December Meet Recaps
YOTA x ARENA Capital Classic
128 YOTA athletes competed in the 29th Annual YOTA x Arena Capital Classic last month. It was a BIG weekend filled with outstanding mid-season championship racing. As a team, we had 58 individual swims and 30 YOTA relays finish in the Top 8. 24 new YMCA Nationals cuts were achieved, and 7 YOTA athletes qualified for YMCA Nationals for the very first time. Our men’s team placed 3rd, our women took 2nd, and YOTA placed 2nd as an overall combined team!
The success of the weekend would not have been possible without our great team of parent volunteers who worked countless hours over the weekend, and in the weeks leading up to it. Thank you to all of our officials, hospitality workers, timers, meet marshalls, runners, and more! We would like to highlight the following volunteers for working all 7 sessions that weekend: Julie Stoner, Hali Bakelaar, Amy Eischeid, Maren Olsen, Kelly Paleocrassas, Kaiya Ramsey, the Sikes Family, The Skelly Family, Dacy Ayers, Steven Humbert, The Brunk Family, The Harris Family, The Lajoie Family and The Pearce Family. Thank you for all that you do!
Speedo Winter Junior Nationals
Some of the fastest races in history took place at USA Swimming’s Speedo Winter Junior National Championship meet at the Greensboro Aquatic Center, December 7th - 11th. YOTA’s own Maxwell Ayres, Teddy Blake, Benjamin Eischeid, Stamatis Paleocrassas, and Reese Stoner rode the momentum of their exciting Capital Classic weekend all the way to Greensboro to race on this historically competitive stage. Among the many highlights of the meet, Coach Jamie and the boys had the opportunity to meet SwimStrong Dryland’s Eric Hudson in person for the very first time!
TYDE Holiday Invite
Over the weekend of December 9th - 11th, TYDE hosted 257 of our swimmers at their Holiday Invite in Kernersville. This meet served as another opportunity for our swimmers to put everything they have worked on during the first half of this season into action. Their hard work certainly paid off as many swimmers showed massive improvements, reached mid-season goal times, and punched their tickets to Age Group Champs and USRY!
US Paralympic Swimming National Championships
Casey Freeman represented YOTA at the 2022 US Paralympic Swimming National Championship meet in Charlotte, NC December 16th - 18th. While racing amongst the fastest swimmers in the country, she finished the weekend with 100% best times, placed in the top 16 in all five of her events, and took home the gold in the S9 classification for the 200 Backstroke. Casey proved to herself that the stars do not have to align perfectly to have a great meet as she faced a few bumps in the road and still came home a National Champion!