ETSU Swim Club started off its competitive season with a weekend meet from Sept. 24-25 for the 7th-annual Tigertown Invitational, hosted by Clemson University.
“One of our main goals every year is to get as many swimmers to nationals as possible. It is always such a great experience and a great team bonding moment as well,” said junior Gabrianna Gomez (Wytheville, Virginia). “Another goal we have every year is to recruit new people, which I feel we have done well this year.”
Club president sophomore Sam Bates (Nashville, Tennessee) qualified for nationals in the 50-yard backstroke.
Junior Zack Browning (Greenville, South Carolina) almost qualified for nationals in the 50-yard breaststroke.
“Overall, on an individual basis, the team did very well with this being the first meet this school year. Most of our returning swimmers that went to this meet are doing around the same times as they did at the end of last year, which shows they have the ability to drop more time this year as the season progresses to make their nationals times,” said senior David Mitchell (Wantage, New Jersey).
This was the first meet the club has attended since nationals, which took place from Friday, April 8 to Sunday, April 10 in Atlanta, Georgia. Before nationals, the final regular season meet of the spring 2022 semester took place on Saturday, March 26 for the Smokey Invitational in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“After such a long break between seasons, we were all super excited! Over half of the swimmers we took to Clemson had never been to a college club meet. Last year we didn’t get to go to very many meets because of [COVID-19], so we had a lot of fun finally getting back to a competitive season,” said Bates.
The swim club is preparing for the rest of the season, future meets and future accomplishments.
“This was our first meet of the season, and it couldn’t have gone better! The meet was a great way to get to know one another, and a great way to start off our season,” Gomez concluded.
