Koala Swim Team Head to AAC Championships

After successfully progressing through the regular season, the Columbia College (SC) swim team will compete in the 2022 Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving Championships. This is the sixth year for the AAC Championship Meets. Last year, Milligan won the men's championship and former member Asbury captured the women's crown.

The Championships are Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 10-12, at the Kingsport Aquatic Center in the HMG Competition Pool.

The three-day event begins Thursday at 9 a.m. with preliminary races and concludes Saturday evening with the final session starting at 4 p.m.

Fans are allowed to attend. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students for each day of the event and must be purchased daily and online. Click here to purchase tickets.

The entire event will be streamed live for free on the AAC Digital Network.

The Koala's are under the tutelage of second-year head coach Logan Simpson.  Simpson has tremendous faith in his team heading into the Championships.

"We're ready to swim fast this weekend," said Simpson. "We have looked great in practice across the board and are coming into the meet healthy and rested. Looking at the psych sheet, 100% of our swimmers are seeded to make multiple the finals and score some big points for the team – now it's just a matter of getting the job done."

The team will look to lone senior Jessie Durflinger.  Durflinger had several top-three finishes in 2021-22 and should continue to be the bright spot for the Koalas.

"We'll look for leadership from Jessie Durflinger, who is swimming in her final conference championship meet," Simpson said. "She has delivered for us all year individually and on relays. Avy Ayn Watts, Kayla Harmon, and Elana Preston have done a great job all year putting Jessie in a position to win races as our relay anchor, and she's been lights out."

According to Simpson, the team has an enormous amount of team chemistry which should translate into success.

"I can't wait to see how we perform as a team. We have awesome team chemistry and it's just a fun group to coach. When a team enjoys competing together, special things happen."