Club Olympia’s Misha Machavariani goes through body marking at the Junior National Open Water Event last weekend in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
Submitted photo
Last weekend, swimmers from Club Olympia competed in national level championship swim meets in both Indiana and Florida. Six club swimmers, led by 15-year-old Ashley Freel, competed at the Speedo
Sectional meet in Indianapolis, while Misha Machavariani competed in the Open Water Junior Nationals in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
Nearly 700 high school, college and Olympic level swimmers from around the country participated in the 2022 Central Zone Spring Speedo Sectionals at IUPUI’s Indiana University Natatorium
Freel swam preliminaries and made the finals in all six of her individual events and joined three of her Club Olympia teammates in four relays. Freel placed 15th in the 200-meter butterfly, 26th in the 100 freestyle, 29th in the 50 freestyle, 31st in the 200 freestyle and 32nd in the 100 backstroke.
Club Olympia swimmers who competed in last weekend’s Speedo Sectional at IUPUI’s Indiana University Natatorium included, from left, Dathan Wolf, Ashley Freel, Maggie Johnson, Connelly Furnish, Annie Murer and Judah Nickoll.
Submitted photo
Freel, Annie Murer, Maggie Johnson and Connelly Furnish placed 18th in the 400 freestyle relay, 22nd in the 200 freestyle and 23rd in both the 200 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay.
Dathan Wolf, a Columbus East senior who will swim at Valparaiso University next season, swam in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke with a top finish of 52nd place in the 200 backstroke. Judah Nickoll, a sophomore at East, swam in the 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke.
This was the first national level competition for the Club Olympia athletes with the exception of Freel.
Meanwhile, in Florida, Machavariani competed in the Junior National 5K event of the Open Water National + Junior National Championships. Machavariani was able to complete the 5K (3.1-mile) course in the Gulf of Mexico in just over 1 hour, 6 minutes and take 14th place in his first open water national competition, as well as his first 5K race.
Any experienced competitive swimming athletes interested in learning more about Club Olympia can visit the club’s website, clubolympiaswimteam.com, and fill out the “Contact Us” page.
Utterback gets junior national cut
Columbus North junior Daniel Utterback, who swims for Franklin Regional Swim Team, earned a winter junior national cut in the 50-meter freestyle at last weekend’s Speedo Sectional at IUPUI’s Indiana University Natatorium.
Submitted photo
Daniel Utterback, a junior at Columbus North, earned a winter junior national cut in the 50-meter freestyle at last weekend’s Speedo Sectional at IUPUI’s Indiana University Natatorium.
Utterback competes for Franklin Regional Swim Team.
