MAET MIWS
AERA ELGNAIRT EHT FO ACMY
2020 - 2021
EMBRACE AIR
ADAPTIBILITY | INTEGRATION | RESILICENCY This past season was one like no other. It challenged us to think dynamically and overcome new obstacles that we had yet to encounter, but most of all, it strengthened our team. The pandemic brought along it’s difficulties, but our team and our YMCA association spear-headed those difficulties with intentional and safe solutions to continue the development of our swimmers. While the world was changing around us, our philosophy and mission remained the same: to develop character, one lap at a time. The three primary traits that defined our season were adaptability, integration, and resiliency. Adaptability, because time and time again, we needed to develop solutions to adjust to the ongoing challenges that bombarded our season. Integration, which tiesin closely to the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement, by creating a welcoming and inclusive program for all to learn not only swimming, but how to unite and strengthen communities. Resiliency, because we’re not just swimmers, we’re fighters. When we get knocked down, we get back on our feet and learn how to recover from set-backs, hardships, and challenges. Each site, family, and swimmer has a different story as to how they navigated this past season, but regardless of the course, we all learned to embrace AIR.
TAKE A PEEK INSIDE
YOTA Holiday Classic 18 & Under Championships NCS Age Group Championships GYSSA League Championships USRY League Championships ESSZ Age Group Sectionals YMCA Swimming Festival Paralympic Team Trials We Build People Graduating Seniors YOTA Award Winners Reflection and Focus
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10-11 12 13
YOTA HOLIDAY CLASSIC
NOVEMBER 20 - 22, 2020 | GOLDSBORO, NC The YOTA Holiday Classic Meet gave us all the same feelings as Capital Classic and Turkey Classic would in a “normal” year. The anticipation of returning to a championship-level meet was inescapable. This meet was full of things we had not seen since the previous March: we were outside Wake County, we competed against other teams, it was timed finals style with time trial opportunities, and who could forget the meet's themes! This meet also served as a turning point in the way we operate swim meets, such as sharing a livestream of the meet. Overall, the Holiday Classic Meet served as an excellent foundation to build on for the rest of the short course season. We were excited to keep the tradition of Turkey Classic and Capital Classic alive! This coming season, we look forward to returning to the same size and magnitude as before.
1
18 & UNDER CHAMPIONSHIPS DECEMBER 23 - 28, 2020 | CARY, NC
YOTA hosted the 18 & Under Championship Meet at the Triangle Aquatic Center in December. This meet served as one of the fastest 18 & under meets in the country for many talented athletes. To qualify for this meet, swimmers had to meet the Junior National time standards plus 2%. We had 21 swimmers competing that weekend and they achieved a total of 58 personal best times. For many athletes this was the first national championship level meet they competed in over a year. The meet was an exciting environment that produced FAST swimming!
MAET PIHSNOIPMAHC
2
Lucas Ansede Chrisna Bezuidenhout Clarissa Bezuidenhout Mia Corrado Keenan Day Julia Earnshaw Suzanne Earnshaw Declan Gleason Ryan Hardy Dillan Hickey
Hailey Hicks Spencer Jennings Megan Legarth Kyle Liu Jenna Maloy Amelia Myhrvold Ross Noble Kate Speerschneider Reese Stoner John Reese Taylor Michael Volpe
AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS MARCH 23 - 27, 2021 | CARY, NC
The North Carolina Age Group Championships meet was a weekend filled with best and fastest 14 & Under swimmers from across the State. YOTA brought 47 swimmers to the meet and swam well and had multiple kids finish top 16 and score points throughout the weekend. Even though this meet was very different from the previous championship meets especially without relays and finals for your 13 & 14 year-olds, YOTA still went out and performed at our best and put points on the board.
MAET PIHSNOIPMAHC
Katherine Bakelaar Helen Barritt Tyler Barritt Grace Brunk Baxter Caress Addison Cockman Elise Davis James Davis Casey Freeman Jackson Garrett Rosario Gutierrez Greyson Gyure Bennett Harris
Caroline Healey Evan Hepburn Jack Humbert Alexander Hummel Gavin Ivory Davis Jackson Shane Keough Benjamin Lajoie Eliza Lamar Carter Lange Lindsay Lauver Finley Lewis Harper Maxwell
Sarah McCowen Aubrey Mitchell Conus Nichols Paige O’Keefe Macy Organ Juyoung Park William Pearce Sophie Perry Ian Platts-Mills Catherine Powell Luke Ramsey Ruby Richey Breanna Smith
Ella Speerschneider Ryan Sutherland Annalisa Volpe Cooper Wiese Zoe Wisenbaker Dallas Young Chuanqi Zhang Chuanxi Zhang
3
GYSSA LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
FEBRUARY 12 - 15, 2021 | GOLDSBORO, NC 282 YOTA athletes competed in the 2021 GYSSA League Championship meet in Goldsboro, NC. This meet was full of fast racing, loud cheering, and lots of dancing to the Baby Shark song! This was the final meet of the short course season for many of our athletes, and they sure did go out with a bang. YOTA scored a total of 7,259 points that weekend and brought home the gold! Way to go YOTA!
