Ooltewah Swimmers Beat Signal Mountain For First Time

Unbeaten Tidal Waves Leading CASL's Blue Division At 4-0

  • Monday, June 18, 2018
  • John Hunt

The Ooltewah Tidal Waves had another outstanding performance at their pool Monday night.

They knocked off Stuart Heights on Thursday in a battle of unbeaten in the Chattanooga Area Swim League’s Blue division and they added another monumental win four days later as they defeated Signal Mountain for the first time ever.

The Tidal Waves led from the opening freestyle event and it was close for a while, but Ooltewah coach Todd Jones had a game plan that worked to perfection and matters weren’t as close when it ended as the Tidal Waves remained unbeaten at 4-0 with the impressive 82-point win over the defending league champion Green Giants.

The final score was 435-353.

The plan Jones had in mind was putting some of the more experienced Ooltewah swimmers in the final three events where stroke technique might have been just a bit more important.

Ooltewah’s lead was just 20 points after the individual medley, but it quickly stretched to 39 at 302-263 following the backstroke races.  A 65-44 advantage in the butterfly extended the difference to 60 points at 367-307 before the winners finished with a 68-46 edge in the free relays for the not-as-close final margin.

“We like the fly and back. What can I say?” Jones began while the free relays were going on.

“Our assistant coaches have really been working hard on technique and it’s paying off as we had very few disqualifications.  But we’ve got to keep working hard as we have a bull’s eye on our back.  We’ve beaten two really good teams in the last week, but now we have to finish.

“We’ve never beaten Signal Mountain before.  We came within five points up there last year, so we thought we might have a shot today.  These kids are on cloud nine in a good way, but we’re happy where we are at this point in the season.

“It’s always nice to compete with those folks from Signal Mountain as they are a classy bunch.  They always swim hard and we always have great meets with them. That’s what makes it so much fun,” Jones added.

The Green Giants are in the middle of the pack in the Blue division with a 2-2 record.  Signal Mountain coach Jake Sosna knows just how tough it is to go undefeated in this league and especially the top division.  He doesn’t appear to be too worried about Monday’s defeat.

“I can’t do too much with the kids and the other priorities they have like baseball tournaments and vacations, but we’ve had a bunch of kids move up this year so it’s more of a building season for us this time around,” he expressed.

“This division is much more competitive from top to bottom, but we aren’t there yet.  I hope by July 13 that we’re where we want to be, but it was good to see kids step into roles today they normally don’t fill and I feel like we performed a lot better than we should have considering all the circumstances.

“We don’t have to win the regular season to win the City Meet, but we’re  much better team in bigger meets than we are in dual meets.  We don’t have a bunch of superstars, but we have a lot of depth and that will pay off later,” he finished on a positive note.

Ooltewah had four swimmers who scored the maximum 19 points, including Hardy Jones, Taylor Reyes, Noah Holliman and Leah Boyd. 

Jed Holliman, Sarah Sabou and Brighton Smith followed with 17 points apiece as the Tidal Waves had 21 swimmers who scored at least 10 points.

The Green Giants were led by Jewel Gordon’s 17 points.  Jake Holmes was next with 16 while Jack Smith, Vincent Porter and Laken Coppinger all scored 15.

In comparison, Signal Mountain only had 14 swimmers with 10 or more points.

Both of these teams will return to action on Wednesday with the Tidal Waves traveling to Dalton and the Green Giants going a bit further South to Calhoun.

OTHER MONDAY results had Country Club beating Cleveland, 443-334, the Waterdogs defeated Cumberland 444-303 and Stuart Heights holding off Dalton by a 400.5-383.5 final. Also, Catoosa remained unbeaten and tied for first with Country Club in the Red division with a 488.5-279.5 victory over Big Ridge.

SIGNAL MOUNTAIN HIGH-POINT SCORERS:

17 – Jewel Gordon

16 – Jake Holmes

15 – Jack Smith, Vincent Porter, Laken Coppinger

14 – Jude Smith, Kara Lin Hoover

12 – Jacob Stark, Will Tippett

11 – Marley Harper, Cecilia Porter

10 – Owen Seymour, Grayson Rock, Audrey Rackel.

OOLTEWAH HIGH-POINT SCORERS:

19 – Hardy Jones, Taylor Reyes, Noah Holliman, Leah Boyd

17 – Jed Holliman, Sarah Sabou, Brighton Smith

15 – David Sabou, Anna Boyd, Jake Marcum

14 – Nolan Holt

13 – Garet Gipson, Seth Dimmer, Madelyn Weathers, Sofia Kim, Emma Scruggs

12 – Othniel Kim, Ava Grace Gipson

10 – Keilah Holliman, Jilli Cantrell, Emory Miller.

CLEVELAND HIGH-POINT SCORERS:

19 -- Jacob McDaniel, Grayson Payne

17 -- Grayson Officer

16 -- Bryson Lake

15 -- Anna Thompson

14 -- Charlie Chittum, Breanna Belcher, Erin Lake

13 -- Trey Parris III, Allanah Freeman

12 -- Alaina Chapman, Ian Frakes

11 -- Becca Nolen

10 -- Justin Martin.

COUNTRY CLUB HIGH-POINT SCORERS:

19 – Farah House, Erol House, Margaret Anne Hudson

17 – Ward Richey, Thomas Gillenwater, Jared Foster, Ben Griffith

15 – Ian Jacobs, Dillen Foster

14 – Emmy Richey

13 – Jane Becksvoort, Ryan Ellis

12 – Caroline Schenck, Kyle Berry

11 – Lorelei Jacobs, John Preston Potter, Helen Kates.

BIG RIDGE HIGH-POINT SCORERS:

15 -- Evan Simpson

14 -- Logan Carroll

13.5 -- Samantha George

13 -- Abigail Keener

12 -- Christopher Farnham

10 -- Chris Tate, Sarah Noles, Emily Thomson.

CATOOSA HIGH-POINT SCORERS:

19 -- Emma Pulliam, Carson Cloud, Lisa Afonshina, Helen Webb, Lexi Easley, Reece Gallagher

17 -- Allie O'Donnell, Morgyn Easley

16 -- Henry Webb

15 -- Chipper Grayson, Kirill Lebed

14 -- Marianna Easley, Camden Cloud, Yaric Lebed

13 -- Easton O'Donnell, Keeley Mountjoy, Julia Striker

12 -- Emma Bradford

11 -- Lance Marshall, Colson Chappelear

10 -- Daniel Patouga, Saulye Nichols, Cooper Chappelear.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

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