Payton Woodring, age 11, is ranked in the Top 20 in the USA in the rankings from USA Swimming, Inc in 6 different events as of 10/5/15.
Payton began her swimming career in Ellijay under the coaching of Larry Lykins with the summer Gilmer Park and Recreation team. After earning two first place finishes at the GRPA B/C state meet in Tifton, GA. in 2012, she began setting her sites on competing in swimming year round.Since Ellijay doesn’t have a year round USA swimming program, she and several other children from Ellijay started commuting daily to swim with Carpet Capital Aquatics Club in Dalton, GA.
Payton is currently ranked 4th in the 100m Fly, 7th in the 100m back, 8th in the 50m Back, 9th in the 50m Fly, 12th in the 200m Back and 16th in the 100m Individual Medley events among all 11 year old swimmers across the nation. The ranking were posted on 10/5/15 on the USA Swimming website at http://www.usaswimming.org.
In July of this year, Payton swam at the Georgia 2015 Age Group Long Course Championship at Georgia Tech and placed in the top ten in these same events. She finished 2nd in Georgia in the 50m Fly and 100m Fly and 3rd in the 200m Backstroke events.