4
USRY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
MARCH 12-14, 2021 | GOLDSBORO, NC The USRY League Championships was an absolute BLAST! As one of the few meets that provided our athletes opportunity to compete in a meet with prelims and finals USRY was welcomed with open arms. The energy and atmosphere on deck was surreal as coaches and swimmers of all teams celebrated athletes' fantastic performances. YOTA showed up to the competition with our A-game and placed 2nd overall at the USRY combined championship achieving 481 lifetime bests and managed to add three additional swimmers to the roster for the YMCA Festival meet. With team cheers filling the air, posters plastered on the walls, and cars decked out with team decor this meet was surely one to remember!
5
ESSZ AGE GROUP SECTIONALS
MARCH 11-14, 2021 | CARY, NC The YOTA Swim Team had 17 swimmers compete at the 2021 ESSZ Age Group Championships. The majority of these swimmers had just competed at the NC Age Group Championships 2 weeks prior, but still managed to race another 38 best times. It was great to see these swimmers apply what they learned from Age Group Champs. Way to get out there and race!
MAET PIHSNOIPMAHC
6
Katherine Bakelaar Tyler Barritt Grace Brunk Baxter Caress Emma Carmouche Addison Cockman Elise Davis Rosario Gutierrez Greyson Gyure Bennett Harris Caroline Healey Evan Hepburn Jack Humbert
Gavin Ivory Benjamin Lajoie Eliza Lamar Carter Lange Lindsay Lauver Harper Maxwell Sarah McCowen Aubrey Mitchell Paige O’Keefe Macy Organ Juyoung Park Sophie Perry Ian Platts-Mills
Catherine Powell Luke Ramsey Ruby Richey Breanna Smith Ella Speerschneider Holly Thesing Alena Volpe Annalisa Volpe Cooper Wiese Zoe Wisenbaker
YMCA SWIMMING FESTIVAL
MARCH 31 - APRIL 3, 2021 | GREENSBORO, NC The Short Course Y Festival was a great substitute for the COVID-cancelled YMCA National Championships. We were able to have 45 athletes compete in the meet that YOTA hosted at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. We had great swims, remarkable team spirit and an “almost normal” championship meet experience. When all of the results were put together, nation-wide, the YOTA swim team Boys finished in 5th place, the Girls finished in 13th place and as a combined team we finished in 9th place.
MAET PIHSNOIPMAHC
Mackenzie Adams Nick Anderson Lucas Ansede Max Ayres Chrisna Bezuidenhout Clarissa Bezuidenhout Grace Brunk Jackson Cain Davis Carson Ethan Cockman Mia Corrado Keenan Day Julia Earnshaw
Suzanne Earnshaw Benjamin Eischeid Declan Gleason Ryan Hardy Caroline Healey Dillan Hickey Hailey Hicks Spencer Jennings Lindsay Lauver Megan Legarth Jenna Maloy Delaney Medins Elodie Mitchell
Kyle Mizell Amelia Myhrvold Ross Noble Stamatis Paleocrassas Sophie Perry Noah Price Wiley Sikes Ben Smith Breanna Smith Ella Speerschneider Kate Speerschneider Reese Stoner Abbie Tapper
John Reese Taylor Michael Volpe Eddie Wang Dallas Young
7
PARALYMPIC TEAM TRIALS
JUNE 17-20, 2021 | MINNEAPOLIS, MN
8
Casey Freeman, a para swimmer from the Chapel Hill Site, has been training hard these last four years to compete at the 2020 Paralympic Swimming Trials in Minneapolis, MN. Through inspiration from other para athletes such as former YOTA swimmer Hannah Aspden and the leadership from Coach Tony Carroll, she worked toward her goal. Casey had already qualified in the 100 freestyle earlier this season, but was looking to add more events to her line-up. After competing at the Para World Series in Lewisville (and making lots of new friends), she qualified in the 100 backstroke and the 400 freestyle. Her meet program was set for Minneapolis. She continued to train hard, stayed focused, and flew out to Trials in mid-June. Coach Tony was pleased that his final YOTA coaching opportunity was alongside Casey. It has been a tough year of training, Coach Tony had pushed her hard, and COVID caused many complications, but the next few days would prove to be worth it all. Casey had a great meet and dropped time in her 100 back and 400 freestyle. Casey was thrilled to race alongside many paralympians and has her eyes set on 2024. In the meantime, she looks forward to cheering on Team USA in Tokyo with us this summer!
