ORCA wraps up summer swim season in style

ORCA’s 11-12 Boy’s Medley Relay Team, which placed fifth overall with a time of 2:15.53 at the annual GKAISA City Meet Knoxville 2014. Pictured left to right are Harrison Whitson, Jake Cheney, Vidar Hondorf, and Ethan Chou. (Submitted photo)

By Erik Groscost

The Oak Ridge City Aquatic summer league swim team finished its 2014 campaign on July 27 with a two-win, two-loss dual meet record and many smiling faces at the conclusion of City Meet. Wins over Beaver Brook Country Club and University Swim Club balanced losses to a very strong Northside YMCA team and Cherokee Country Club over the course of the Greater Knoxville Area Intersquad Swim Association (GKAISA) summer league season, which runs annually from early June through the end of July.

Two thousand and three hundred swimmers representing 33 summer league teams converged on the Allan Jones Aquatic Center on campus at the University of Tennessee from July 25-27. By the end of Sunday’s Finals, close to 10,000 races had been entered into the books. It is one of the largest swim meets held annually in the United States.

Eighteen ORCA swimmers—along with coaches Lars Hondorf, Betsy Hondorf, Luke Johnson, and Kathleen O’Neal—competed in Sunday’s finals going stroke for stroke with some of the finest young athletes in the Knoxville area. Top ORCA point scorers included:

• Harrison Whitson, 12, who finished first overall in two events (50 yard backstroke, 100 yard freestyle), and picked up a third place finish in the 100 yard Individual Medley (IM).
• Stephen Zhukov, 7, who grabbed second overall in the 25 yard backstroke as well as the 25 yard butterfly events.
• Mason Fischer, 9, who landed in the third spot in the 100 yard IM.
• Lucy Groscost, 14, who took home a sixth place finish in the 50 yard breaststroke.
• Madi Cottrell, who touched the wall in seventh place in the same breaststroke event.
• Vidar Hondorf, 12, who came home with an eighth in the 100 yard IM.
• Loki Hondorf, 18, who swam to a seventh in the 50 yard freestyle.

Top relays were the 9-10 mixed (two boys, two girls) 100 yard freestyle relay with Marty Gee, Mason Fischer, Zeke Vanatta, and Caroline Cottrell finishing seventh. The same finish came from the mixed 13-14 200 yard freestyle relay comprised of Trevor Haisten, Madi Cottrell, Lucy Groscost, and Daeton Byars.

Finishing fifth overall was the ORCA boy’s 11-12 200 freestyle relay team made up of Harrison Whitson, Jake Cheney, Vidar Hondorf, and Ethan Chou.

Rounding out the squad and contributing mightily for ORCA in Sunday’s finals were Zeke Vanatta, Caroline Cottrell, Amanda Gilpin, Tyr Hondorf, and Egan Rawn.

Taking home the crown of 2014 Knoxville GKAISA City Meet Champions was once again Knoxville Racquet Club with 2,064 points. Green Meadows Swim Team took second with 1,880 points, while Village Green placed third with 1,359 points.

ORCA finished in 21st place with 318 points.