By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

The Morgan County High School swim team competed against the Jefferson City Dragons at the Morgan County Aquatic Center last Saturday. The Swim Dogs outscored the Dragons 1,049 to 456 in the meet.
“Overall the team had an excellent meet,” said Coach Steve DeLaigle about the team’s second home meet of the year.
Mary Claire Cardwell and Zach Fossum were the top scorers for the team on Saturday. Cardwell took first place in the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard backstroke races. Fossum scored more points for the team by winning the men’s 100-yard butterfly and the 50-yard freestyle.
The Dogs’ JV team also did well against the Dragons; Lilly Courchaine placed seventh overall, and Zach Seymour tied for second overall.
The next concern for the Swim Dogs is making times to qualify for the state competitions, which take place in a few weeks.
“The team has two more shots at State,” said DeLaigle. “We have three men who are just a couple of hundreds of seconds off qualifying time in the 50-yard free. The men's 200 free relay is also very close to a qualifying time.”
Members of the team have to produce a qualifying time in the next two meets, which will be the last of the year for the team before the State Finals. The first will be this Saturday at the Clarke-Oconee Invitational at the Ramsey Center in Athens, and the last will be on Jan. 22 at Johnson City Park against Eastside of Covington.
The State Finals will take place Feb. 9 at Georgia Tech after preliminaries which will take place the day before.

Printed in the January 17, 2013, edition.