SWIM TEAM
2023-2024 SEASON REVIEW
ALL FOR FOR ALL ONE
"All for One and One for All" is more than just a catchy phrase, as we embraced this timeless principle from the Three Musketeers as our motto for the year. It champions the power of unity, teamwork, collaboration, and mutual support as the best way forward. It emphasizes the idea that individual success is closely tied to the success of the team. In putting others first, we find the true essence of collaboration and the power to overcome challenges together.
When you reflect upon the achievements of this past year you will notice this slogan embedded throughout the process. We made progress both individually and collectively in achieving our goals. However, achieving the goal was a by-product of focusing on the process, developing great habits, and helping each other along the way. Whether at a swim meet, practice, or raising money for we build people campaign, this tenant gave us inspiration as we strived together to conquer our challenges.
Going forward, by embracing this ethos, I hope we continue to prio success of others, recognizing that our collective strength lies in our a one another. Let us carry this spirit forward in our daily lives, cre everyone ' s contribution is valued, and where success is a shared achiev
2023 WBP Annual Campaign
2023 Senior Leadership Camp
Goodbye OPC, Hello Outdoor Finley!
30th Annual YOTA x Arena Capital Classic
NCS Short Course Age Group Champs
GYSSA League Championships
USRY Championships
Short Course YMCA Nationals
Swim RVA Invitational
Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials
NCS Long Course Age Group Championships
Orlando Last Splash
Long Course YMCA Nationals
YOTA Record Breakers
IMX Scores Class
2023 We Build People Annual Campaign
IMPROVING HEALTH OUTCOMES SUPPORTING EDUCATION DEVELOPING CHANGEMAKERS
Each year, the YMCA of the Triangle Area runs the We Build People Annual Campaign to raise the funds needed to ensure that everyone in our community can participate in the many life changing programs that the YMCA offers. The funds from this campaign directly impact our community by providing fellow and future teammates the opportunity to experience all that the YMCA has to offer.
We love being able to kick of the season by bringing the team together for such a great cause. As our swimmers and families campaign, they tell their YMCA stories and generate a deeper connection to their role in our community. It is our hope that each swimmer who participated in the campaign this year felt the lasting impact of their selfless work and generosity.Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this year ’ s campaign a success!
$126,714 2023 Annual Campaign YOTA Swim Team
Total
$500+ CLUB
$5,000 +
Bennett Harris
Ella Malzahn
Peyton Womble
$1,000 - $4,999
Audrey Crowder
Caroline Healey
Goldie Hyman
Cole Newman
Mia Papadima
Emma Ramey
We would like to recognize these swimmers who went above and beyond the call of duty this year by raising $500 or more for the campaign.
Well done, YOTA!
Isla Robertson
Jill Smith
Nora Ubinger
Alena Volpe
Annalisa Volpe
Hala Zafar
$700 - $999
Lucas Bakelaar
Andy Barger
Grace Brunk
Alice-Kate Hinson
Lance Kistler
Payton McNutt
Sofia McPhail
Macy Organ
June Pierce
Sarah Solomon
$500 - $699
Scarlett Allen
Christian Aultman
Ellie Bakelaar
Kate Bakelaar
Benjamin Caldwell
Noah Caldwell
Madeline Cornwell
Wade Dailey
Gabe DeVizia
Eli Edmondson
George Holton
Matthew Jewett
Margot Krysa
Max Leuchtmann
Ava Linder
Harper Ludwig
Julia Mathus
Keenan Olson
Quinn Petra
Bella Pujol
Ruby Richey
Zoey Rowe
Charlie & Layla Rutt
Louisa Sanoff
Breanna Smith
Corey Smith
Paige Snyder
Rhomen Sperry
Jack White Ava Wright
2023 Senior Leadership Camp Camp Seafarer
110 YOTA swimmers, as well as 31 other North Carolina YMCA swimmers from LOY, RACY, and GOLD, went down to Camp Seafarer over the weekend of September 15-17th. Camp was a dynamic blend of leadership talks covering belonging, leadership skills, and mental conditioning. Our athletes did great work in the pool, in the river during their open water swim, and at our dryland sessions throughout the weekend. After their hard work was over, swimmers enjoyed many different camp activities like zip-lining and the "blob" which added a lot of excitement to the weekend. Some highlights include the swimmer-themed "Family Feud" on Saturday night, some delicious s ' mores by the campfire, and the watching the sunrise on the pier as a team on Sunday morning. This weekend brought our senior swimmers closer, taught them skills and tools to use throughout the season, and laid a great foundation for another great year ahead! Check out the camp video HERE!
