Chastain Park Tidal Waves Win Atlanta Summer League Championship (2025)

2019 Atlanta Swimming Association Summer League Championships

• June 26th-June 29th, 2019
• SCY (25y) pool
• Results

Summer league swimming is my favorite part of swimming. It’s pure, it’s multi-generational, it’s race-focused. That’s why I love it when big name swimmers show up and race at summer league meets. It’s like when NBA players show up at Rucker Park in New York City, or when Benny the Jet still played his ball with the sandlot crew when he easily could’ve been on a travel team.

This is the backdrop for last week’s Atlanta Swimming Association summer league championships, where teams from across the city came together in a massive, two-tiered championship tournament.

Out of 110 teams participating, it was the Chastain Park Tidal Waves who came away with the overall title, dominating the meet with 1,466.5 points. The runners-up where the Glen Abbey Gators, and Grand Cascades finished 3rd with 906 points.

Showing the nature of summer league swimming, while there were a number of recognizable names in the ranks of the 15-18 races, CPAC was actually did not sport the biggest nmes among the oldest swimmers. They got 24 big points via a win from Gigi Johnson in the 15-18 girls’ 100 IM (58.43), but by-and-large their title was driven by consistent results throughout the age groups, including a stacked 6 & under lineup.

In the 15-18 age group, which is the one that will have the most national name recognition, there were quite a few top-caliber collegiate recruits racing. That includesLiam Bell, an Alabama commit and the #13 recruit in the high school class of 2019, swimming for the Avondale Tidal Waves. His team finished 32nd overall at the meet, but individually he was a star of the meet, winning the 50 breaststroke in 24.97. That thumped his own Meet Record of 25.52 that was set last season.

He also finished in a tie for 2nd in the 100 free in 44.65 as part of a stacked field. Georgia commit Ian Grum won in 44.55, followed by a tie between Bell and Atlanta Athletic Club’s Brooks Curry in 44.65. Another Alabama commit,Cam Auerbach, was 4th in 44.86. And if you don’t think that summer league means anything, consider this: Grum’s swim was a lifetime best (previous best: 46.84), as was Auerbach’s (previous best 44.97). Curry was a tenth away from his lifetime best as well.

Curry, an LSU commit, came away with the event title in a loaded 50 free field, winning in 20.71. He beat outJack Aikins (20.73) andGrant Allison(20.78) for that win.

He was half of a Curry-family sweep in the 15-18 50 frees: his 16-year old little sister Peyton Curry won the girls’ race in 24.08. That just-missed Tatum Smith’s Meet Record of 23.96.

Auerbach picked up a win as well from that 100 free group, topping the 50 fly in a new Meet Record of 22.06. That broke the old mark set by Raunak Khosla last year. Khosla is now swimming at Princeton.

But Grum was the big winner out of the group, adding a later win in the 50 backstroke as well, and knocking .83 seconds off the old Meet Record in 22.33. That old record was set in 2015 by Patrick Cusick.

One more highlight of the meet:Kamal Muhammad, a 16-year old who swims for the Echo Ridge Ragin’ Rays, won the 100 IM in 50.01. That took half-a-second off his Meet Record that was set last year when he was 15.