Ballard medals in 50 freestyle, 100 breaststroke at national meet
Franklin’s fastest swimmers have ended their summer seasons in a national meet.
Throughout the middle school, high school and Franklin Amateur Swim Team campaigns this past year, swimmers have attempted to meet strict time standards to qualify for the Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympics. From July 26-28, 14 FAST swimmers traveled to Greensboro to race top competition from across the country.
“In order to compete at the the 2024 JO National Championship, you need to have swum a JO qualifying time during this year. The meet is open to the entire country plus any U.S. territory,” said longtime FAST and Franklin High School coach Dwain Picou. “More than 800 swimmers attended this year’s meet at the Greensboro Aquatic Club from July 24 – 28.”
After sending just three swimmers to last year’s event in Des Moines, Iowa, the trip to Greensboro was much more feasible for FAST families this year. Having spent the summer butting heads with other swimmers from WNC, the FAST Fins joined their Mountain Swim League rivals to form a kind of area All-Star team.
“A lot of the nation’s teams combine to make bigger teams. For example, Arkansas combines their state’s teams into one team, there is a large combined team from New England [and] Florida combines into two teams,” said Picou. “FAST had 14 swimmers who made at least one qualifying time in the 13-18 age groups. We combined with Highlands (six swimmers), Cherokee County (one swimmer), and Jackson County (one swimmer) and swam as TMSL (Team Mountain Swim League).”
As Mountain Swim League Champions for the 20th straight year, Franklin provided nearly two thirds of Team Mountain Swim League’s 22 swimmers, an extremely impressive feat for a team of FAST’s size. The feat is made even more impressive by Franklin’s disadvantage in swimming facilities.
“The 12 and under age group swam on Wednesday and Thursday. FAST had no qualifiers in this age group – it is very hard to make national qualifying times in swimming if you do not swim year round,” said Picou. “But in the 13-18 age groups, even though Franklin does not have any year-round swimming – the summer team swims June and July, the middle school team swims in the Rec Park outdoor pool during the end of August, September and the first part of October, and the high school team swims at the indoor fitness center pool from November to early February – we are able to swim about 5 months a year in the older age groups. The 12 and under age group swims just June and July, making it almost impossible to achieve national qualifying times.”
Despite not having a true year-round facility, FAST has been able to compete with the country’s top amateur competition year in and year out. Even in a pool more than twice as long as the Macon County Rec Park’s, FAST’s swimmers were among the fastest in the nation in their events.
“The meet is a long course meet, with a 50-meter pool instead of a 25-yard pool. The nearest 50-meter pool is in Hendersonville,” said Picou. “Some of the FAST swimmers practiced a few times in Hendersonville to get ready for the long course meet. ... The top eight in each event get medals. We had one swimmer who medaled – Natalie Claire Ballard was fourth in the 50-meter freestyle (28.78) and sixth in the 100-meter breaststroke (1.20.72).”
Led by top-25 finishes from Ballard in five different 17-18 girls events, Team MSL punched far above their weight, placing 17th in boys team scoring, 18th in the girls and 19th overall. FAST also got a ninth-place finish from Harrison Word in the 17-18 boys 200-meter breaststroke, and helped Team MSL to 11th place in the girls 200 free relay.
In racing teams representing entire states, and even entire regions in the case of New England, 19th overall is an incredible finish for Team MSL. To that end, Picou said FAST could only have spearheaded such an effort with an extraordinary commitment from athletes, parents and the community.
“We are so very thankful for the support from our local Franklin businesses and our community, which allowed us to enter the meet,” he said. “A special thanks to our FAST board, and Janet Walker and Amy Ballard for getting donations and making all the arrangements for us to attend the meet. We are very proud of how well our swimmers did, and what an awesome experience for our 14 Franklin area swimmers to be able to compete in a National Championship meet.”