Last year, the YMCA of the Triangle Area made the decision to stop renting the Oberlin Road Program Center (OPC) in the spring of 2024 due to the increasingly poor conditions of the building. The OPC has been a home to many YMCA programs over its historic lifetime and it holds a special place in our hearts as it has been our home for many years. It is with a full heart that we leave OPC, and head into the next chapter as a team. The OPC is the primary home to our East Age Group Select, Senior 2, and Senior 1 groups as well as a few of our age group levels. Though the swimmers in these groups will most directly be impacted, our team as a whole will feel a shift as we rehome these groups at our branches. The YOTA Swim Team and the YMCA of the Triangle Area association have invested in winterizing the Finley outdoor pool in effort to create a new home for our East Age Group Select, Senior 2, and Senior 1 groups. This gives our team the opportunity to regionalize our program in a way that increases the convenience of our sites while still maintaining the integrity of our training groups and the developmental progressions that we have established. This team structure is not far from how we currently operate and it gives us a foundation for further development in the future.
Classic meet during the first weekend of December. This meet is always a weekend that showcases the power of purple and this year was no different. From our volunteers who dedicated their time before, during, and after the weekend to our swimmers who showed up in a big way for themselves and their team, YOTA led with excellence all weekend long. We had 14 swimmers achieve new NCS Age Group Championship time standards, 12 swimmers achieve new YMCA National time standards, and one swimmer earned her first Junior National time standard. 33 of our swimmers placed in the top 8 in their individual events and 17 YOTA relays placed in the top 3. We also had two new team records set over the weekend - John Reese Taylor in the Men’s 100 Breaststroke with a time of :53.04, and Eloide Mitchell in the Women’s 200 Butterfly with a time of 2:00.33. Overall, the YOTA women placed 3rd, the YOTA men placed 1st, and YOTA finished 1st as a combined team with a total of 2408.5 points! Well done, YOTA!
SC AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024 NORTH CAROLINA SWIMMING
Over the weekend of February 15-18, 66 YOTA swimmers joined the fastest age group swimmers in North Carolina at the Triangle Aquatic Center for the 2024 North Carolina Swimming Short Course Age Group Championships. Our swimmers blazed their way through a fast and historic four days of racing. Some highlights from the weekend include Shane Keough’s first YMCA
National cut in the 100 Breaststroke, Alannah Keough’s new team record and 3rd place finish in the 11-12 Girls 200 Breaststroke, and Top 5 finishes for Juliet Christopherson, McKaleigh Keough, and Kira Schneider! YOTA had 16 swimmers place in the top 16 in their individual events and 28 YOTA Relays placed in the top 16 as well. At the end of the weekend, the YOTA
Girls placed 5th overall and the YOTA Swim Team placed 7th in combined team scores. Well do
Miles Ayres
Ellie Bakelaar
Landon Banko
Langston Berryman
Colton Blazer
Owen Boling
Diana Burke
Benjamin Caldwell
Noah Caldwell
Savanna Doyle
Nina Epstein
Poppy Fishburn
Logan Foster
Jackson Garrett
Brooklyn Green
William Harvey
Annie Heit
Quinn Hepburn
Alannah Keough
McKaleigh Keough
Shane Keough
Campbell Lange
Colby Lange
Emily Lee
Brian Lee
Benjamin Lei
Max Leuchtmann
Harper Maxwell
Sofia McPhail
Hailey Mizell
Cole Parnell
Olivia Pittenger
Leah Platts-Mills
Zoey Rowe
Alana Schneider
Kira Schneider
Jason Cao
Alice-Kate Hinson
Aubrey Lewis
Paige Snyder
Ellis Carroll
Juliet Christopherson
Jacob Hodgkins
Brady Houtz
Virginia Christopherson
Peyton Cossey
Kaitlyn Davis
Charlotte Doyle
Haley Houtz
Peter Ishak
Matthew Jewett
Scotland Lindberg
Christopher Lowther
Ian Lowther
Elise Luedke
Ansley Mason
Laura Soliman
Emma Tadd
Michael White
Katie Wilson
Daniel Zarzar
Blake Zimmermann
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season for many of our young swimme
their season on a high note. YOTA f
men, women and overall com
176 swimmers traveled up to Lynchburg, Virginia for the 2024 Upper Southeast Regional YMCA Championship! This was the first time since the pandemic that this meet was held at one site and teams from the entire Upper Southeast Region were brought together to compete again. The Purple People showed up in a big way, with 44 of our swimmers traveling together as a team and setting the tone for team spirit throughout the weekend. After four long days of racing, cheering, learning, and memory making, we left Lynchburg as Regional Champions! Congratulations to all of our regional swimmers who worked together to t fi t place for our men, women, and overall combined team scores!
