Gold Swim Team's Lainey Blase Reveals College Commitment

Lainey Blase has had a long and successful swim journey with Woodstock-based Chattahoochee Gold. It started 17-and-a half years ago when Gold instructors first taught her to swim. Now, after shining for Gold's club swim team since age five, Lainey's ready to take on the challenge of swimming at the collegiate level for the University of Tampa Spartans.

Nationally, the Spartans are a top five NCAA Division II swim team; they compete in the Sunshine State Conference. The women's squad is currently ranked fourth in the country, the men are second and reigning national champions. Two Spartan swimmers qualified for 2024 U.S. Olympic Swim Trials.

Lainey joins the UT team next fall with a Chattahoochee Gold swim resume that includes USA Swimming Futures qualifier, NCSA Junior National qualifier, Georgia Swimming Zone Team and recipient of Georgia Swimming's Golden Peach Award for Perseverance. While she's proud of those accolades, Lainey credits her success to "...the amazing coaches I've had the pleasure of working with. Gold Coach Mark (Schilling) is most responsible for my success, he helped push me to my limits and taught me a lot about discipline." Lainey says her proudest moments with the Gold team are winning "fun and exciting" relay races over the years but her favorite memories are getting to swim with her sister Laurel for several years.

While also competing for the swim team at Sequoyah High School, Lainey was recognized in 2022, '23 and '24 as Cherokee Tribune & Ledger All-County and All-State and the GHSSCA 6A All-State Team. With the Swim Chiefs, she's a 2022 Cherokee County record holder in 200 Medley Relay and 400 Free Relay.

Looking ahead to competing in college, Lainey says she chose the University of Tampa because, "I loved the campus and the dynamics of the team. My visit was a lot of fun and I knew immediately that I wanted to go to UT." Gold coach Schilling sees big things in Lainey's future, "I’m so excited for Lainey to begin her next stage of swimming at Tampa. She has worked tremendously hard to make this accomplishment happen. The Tampa program has had some great coaches and is a perfect fit for Lainey. I can’t wait to see her continue to improve and grow. "

Lainey says her goals in Tampa are to swim even faster and "...create friendships that will last a lifetime. Thank you to my friends, teammates, family and Coach Mark for believing in me. Thank you UT Coach Jimi and Coach Q for this amazing opportunity! Go Spartans!"