Donner Swim Club hosted the 2022 Donner Winter Invitational last weekend at Columbus North High School.
Submitted photo
After a couple of down years, Donner Swim Club is experiencing a resurgence.
Donner hosted 14 teams in its 2022 Donner Winter Invitational last weekend at Columbus North, and the club came away with the girls team championship, beating out perennial power Franklin Regional Swim Team (FRST) and Lawrence Swim Team.
“I think that was an encouraging sign, and it was encouraging that we had 60 kids competing, and that’s without our high school kids,” Donner interim coach Aaron Fry said. “Seymour and Lawrence and some of the other teams brought their high school kids, and that’s where Lawrence scored a lot of their points.”
The Donner girls scored 297 points to 243.5 for FRST and 235.5 for Lawrence Swim. Lawrence won the boys title with 295 points to 265 for FRST and 189 for Donner.
In the overall combined team standings, Lawrence was first with 530.5 points, followed by FRST with 508.5 and Donner with 486.
Mridula Muthukumaran led Donner with nine first-place finishes and one second. She won the 11-12-year-old girls High Point Award.
“She was our Athlete of the Meet,” Fry said. “She had a great meet.”
Camilla Mejia Murguia won the 9-10 girls High Point Award, and her twin sister Rebecca Mejia Murguia tied for second in that division. Ainsley Sherlock won the 13-14 girls High Point Award.
On the boys side, Reyansh Nighojkar won the 7-8 boys High Point Award. Jonathan Calloway finished second in the 9-10 boys high point standings, and Aarush Mahato finished fifth in the 13-14 boys standings.
“We had a lot of good swims,” Fry said. “Several kids made divisional cuts. We saw a lot of improvement. We dropped time in over half of our swims, so it was great.”
Fry said Donner currently has 134 total swimmers in its program.
“Our numbers are definitely back up there,” Fry said. “I would say in the last couple years, that’s probably the most we’ve had. Usually, we have a few of the high school kids, so 60 just age-group kids competing is outstanding.”
Fry took over as Donner’s interim coach in November, shortly after former coach Logan Schaefer left to become an age group coach with the Mason (Ohio) Manta Rays. Donner is looking for a permanent coach.
Donner is in the midst of ramping up competition. The Donner Winter Invitational was its biggest short-course meet of the season. The club will compete in the Super Bowl Splash Jan. 28-30 at Center Grove and the Aqua Sprints Feb. 11-13 at Avon. The Divisional Championships and Senior and Age-Group Short-Course state meets are in March.
Donner hosts its long-course Jaime Miller Invitational the first weekend in June at Donner Park.
“We’ve really kind of picked up the pace here in the last month,” Fry said. “Some of our more experienced swimmers have been putting a lot of work on. As we continue to work, I really anticipate that we’ll have a lot more kids qualifying for divisionals and age-group state. It will be exciting to get to those meets and see what we can do.”