Andy Barger
Gabe DeVizia
Eli Edmondson
Mance Edmondson
Casey Freeman
Jack Gajowski
Bennett Harris
Caroline Healey
Jack Humbert
Shane Keough
Yasmine Kwong
Ben Lajoie
Carter Lange
Campbell Lange
Elodie Mitchell
Aubrey Mitchell
Paige O'Keefe
Macy Organ
Logan Page
Sophie Perry
Luca Pirone
Breanna Smith
David Soliman
Freddie Stuart
John Reese Taylor
Andrew Volpe
Eddie Wang
Ryan West
Jack White
Cooper Wiese
Peyton Womble
Ava Wright
36 swimmers took a bus down to Greensboro for the 2024 Short Course YMCA National Championships. YOTA had the 2nd largest team in the entire meet. On the women ’ s side, the team placed 14th after placing 27th in the 2023 meet! The YOTA ladies scored 26 more points than in 2023. Individual highlights include Elodie Mitchell, who placed in the top 16 in all 4 of her individual events, with her highest being a top 3 in the 200 butterfly. On the men ’ s side, the team placed 6th place, just 1 spot lower than 5th from 2023. Individual highlights include John Reese Taylor, who is YOTA’s first national champion since 2014, winning the 100 and 200 breaststroke. After 5 days of racing, YOTA finished in 10th place, scoring 30 more points than last year! With the addition of 6 short course YNat cuts and 4 long course YNat cuts during the time trials sessions, the purple people showed that they are a force to be reckoned with.
Congratulations to all of our national team athletes!
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YOTA athletes swam 1,478 races, earned 927 best times, and scored 6,472.5 points. For the third year in a row, YOTA raised
David Wahlen proudly represented YOTA at Olympic Trials in his main event, the 100 backstroke. He had a great swim and achieved his 2nd fastest time ever (fastest ever in prelims) while also moving up 5 spots from his original seeding. David was also able to race in 2 time trials while he was at the meet. In addition to his racing, David took in the full trials experience! From visiting the Aqua Zone, participating in autograph signing sessions, watching every session that he was not competing in, live (including seeing 2 world records), plus taking advantage of all the amenities available to participating athletes, the event was totally awesome, incredibly overwhelming and just amazing to be able to experience.
Casey Freeman attended her 2nd US Paralympic Team Trials this past weekend at the University of Minnesota as one of only 87 Para athletes in the country to qualify for this prestigious event. She swam 5 events, making finals in 4 of them. She was able to pull 3 best times and bettered her morning time in almost every race. She placed 6th in the 100 Back, 5th in the 400 Free, 7th in the 200 IM, and 6th in the 50 Free. The event was televised on Peacock and is still streaming there if you are interested in seeing her dawn the YOTA cap!
