Still revved since ending Lakeside's string of 14 DeKalb County championships two weeks ago, Dunwoody High girls swimmers consider anything possible in the Class A-AAAA meet today and Saturday at Georgia Tech.
"Our girls are still really pumped," Wildcats coach Rae Colley said. "They feel they shouldn't take a back seat to anybody right now."
It's been some time since Dunwoody ascended to the medal stand as a team, but both the Wildcat girls and boys have before. Prior to the Georgia High School Association creating separate state meets for A-AAAA teams and AAAAA squads, Dunwoody's girls captured all-classification titles in 1975 and '76, then in '83 and in '85-87. Dunwoody's boys won in '76-78 and in '84.
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Dunwoody's girls and boys will attempt to improve on last year's 12th and 30th-place finishes at state, respectively. The girls' hopes rest in athletes including Lindsay Caldarella, Maggie Joyce, Bekah Passow and Shawn Pyne, who will team in the meet-ending 400-yard freestyle relay. That event proved pivotal at county, when Calderella, Joyce and Pyne teamed with Stephanie Stadnick and edged out Lakeside in a state-qualifying time of 3 minutes, 55.37 seconds.
Caldarella, Joyce, Passow and Pyne hope to better last year's eighth-place state finish in the 200 freestyle relay in a school-record 1:44.63, and Stadnick will stand in for Pyne in the 200 medley relay. Joyce is slated to compete in the 100 breaststroke, as is Pyne in the 100 freestyle and 50 freestyle, with Passow.
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"We're all really excited and pumped up," Passow said. "We're all pretty confident we'll do pretty well. I'm really excited about the relays."
Dunwoody's boys, who finished second to Lakeside at county, are led at state by B.J. Janas, John Hicks, Matt Kiser and Tom Reuning in the 200 freestyle relay, and by Jonny Slimming, who will replace Hicks in the 400 freestyle relay. Justin Wulff, Ted Dixon, J.B. Young and Nathan Yoakum will team in the 200 medley relay.
Reuning looks to improve on last year's school-record 52.59 in the 100 butterfly preliminaries and eventual sixth-place finish in 52.78, and is scheduled to swim the 50 freestyle also. Janas has high hopes in the 200 medley and 100 breaststroke, as do Hicks in the 50 freestyle, Slimming in the 500 freestyle and Kiser in the 100 backstroke and 200 freestyle, with Slimming.
The last Dunwoody girl to win an individual state championship was Natanya Harper, who captured the 50 freestyle in a school-record 24.07 in 2003. Justin Wingo was Dunwoody's last boy to claim gold with a 100 breaststroke in a school-record 59 seconds in 2000.
Colley said Dunwoody swimmers believe they can again medal this year.
"I wouldn't put anything past these kids," she said. "Nothing is out of the realm of possibility."
State swim and dive championships at Georgia Tech
Today
9:00 a.m. – AAAAA swim prelims; A-AAAA boys diving rounds 1-8
12:30 p.m. – A-AAAA girls diving rounds 1-8
5:30 p.m. – A-AAAA boys diving finals
6:30 p.m. – A-AAAA swim prelims
7:15 p.m. – A-AAAA girls diving finals
Saturday
10 a.m. – AAAAA boys diving
noon – AAAAA girls diving
1 p.m. – AAAAA swim finals
6 p.m. – A-AAAA swim finals
