Jefferson High School swimmers Camille Porter and Jacob Musgrove both earned personal best times during the Georgia High School Association state swim meet at Georgia Tech Friday and Saturday. They were the first to compete in the meet from JHS, which just started a swim team this year.
The GHSA meet combined all Class A through AAAAA teams, which made the event additionally tough to advance to the final round in, much less place in the sport.
Neither Porter nor Musgrove qualified for the finals, however their strong performances suggest the young team is poised for greater success, their school coach Lane Guzman said.
Porter, who qualified for the preliminaries in two events, was the second fastest freshman competitor in the 50-yard freestyle with her time of 25.75 seconds. She finished 21st out of 37 swimmers in the event, which was won by Woodward Academy’s Caitlin Cooper (23 seconds).
Porter also came in fifth overall in Class AA competitors, Guzman pointed out. Porter turned in a 57.14 time in the 100-yard freestyle race that tied her for 30th place out of nearly 50 swimmers.
Woodward Academy’s Cooper also took first in this race with a 50.15 finals time.
Overall, four private schools from the Atlanta area swept the top four places with Westminster taking the state title. Woodward Academy and Marist tied for second and St. Pius X placed fourth. (Lambert won Class AAAAAA).
Musgrove, who is a sophomore, finished the season on a high note, as well. He earned his best time in the long-distance 500-freestyle preliminary (5:14.50). St. Pius swimmer Gunnar Bentz won the event (4:35.46).
Dalton High School won the overall boys’ team title, followed by Westminster, Oconee County and North Hall. (Parkview won Class AAAAAA).
Both JHS swimmers are expected to return next year. Several more athletes from Jefferson Middle School — which fielded a team and competed in a number of joint meets with the high school team — are expected to infuse the varsity ranks with new talent and boost the Dragons during the 2013-2014 season.
As it stands already, one middle school relay team posted a score this season that would’ve qualified the group for the state meet that Musgrove and Porter took part in this past weekend.
“The future looks extremely bright with so many talented eighth-graders moving up,” Guzman said.