2024 NORTH CAROLINA SWIMMING LONG COURSE AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS
Porter Anderson
Miles Ayres
Ellie Bakelaar
Natalie Barber
Langston Berryman
Quinton Brooke
Boston Buehler
Diana Burke
Ellis Carroll
Juliet Christopherson
Virginia Christopherson
Peyton Cossey
Ianna Dong
Charlotte Doyle
Poppy Fishburn
Ivy Forgione
Andrew Fulmer
Aiden Gajowski
Jax Garrett
Chance Harper
Jacob Hodgkins
Brady Houtz
Haley Houtz
Peter Ishak
Gavin Ivory
Beckham Jackson
Scarlett Jones
Carpenter Keigan
Alannah Keough
Shane Keough
Tristan Keough
James Kreel
Campbell Lange
Colby Lange
Manoela Laurentino
Elise Luedke
Ansley Mason
Harper Maxwell
Evie Metz
Keenan Olson
Leticia Passos
Eric Perry
Lucy Pierrynowski-Wei
Olivia Pittenger
Jack Reynolds
Alana Schneider
Kira Schneider
Paige Snyder
Laura Soliman
Sarah Solomon
Valentina Trovero
Shobhit Gupta
Brian Lee
Alexander Lei
Benjamin Lei
Madalyn Gutierrez-Kasbohm
Aubrey Lewis
Lee Lowther
Bennett White
Michael White
Katie Wilson
Daniel Zarzar
Blake Zimmermann
On July 11-14, 63 YOTA athletes com Course North Carolina Age Group Cham
Cary, NC. This meet brings together the best 14 & Under athletes in the entire state of North Carolina to compete for a State Championship. Throughout the weekend, YOTA athletes swam 146 races, earned 96 best times, and scored 612 points to place 9th in the State. YOTA had 32 top 16 individual swims, 29 top 16 relays swims, 2 team records, and 1 State Champion. These swimmers raced hard and capped off their long course season with a bang!
SPLASH 2024 LAST
Over the weekend of July 25-28, 40 YOTA athletes made the trip down to Orlando, Florida for the 2024 RAFC Last Splash Invite. This meet is always a great opportunity to race swimmers from outside of our LSC and compete for a team title. Throughout the weekend, YOTA athletes swam 339 races, earned 310 best times, and scored 1,704.5 points to place 4th in the team race. Other notable highlights, 2 team records were broken, 5 new Long Course YMCA National Cuts were achieved, and 1 new Futures cut was achieved. For the second year in a row, YOTA spent the day celebrating their suc
Kate Bakelaar
Andy Barger
Morgan Gentile
Evan Hepburn
Gabe DeVizia
Eli Edmondson
Casey Freeman
Cameron Morris
Luca Pirone
Macy Organ
Jack Gajowski
Aubrey Mitchell
Elodie Mitchell
Axel Mori
John Reese Taylor
Ryan West
Breanna Smith
Logan Page
Isaiah Pearce
Sophie Perry
David Soliman
Freddie Stuart
Ryan Sutherland
Jack White
Cooper Wiese
Peyton Womble
Ava Wright
tim a e n
d it per way though OTA aking their way ba the first time since 2015, the traditional bus karaoke, the spicy hats and Spirit Stick. It was about the relentless support and encouragement the athletes all had for each other. Young people with the understanding that they are part of something special. These things you can’t see on Instagram, emotion that can’t come though over the phone, an experience they will remember forever with a group that will never be together again. They made the most… No regrets, going for it/taking risks and learning from them, understanding what real sacrifice is, for the TEAM. Anything that needed to be said was felt. Just as the team pictures with the rainbow in the background did not do the real thing justice, all the statistical greatness did not do justice for what was being present in the moments of this week in Ocala, Florida. Some things are just hard to understand if you weren’t there. But YOTA swimmers all over our program understand, it is something you can only get through the YOTA Experience.
YOTA RECORD BREAKERS
Miles Ayres Elodie Mitchell
Alannah Keough Shane Keough
John Reese Taylor David Wahlen
R. West, JR. Taylor, A. Mori, E. Wang
IIMX MX
USA Swimming’s IM Xtreme program allows USA Swimming members to track their times against swimmers all across the nation! The IMX ranking includes a series of five or six events at longer distances. Swimmers earn an IMX score after they race each of these events in a given year. This score captures their overall ability across all of the strokes. The faster they become in these events throughout the year, the more competitive their overall score becomes.
