The Winder-Barrow High School SwimDoggs had a strong ending to the regular season by qualifying in seven events for the finals in the Metro Atlanta Championship hosted by Westminster.
Among the more than 950 athletes and 40 teams, the following SwimDoggs qualified for finals:
•the girls 200 Medley Relay of Brittany Litke, Megan Greene, Clara Moody and Elizabeth Mattison;
•Litke in the 200 IM and 100 back, in which she set new school records in both events;
•Mitchell Buttler in the 200 IM and 100 back (He set a new school record in the IM);
•the boys 200 free relay of Buttler, Jared Glenn, Alex Hentenaar and Daniel Dean;
•the boys 400 free relay of Buttler, Andrew Maynard, Hentenaar and Dean;
Setting personal bests were team members Litke, Leo Diaz, Caitlin Connell, Tony Brundage, Buttler, Hentenaar, Anna Dean and Jake Hester.
“I gave each swimmer their meet events and had hand written some goals I had set for each,” said Winder-Barrow coach Jennifer Blevins. “Most goals were a second or two faster than their fastest time to date.”
Two swimmers were able to meet those goals. Caitlin Connell swam her goals in the 100 free and 100 breaststroke. Her 100 breaststroke time was more than 20 seconds faster that her previous best, Blevins said.
Buttler also met his goal time in the 200 IM.
“Brittany Litke had an amazing consolation finals swim in the 200 IM,” Blevins said. “She swam a 2:17.05. This is the fastest time ever for a WBHS swimmer. Her school record even beats the boys’ time. The most amazing part of that swim was that she swam .04 seconds slower than the girls 200 Medley Relay (2:17.01).”
Blevins said Buttler had a “crazy day.” In the end, he swam eight races and the last three were all completed within a 30-minute time frame.
“Although we did not qualify any more events for state, the personal bests, school seconds and top 20 qualifying events more than made up for it,” the coach said. “To me, and most of the kids, this meet was more exciting than state. For Winder-Barrow to qualify in seven events out of the more than 950 swimmers and 40 teams there, was a feat in itself. I am so proud of the hard work that each and every swimmer put into this season and could not have a happier ending to the regular season.”
Now the sights are set on getting Litke and Buttler into the Sweet-16 of swimming which would put them into state finals.
“We know what each needs to work on and can focus on improving those areas, along with every other aspect of each swimmers race,” their coach said.
The A-AAAA preliminaries will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 11 on the campus of Georgia Tech.
