Over the weekend, the city of Cumming hosted a statewide meet for young swimmers, with one local team setting a state record.

On Friday and Saturday, the Cumming Aquatic Center was host for the 2017 Georgia Recreation & Parks Association Class A State Swim Meet, featuring more than 1,200 participants.

“Everything went well,” said Carla Wilson, Aquatic Center manager. “We obviously closed down the whole facility. Our goal was really to make it a fun, special experience for the swimmers and the families. For a lot of the swimmers, it’s their first time in a championship meet, so we wanted to make it really special.”

The center, which opened in 2011, previously hosted the meet in 2014 and 2015, and this year’s event was bigger than its predecessors.

“We had a welcome party on Thursday night that we actually had about 600 people come [to], which was more than we anticipated and actually much more than when we hosted in 2014 and 2015,” Wilson said. 

At the event, four state records were broken.

Katelyn Thomas, John Hudson, Tyler McGinn and Kylie Kryszon of the Forsyth County Tide set the mixed 7-8 100-yard freestyle relay record at 1:09.89.

Wilson said the event was a good chance for visitors to see the facility, though members of the largest team had likely been before.

“We have a fantastic facility, especially for people seeing it the first time, she said. “The largest team was actually Forsyth County. Forsyth County has a team and Cumming has a team that both participated. The Forsyth County team has about 200 swimmers on it.”

The event was not just positive for the Aquatic Center, Wilson said.

“In the community, it brings in a lot of business to the hotels and the restaurants,” she said. “And it’s a good way for us to showcase our facility.”