Congratulations to the swimmers with the top 3 IMX scores in each age group from our short course season detailed here, and congratulations to all of our swimmer’s who earned IMX scores this year!
CLASS OF 2024
Grace Brunk
Georgia Southern University
Lula Caress
Tulane University
Mance Edmon United States Academy at We
Morgan Gentile University of North Carolina Wilmington
THE YMCA OF THE TRIANGLE AREA SWIM TEAM
Caroline Healey University of Sout a
Katie Kovalaske University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Sarah Foglia Washington Co
Simon Holt Gap Year
Yasmine Kwong Duke University
Charley Howard University of North Carolina Wilmington
Neve MacKay University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Ella Malzahn
St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Elodie Mitchell Emory University
Axel Mori
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Paige O’Keefe
University of North CarolinaChapel Hill
Logan Page University of Lynchburg
Amelia Schumacher
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Breanna Smith University of Maryland Baltimore County
Isaiah Pearce
Appalachian State University
Eddie Wang
Jill Smith Widener College
Allie VanderBroek University of North Carolinaapel Hill
United States
Military Academy at West Point
Ryan West Wabash College
Andrew Volpe
University of Notre Dame
Sam Will East Carolina
University
Ava Wright University of North Carolina Wilmington
VIEW THE 2024 "THROUGH THE YEARS" SENIOR SLIDESHOW
2 0 2 4
CARING
Y O T A A W A R D S RESPONSIBILITY RESPECT HONESTY
SENIOR LEVELS
East Senior I East Senior II East AG Select West Senior I West Senior II / West AG Select
John Reese Taylor
Allie VanderBroek
Jackie Regan Logan White
AGE GROUP LEVELS
A.E. Finley YMCA
Molly Boling
Theo Lundeen
Mary Henning Pedersen
Danny Gajowski
Sarah Solomon
Bennett Nida
Keenan Olson
Brady Houtz
Alexander YMCA
Oliva With
Chloe Ishak
Sariah Freeman
Scarlett Conard
Chapel Hill YMCA
Emrie Burke
Henry Dunkman
Leticia Passos
Rory Donewar
Phoebe Broache
Sam Carroll
Natalie Hinde
Will Benson
Ellie Crosby
Jax Garrett
Evan Hepburn
Kate Bakelaar
Downtown Durham YMCA
Reuven Golovin
Josie Epistein
Caleb Wixted
Rose Wiley
Gwen Dailey
James Moorhead
Luke Bakelaar
Elizabeth Norman
Ansley Mason
Holly Thesing
Jill Smith
Ella Malzahn
Kerr YMCA
Grant Zimmermann
Tristan Keough
Olivia Brooke
John Gillis
Iman Boussaidane
Beckham Jackson
Riley Aberant
Bennett White
Taylor YMCA
Emilyn Banko
Matthew Francart
Lucie MacIntyre
Machenzie Metz
Ianna Dong
Ian Lowther
Hailey Mizell
Jacob Hodgkins
Each year, the YOTA Award goes to the swimmers that represent the YMCA Core Values of honesty, caring, respect, and responsibility to the highest degree. These swimmers truly encompass what it means to be a YOTA team member and are highly regarded by their teammates, coaches, and community. We're honored to recognize these swimmers as the 2023-2024 YOTA Award Winners!
MEANINGFUL, MOMENTS MEMORABLE,
This flipbook highlights only a small portion of the many great moments our team has shared over the last year. As we look back on these moments, our heart is full knowing that these memories will stay with us for a lifetime. This was a year of great success and excellence, and those achievements are well documented in this book. The moments that are not as easily documented are the moments that we can’t always put into words or capture in a picture, but we carry them with us in an even greater way in our hearts. We talk a lot about how this sport is so much more than swimming, and we hope that this flipbook, and your memories from this year, represents that. We hope that these moments remind you of the grit, determination, inspiration, and love that filled this year. This is what carries us through the peaks and valleys of each season, and keeps us coming back for more each year. Cheers to a great 2023-2024 season! We cannot wait to see what greatness these pages will be filled with next year.
-YOTA Coaching Staff
