes to compete in the Florida Swimming Junior Olympics last week in Fort Myers, Fla. The four-day event took place at the Lee County/Florida Gulf Coast University Aquatics Center and was hosted by the Gulf Coast swim team.

Maggie Davis and Ryan Davis qualified to compete in events that were limited to the top 10 percent of all swimmers who are members of Florida Swimming. Qualifying times are formulated based on the previous two year’s results of swim meets in Florida.

A total of 838 athletes, ranging in age from 8 to 14, participated. Ten-and-under swimmers were limited to a maximum of six individual events and two relays. Swimmers in the 11-14 year group were allowed in up to six individual events and four relays. An average of 45 swimmers participated in each individual event.

Maggie, a 10-year-old rising Jerger Elementary School fifth grader, tallied her best times in all of her events except one and emerged 12th from a field of 61 participants in the 50-meter butterfly. She also placed 12th overall in the 400-meter freestyle, 18th in the 100-meter butterfly, 22nd in the 200-meter individual medley, 36th in the 200-meter freestyle and 39th in the 100-meter freestyle.

Maggie also swam with the ATAC girls 10-and-under 200-meter medley relay team and the 200-meter freestyle relay team. The 12th-seeded medley relay team placed sixth overall and the 11th-seeded freestyle relay team finished fourth.

Ryan, a 13-year-old rising eighth grader at MacIntyre Park Middle School, qualified for one individual event and two relay events. He posted a personal best of 29.80 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle, advancing five places from his original seed. He also swam with the ATAC 13-14 boys 200-freestyle relay (B) team and the 400-meter freestyle relay (B) team.

The 200-meter freestyle relay team finished 14th overall and the 400-meter freestyle relay team came in 12th overall.