Murphy – For the first time since 2019, Cherokee County hosted a swim meet Saturday.
The Candy Cane Invitational saw swimmers from Murphy, Tri-County Early College, Franklin, Highlands, Smoky Mountain, Rabun-Gap Nacochee School and Union County (Ga.) splash and dash in the pool at the Murphy Health & Fitness Center.
“Wonderful,” Murphy head coach Frank Bachteler said about being able to host a meet again. “The facility is spectator friendly, even though we do have the drip, the condensation. Deck space for people, we had a good crowd for each of the schools.
“Very good, and we know we can improve on it for next year.”
Instead of the dome that went over the pool in winters past, the pool has a permanent roof above it, taking away one of the main issues swimmers had last year.
Last season, they had to practice in Blairsville, and weren’t able to provide transportation to get swimmers there. This year, the same amount of swimmers signed up initially and stuck around with a local pool to practice.
“It doubled our team size,” Bachteler said. “We had the same number sign up last year. But when they figured out they didn’t have the bus to get to Blairsville or anything, they couldn’t swim.”
Heading into the Candy Cane Invitational, Lady Jaguars sophomore Ariana Rivas had gotten an automatic qualifying time for regionals in the 200-yard individual medley,
though four other swimmers and three relays had hit the consideration standard for regionals. Rivas also set a meet record Saturday in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.66 seconds.
“I’m really happy,’ Bachteler said. “We’ve got a good group of freshmen and sophomores that are making a commitment to it.”