WE BUILD PEOPLE
2020 ANNUAL CAMPAIGN: BY THE NUMBERS
$121,427.05
TOTAL RAISED
TEAM PARTICIPATION
78%
1,201
TOTAL GIFTS COLLECTED
25.5%
INCREASE IN TOTAL RAISED COMPARED TO 2019
SINGLE-LARGEST GIFT
A.E. Finley YMCA
$5K
BREAKDOWN BY BRANCH
Kerr Family YMCA Chapel Hill YMCA Downtown Durham YMCA Taylor Family YMCA Association Programs Branch General YOTA $0
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
$40,000
$50,000
9
CLASS OF 2021 HISTORICALLY REMARKABLE
Congratulations to the Senior Class of 2021. In what will surely go down as a historically remarkable year you have managed everything that COVID and all of its challenges have thrown your way. We are proud of you in more ways than you can probably imagine. You handled yourselves with grace, demonstrated courage and resilience, and helped steer the team toward a positive experience that we will all remember for the rest of our lives. As you head off to the next chapter of your lives, know that your YOTA family will always be here for you and that we wish you the best of everything. MACKENZIE ADAMS ROLLINS COLLEGE
LUCAS ANSEDE WAKE TECH TO NC STATE
JACKSON CAIN DURHAM TECH
PAIGE BANKS CLEMSON UNIVERSITY
MADDIE CAULWAY UNC-CHAPEL HILL
10
JULIA DUPUIS UNC-WILMINGTON
ETHAN COCKMAN UNC-WILMINGTON
SUZANNE EARNSHAW JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY
DECLAN GLEASON QUEENS UNIVERSITY OF CHARLOTTE
HAILEY HICKS UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
ASHLEY JEAN MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY
MAX McCALLION UNC-WILMINGTON
VIRGINIA OGREN UNC-WILMINGTON
RACHEL SECAN GAP YEAR, THEN UNC-CHAPEL HILL
JENNA MALOY GEORGIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY
AMELIA MYHRVOLD CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
ABBIE TAPPER APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY
KORRYN O'SHEA ELON UNIVERSITY
MICHAEL VOLPE DUKE UNIVERSITY
ALLIE TAYLOR WHEATON (MA) UNIVERSITY
CONGRATULATIONS,
YOTA GRADUATES 11
YOTA AWARD WINNERS
2020-2021 West Senior I
Chapel Hill YMCA
Suzanne Earnshaw Jackson Cain
Ian Salmony Emerson Flythe Colby Lange Susannah Ghitelman Cole Gwaltney Leah Platts-Mills Tyler Barritt Casey Freeman
East Senior I Mackenzie Adams John Reese Taylor
West Senior II MacKenna Morris Caroline Gwaltney
East Senior II Carter Satterfield Ben Hebacker
West Age Group Select Lizzie Fowler Evan Hepburn
East Age Group Select Grace Brunk Logan Page
12
Kerr Family YMCA Charlotte Huefner Crosby Miller Emma Tadd Bennett White Mackenzie Gordon Jax Garrett Jaclyn Cronin David Soliman
Taylor Family YMCA Cadence Green Finn Barker Hollie Lewis Walker Hall Paige Snyder Landon Banko Elizabeth Swafford Maddox Hall
Downtown Durham Family YMCA Archer Earp Isla Thomas Tori Houde Jayce Featherstone Cameron Morris Harper Maxwell Kate Bakelaar Cole Newman
A.E. Finley YMCA Abigail Aldacosta Everett Crosby Anna Muttillo Brian Lee Clara Burke Micah Slusser Maddy Cox Gabe DeVizia
OPC Age Group Sasha Kotian Jamison Harward
REFLECTION AND FOCUS VALUABLE LESSONS TO CARRY ON
Even in the most challenging year, we have found good. This year has taught us to control the controllable, quality over quantity, transparency of emotions, resiliency, and the value of connection and unity. Most importantly, COVID-19 has made a lasting impact on never taking an opportunity for granted. In a blink of an eye, everything can change. As we wrap up the season of “tentative,” the YOTA Swim Team encourages you all to always be thankful for the opportunity to be a teammate, swimmer, cheerleader, coach, and swim parent. Make each practice, swim meet, and team event count. Soak in all the emotions, conversations, learning, and fun that they bring. Lastly, always carry the strength of “we will find a way” from this year into our future. We are YOTA strong! Congratulations on an amazing season, we have a lot to celebrate!
13
2020 - 2021