Lakeside Rallies Against Dunwoody to Take DeKalb Swimming Titles

The 2012 DeKalb County Swimming and Diving Championships came down to the final event on Saturday at Dynamo Swim Center.

Dunwoody and Lakeside entered the 400 freestyle relays with the team
finishing ahead in the event set up to take the titles.

First up were the boys with the two teams tied at 198 each in the standings. Chamblee won the event swimming a time of 3:24.09 as Jordan Jacob pulled ahead of both Lakeside and Dunwoody on the third leg of the relay leaving the two leaders to battle it out for second and the county championship.

Lakeside had a body length lead on Dunwoody following the first leg swam by Cesar Acosta and clipped Dunwoody in the end for second in a time of 3:25.55 just 1.29 seconds ahead of the Wildcats.

The Vikings collected 22 points for second and Dunwoody added 20 to make the final count 220 to 218 in favor of Lakeside. It was the Vikings ninth consecutive DeKalb County title and the second closest finish in those nine years.

The boys’ competition featured 34 state qualifying times throughout the day including the double gold medal winning efforts of Lakeside’s Cesar Acosta and Tucker’s Cash DeLoach.

Acosta won the 200 (1:47.56) and the 500 (5:00.52) freestyle events while
DeLoach took the 200 individual medley (1:58.12) and the 100 butterfly
(52.50).

The girls were tied at 208 entering the 400 relay and Dunwoody jumped out to the early lead in the first two legs of the event before Lakeside’s Erin Collins hit the pool to put the Lady Vikings out in front. Dunwoody’s Stephanie Stadnick could not catch Lakeside’s Anna Ewing on the final leg as the Lady Vikings pulled out the win in a time of 3:52.58.

The relay win provided Lakeside with 28 points and a 236-230 victory in the overall standings. Lakeside recaptured the county title that Dunwoody had won in 2011 breaking a 14-year reign by the Lady Vikings.

The girls’ meet featured 22 state qualifying times including two each from
Dunwoody’s Shawn Pyne and Druid Hills’ Mary Kate Leary as the pair doubled up on individual gold medals.

Pyne captured the 50 (25.70) and 100 (56.16) freestyle events and Leary
brought home the gold in the 100 backstroke (1:00.61) and the 200
freestyle (1:59.99).