Catoosa swimmers finish eighth at GRPA state meet
A week after hosting the Chattanooga Area Swim League City Meet, the Catoosa Great White Sharks officially closed out the summer by welcoming in over 700 athletes from every part of the state for the 2021 Georgia Recreation and Parks Association Class B and C State Meet at the Arlene Crye Municipal Pool on July 16 and 17.
After preliminaries and finals were held for 90 different events, the Great White Sharks finished a very respectable eighth in the combined team standings with 1194 points. The Appling County Barracudas took the top spot overall with 2489 points, followed by the Douglas Stingrays (1967) and Oconee County (1605).
Catoosa was seventh in the women’s standings with 535 points with Appling County
(1299), Douglas (1009) and Commerce (993) taking the top three spots. In the men’s standings, Catoosa finished fifth with 629 points, while Oconee County (805), Douglas (730) and Appling County (726) led the way.
Several Catoosa swimmers earned top five finishes in their respective events and the team collected two victories, one individual and
one relay, in Class B events.
The individual win went to Helen Webb, who took first in the 15-18 year-old 100-yard individual medley with a time of 1:05.84, while the relay victory went to the team of Reese Rawls, Tallulah Tweed, Avary Kadetz and Katelyn Holman, who touched the wall in 1:29.98 to win the 7-8 year-old 100yard medley relay.
Rawls, Tweed, Kadetz and Holman would also finish runner-up in the 100-yard freestyle relay for their age group while Tweed was second, individually, in the 25yard breaststroke and Kadetz placed second in the 25-yard backstroke and third in the 25-yard freestyle.
Webb would add secondplace points in the 50-yard backstroke and the 50-yard breaststroke. She teamed with Mariana Easley, Emma Williams and Maggie Grayson to finish as runner-up in the 200-yard freestyle relay and she joined forces with Easley, Williams and Liliana Roloff to finish second in the 200-yard medley relay.
Easley picked up a thirdplace finish in the 100-yard individual medley and she was fourth in the 50-yard breaststroke.
In the women’s 11-12 yearold 200-yard medley relay, the team of Addison Rievley, Lulu Parkhill, Bella
Christopher and Madison Roloff took fifth place.
As for the Catoosa men, Wade Christopher had three top-three finishes in individual events. Christopher was runner-up in the 7-8 year-old 25-yard butterfly and third in both the 25yard backstroke and the 25yard freestyle. Christopher would go on to team with Sully Foster, Miles Worley and Jameson Fox to take fourth in the 100-yard freestyle relay.
In the 9-10 age group, Oliver Webb was fourth in the 25-yard breaststroke. Colson Chappelear was fifth in the 25-yard butterfly and the pair joined Callahan Tweed and Will Watson to place fourth in the 100-yard medley relay.
Joel Motter had two topfives in individual races for the 11-12 age group, taking third in the 50-yard breaststroke and fifth in the 50yard butterfly.
As for the 13-14 age group, the team of Tyler Braly, Alex Grayson, Will Riddell and Hayden Scheeler placed second in the 200-yard medley relay, while Braly, Grayson, Riddell and Cooper Chappelear were third in the 200yard freestyle relay. Braly also took fourth in the 100yard individual medley and Chappelear was fifth in the 50-yard backstroke.
A pair of teams also placed third in relays in the 15-18 age group: Ayden Kadetz, Eston Burns, Landon Marshall and Chipper Grayson in the 200-yard medley relay and the team of Kadetz, Marshall, Grayson and Daniel Motter in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
The Great White Sharks also had a team place in a mixed relay as Rievley, Jackson Rawls, Gabe Motter and Elliana Berry teamed up for a fourth-place showing in the 9-10 year-old 100-yard medley relay.