It was a scorching-hot weekend, but 535 swimmers found respite in the Donner Park pool at the annual Jaime Miller Invitational.
Columbus’ two swim clubs, Donner and Club Olympia, were on hand for the three-day meet hosted by Donner Swim Club. Donner finished third and Club Olympia fourth overall out of 21 teams behind Franklin Regional Swim Team and Riverside Aquatic Club.
The meet consisted of eight swim sessions starting on Friday and ending on Sunday, with 10-and-under boys and girls swimming in the morning, 11-12-year-olds swimming in the afternoon and 13-and-overs swimming in late afternoon and early evenings.
Donner’s boys and girls each finished third. Donner’s 66 swimmers achieved 238 personal-best times out of 312 swims for 76% best-time swims. On top of the 238 best-time swims, Donner had 25% of its swims result in divisional cuts.
Donner’s Georgia Abadallah, Levi Bense, Cooper Bringman, Ella Bringman, Diego Cortero Tapia, Caroline Crawford, Deglan Cunningham, Aarush Mahato, Kanav Mehta, Mridula Muthukumaran, Cade Paulsen, Sanchita Ponnathpur, Abby Proffitt, Ellie Proffitt, Isaac Proffitt, Luiza Salomao, Brock Smith, Shabarirajan Thangaraj and Cora Tregoning all qualified for Indiana Divisional Championships. Cortero Tapia also qualified for the Indiana Senior State Meet, and Paulsen qualified for the Indiana Age Group State Meet, both of which are in July.
Club Olympia’s boys finished second and girls sixth. The club had 31 swimmers, with six of those competing on only one day of the three-day meet, and had seven event winners.
In the 13-and-over boys division, Club Olympia’s Judah Nickoll, Cole Ehara and Cavan Stilson teamed with Luke Miller to win the 200-meter freestyle relay and with Dathan Wolf to take the the 200 medley relay.
Camila Mejia Murguia led Club Olympia with 148 points in the 11-12 girls age group by winning the 50 butterfly, placing second in the 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle and 200 individual medley and placing third in the 50 backstroke and 100 freestyle. She finished in the top five in all nine of her nine individual swims and earned an Age Group State cut in the 100 butterfly.
Bella Zhang scored 128 points in the Girls 8-and-under events, winning the 100 breaststroke and placing in the top seven of all eight of her individual events. Her brother Xavier scored 100 points, placing as high as third in the 11-12 boys 400 freestyle.
Cavan Stilson won the boys 13-and-over 400 IM and scored in all but one of his nine events to earn 113 points. Swimming in just six individual events, Dathan Wolf, who just finished his freshman year at Valparaiso University, scored 92 points and won the boys 13-and-over 50 buterfly and 100 backstroke.
Also finishing in the top five in at least one event for Club Olympia were Sarthak Deshmukh, Cole Ehara, Connelly Furnish, Ty Mayer, Emily Meek, Rebecca Mejia Murguia, Luke Miller, Annie Murer, Max Tempest and Xavier Zhang.
