Heritage girls win NW Georgia Middle School swimming title

The Heritage Middle School swim team had a hugely successful day at the recent Northwest Georgia Middle School Swimming Championships in Calhoun.

The Lady Generals won the girls’ title, while the Generals placed fourth on the boys’ side. Heritage would finish third in the combined standings.

A total of 258 points was enough for the Heritage girls to hold off Calhoun (227) for the top spot, while Social Circle (219) was third. Calhoun (418) won the boys’ division, followed by Social Circle (233), Dalton (191) and Heritage (157). Ringgold, represented only in the boys’ division, was eighth with 29 points.

The overall combined points showed Calhoun winning with 645, followed by Social Circle (452) and Heritage (415) in the 14-school meet, which featured over 200 swimmers. Heritage had 19 swimmers at the meet, all of which qualified for the finals in their events.

Eighth grader Julia Striker amassed 60 points and won all of her events. She also set a meet record in the 200-yard freestyle (2:07) and made the high school state cut time in the event. The previous meet record was 2:09.50. Striker also took first place in the 500-yard freestyle (5:51.15).

Seventh-grader Emma Pulliam also finished with 60 points as she won all of her events and set her own meet record in the 50-yard freestyle (26.29). She too made the high school state cut time in the event. The previous meet record was 26.44. Pulliam also took first place in the 100-yard freestyle (1:00.17).

Another seventh grader, Marianna Easley, finished with 57 points and made the high school state cut time in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:14.62). She placed second in the finals in that event, but won the 200-yard indi- vidual medley in a time of 2:27.93.

Jayden Jones (38 points) was second in the 100 freestyle (1:10.78) and eighth in the 100 backstroke (1:28.70). Emma Williams (36 points) was fifth in the 100 backstroke (1:20.78) and seventh in the 50 freestyle (31.79). Jaslin Pack (7 points) placed 10th in the finals of 100 breaststroke (1:52.67).

In the team races, Striker, Easley, Pulliam and Williams won the 200yard medley relay (2:08.65), while Easley, Jones, Striker and Pulliam won the 200 freestyle relay (1:53.21).

For the Heritage boys, Chipper Grayson was the top point-scorer with 42. Individually, Grayson was fifth in both the 50 freestyle (26.92) and the 100 breaststroke (1:27.57), while Daniel Patouga (38 points) was sixth in the 50 freestyle (28.76) and eighth in the 100 freestyle (1:07.87).

Damon Jones (26 points) placed 10th in the 100 backstroke (1:31.55) and 11th in the 100 freestyle (1:16.38). Alex Grayson (7 points) was 10th in

the 100 breaststroke (1:36.94) and Levi Cragle picked up five points for his 12th place finish in the 200 freestyle (2:50.31).

Hayden Scheeler (14 points) teamed with Patouga, Jones and Chipper Grayson to finish fourth in the 200 freestyle relay (2:03.74), while the quartet also took sixth in the 200 medley

relay (2:25.11).

In the 100 freestyle relay, Heritage finished 10th as the team of Mac Keith, Robert Pepper, John Keith and Askar Aitov clocked in at 6:07.96.

For Ringgold, Kirill Ledbed was fourth in the 100 butterfly (1:12.64) and fifth in the 200 freestyle (2:19.09) to account for all of the Tigers’ points.