McCargish, Piranhas heading to Nationals

McCargish, Piranhas heading to Nationals
Eaton Register Herald
March 19, 2014

Piranhas swimmers continue to drop time and achieve success in regional competition, some even making Zones, AA Championship, and National cuts.

The Piranhas competed in the A Championship held at Countryside YMCA in Lebanon, and in the AA Championships held at Oxford, at Miami University Natatorium.

At A Championships, several of the Piranha swimmers were competitive and made big improvements to their times, according to Coach Dave Montgomer. These swimmers included Jenna Aukerman, Alaunna Burig, Nate Crammer , Alina Fore, Cari Metz, Conley Mitchell, Austin Peace, Aaron Scholl, Zoee Scroggins, Ben Todd, Katelyn Meeks and Josey Meeks.

Maddie Baker and Mason McCargish also made significant improvements and qualified for AA Championships. The big news for Mason was the fact he earned a national cut in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.08. This will be the first time any swimmer from Preble County YMCA has made it to a national meet.

Nationals take place in Greensboro, North Carolina. McCargish is not finished getting National cuts. He missed the 100 fly by .01 seconds and needs to get to 1:01.49 in the 100 breaststroke to get a national cut. He also has earned the right to swim the 100 freestyle in a time trial at Nationals. Nationals is the final meet for the YMCA short course season and teams from all over the United States travel there to compete in the meet.

“Both Maddie and Mason really swam well at the AA meet. It was so good to see Maddie get her times to move on. She has really put the work in and earned those time. The other swimmer also worked very hard but just came up a little short but it was good to see them get to that point since all of those swimmers were first year swimmers. It really gives them an incentive to come back next year and get the cuts. Mason has worked hard since last September to earn the trip to nationals. He missed a trip to state in high school but achieved something bigger with his national cut. He worked hard to get a good double kick on his fly and he learned to kick all the time during the freestyle. I was not expecting the 50 freestyle to be his first trip to nationals — we have been working on his fly and I fully expected that to be his first swim at nationals,” Montgomery said.

“We also have Cameron Nelson going to Zones in the 50 freestyle with a time of 29.99,” he added.

The Preble County Piranhas swim team is looking for sponsors for the trip down to Greensboro. It is a four-day event and hotels and food are expensive. The national YMCA will give matching funds up to $600 for the trip.

Anyone who would like to help support the Piranhas and sponsor McCargish and the Piranhas should contact Alan Milkis at the Preble County YMCA, at 937-472-2010.