Club Olympia Competes in National Championship Meets

This past weekend athletes 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 Sectionals meet in Indianapolis, while Misha Machavariani competed in the Open Water Junior Nationals in Fort Myer Beach, Florida.

The 2022 Central Zone Spring Speedo Sectionals was held at the Indiana University Natatorium and is considered one of the top national events as it brings many of the top swimmers from around the nation to Indianapolis to compete. Nearly 700 high school, college and Olympic level swimmers participated in the long course meet.

Freel swam prelims and made finals in all six of her individual events and joined three of her Club Olympia teammates in four relays.

Freel placed 15th in the 200M Fly, 26th in the 100M Free, 29th in the 50M Free, 31st in the 200M Free and 32nd in the 100M Back. The Club Olympia Ladies Relay Team of Freel, Annie Murer, Maggie Johnson, and Connelly Furnish placed 18th in the 400M Free, 22nd in the 200M Free, and 23rd in both the 200M & 400M Medley Relay events.

Dathan Wolf, who will swim for the Valparaiso University Men’s Swim Team in the Fall swam in the 50M and 100M Free as well as the 100M and 200M Back events with a top finish of 52nd place in the 200M Back.

Judah Nickoll, a Sophomore on the Columbus East Swim Team, swam in the 100M and 200M Free and 100M Back.

This was the first national-level competition for the Club Olympia athletes with the exception of Freel.

In Ft. Myers Beach, Florida, Machavariani competed in the Junior National 5K event of the Open Water National + Junior National Championships. Machavariani was able to complete the 5K (over three miles) course in the Gulf of Mexico in just over one hour and six minutes and take 14th place in his first open water national competition, as well as his first 5K race.

While these athletes were wrapping up the last of their championship events for the 2021-2022 short course season, the rest of nearly 60 Club Olympia swimmers have returned to the pools at Columbus East High School and Northside Middle School this past week to commence training for the Summer 2022 long course season. Any experienced competitive swimming athletes interested in learning more about Club Olympia should visit the club’s website at clubolympiaswimteam.com and fill out the “Contact Us” page.