On Tuesday night, the North Atlanta boys’ swim and dive team narrowly beat Westminster’s team with a final meet score of 146-143. While the girls’ swim and dive team did not win, they still put up a strong fight against the defending state champions. This Dub victory is historic as the Water Warriors have never before beaten the Westminster team, which along with holding the state champion title, is a nationally ranked athletic program with multiple Division I commits graduating each year. 

Since the swimming Dubs started competing against Westminster eight years ago, they had never expected to win due to the sheer size and ability of Westminster’s team. With a large program and a competitive home pool, the Wildcats are hard to beat. Looking ahead to upcoming invitational and championship meets, the team wasn’t expecting many points from this meet against such a formidable opponent and was mostly focused on dropping time in their races. However, the accomplishments from this meet were numerous. Sophomore Henry Schlachter and Senior Will Moriarty took first and second place respectively in the boys 100 back, both with impressive times. Senior Eric Sharabura dominated longer-distance events like the 500 freestyle and the 200 individual medley. Junior Teddy Meredith took third place in the 100 breaststroke, his signature event, breaking up the Westminster sweep of top seed times and bringing the Dubs those three extra points that they needed to win. “This was really an unexpected win and an unforgettable meet,” said Coach Tim Storsteen. “The boys really stepped up to the competition and they were extremely ready for that meet.”

The meet wasn’t just a win for the team as a whole, it was also a win for the swimmers that made state qualifying times in their individual events at this meet. Senior Evann Segal made the state cut for the girls’ 100 freestyle, a goal that she had been working towards all season and had been hoping to make in the competitive environment of Westminster. Along with his contribution to the Dubs’ win in the 100 backstroke, Senior Will Moriarty qualified for state in this event. Moriarty also unexpectedly dropped an entire second off his 100 butterfly time, an event in which he qualified for state earlier in the season and has been crushing for the past two seasons. Senior Lachlan Maclean added to his growing list of state qualifying times at Westminster, making the cut for the 50 and 100 freestyle. “It felt really good to PR at Westminster,” said Maclean. “It’s a really competitive team and a fast pool so I had a great environment to get my fastest times and make the state cut.”

Congrats to the swim and dive Dubs on their amazing performance at this meet, and we wish them the best of luck for the tail end of their season and the state meet. Go Dubs!