HOSCHTON — The regular season is in the books as the Mill Creek boys’ and girls’ swim and dive teams will compete for the title of the county’s best at the Gwinnett County Championships this weekend.
The girls’ team will be looking to compete with perennial power Brookwood for the top spot. The Lady Broncos took first-place over second-place Mill Creek in 2011 after the Lady Hawks took top honors in 2010.
“We hope to recapture the crown this year,” said MCHS head coach Rick Creed of the girls’ team. “Brookwood will be our biggest challenge followed by Parkview and Peachtree Ridge.”
On the boys’ side, Parkview comes in as the favorite, followed by Collins Hill, Brookwood, North Gwinnett and Mill Creek.
For Creed, success will lie in the showings from the relay teams of both squads. Relay events count for double points, making them very important to overall team standings. Creed also said that the individuals must perform well, too, with the top swimmers placing in top three and others swimming well enough to score.
“We need four swimmers to score in each event,” he said. “While we expect our top two ranked swimmers in each event to score the majority of our team points, our third and fourth ranked swimmers in each event are important because they can also score significant points.”
“The entire team will need to swim and dive well for us to reach our goals,” Creed added.
With swimming formatted differently than other high school sports, most of the Mill Creek swimmers that will represent the school at the 5-A State Championships in Atlanta Feb. 10-11 have already qualified for the meet with times posted earlier this season. Currently, 25 Mill Creek swimmers have qualified for state, but Creed hopes that solid performances at County will send a few more to Atlanta in two weeks.
“The county meet will be the last opportunity a swimmer or diver can qualify for state,” Creed explained.
The finals of the 2011 Gwinnett County Championships begin at 5 p.m. Saturday at the West Gwinnett Pool in Norcross.
