Starr’s Mill swims to state yet again
Sophomore Hayeon Choi swims freestyle at last week’s county meet. Choi was one of the 21 swimmers to qualify for the upcoming state meet this weekend at Georgia Tech.
January 31, 2017
After winning their 17th straight county championship, the Starr’s Mill swim team heads to state this weekend. Twenty-one girls and boys qualified this year after both teams finished first in county.
“For the first time in probably four or five years both the girls and the boys won first [in the county championship],” coach Robin Huggins said. “We had kids that made their best times of the year at this meet, which is really exciting.”
On the girls side 11 qualified for state, while on the boys side 12 qualified. University of Georgia commit and lone senior Donna Blaum, junior Kylee Bogumill, sophomores Hayeon Choi, Alyson Phinney, Hannah Price, Emma Posey, and Aubrey Stewart, freshmen Holly Hatch, Breanna Kuzusko, Caroline Carle, and Hope Christensen are among the girls traveling to state. For the boys, seniors Brian Buck, Connor Donohue, Ryan Lussos, Alex Stephens, and Nick Palmer, juniors Tyler Groenig, Matt Hargrove, and Ben Miller, sophomores Luke Presley, Vlad Taylor, and Filip Borjeson, and freshman Ben Phifer all qualified.
Despite the team winning their 17th straight county title and so many swimmers qualifying for state, Huggins still sees room for improvement.
“We have cut down our practices a little bit,” Huggins said. “We are really focusing on starts and turns and the relay transitions because when we get to state it may be a few hundredths of a second that separate first and second place.”
The state meet is this weekend at Georgia Tech. Preliminaries begin at 6 p.m. on Friday, with finals scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m.
![The fall 2016 sports season was a successful one for volleyball, softball, and football players at the Mill. A number of Panther athletes received a region award or was selected for the All-County First or Second team depending on which sport they play. Junior and varsity softball player Emily Nieuwstraten. said that “being named an All-County and region team was very important to me because it meant that all of [her] hard work had paid off.” The game has taught her “about teamwork and how you cant just play the game by yourself. You have to depend on the team as a unit,” Nieuwstraten said.](https://www.theprowlernews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/CCM-region-story-feature-475x356.jpg)
![The fall 2016 sports season was a successful one for volleyball, softball, and football players at the Mill. A number of Panther athletes received a region award or was selected for the All-County First or Second team depending on which sport they play. Junior and varsity softball player Emily Nieuwstraten. said that “being named an All-County and region team was very important to me because it meant that all of [her] hard work had paid off.” The game has taught her “about teamwork and how you cant just play the game by yourself. You have to depend on the team as a unit,” Nieuwstraten said.](https://www.theprowlernews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/CCM-region-story-feature-300x225.jpg)
