When the Vicksburg Swim Association’s Killer Whales enter the pool for the 2018 Eastern Section Southern Zone Age Group Championships, they will be competing against not only the best swimmers in their age group from all over the south, but swimming in the wake of some of the sport’s all-time greats.

The meet is held in the McAuley Aquatic Center at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, which was originally built for the 1996 Summer Olympics and is still sometimes used for national meets. The VSA team is sending five competitors — Tulio Figarola, Jon Daniel Busby, Austin Norwood, Tony Fields and Beau Harris — who will all be competing in the meet for the first time.

“It’s a bigger environment, under the lights, and hopefully we achieve some lifetime best times,” VSA coach Mathew Mixon said.

Figarola, Busby and Norwood all qualified for individual events. Fields will be part of the 200-yard freestyle 200-yard medley relay teams.

Harris will also compete in an unofficial time trial in the 50-yard freestyle.

The meet started Thursday evening and will continue through Sunday night.

“I’m super excited,” Mixon said. “We’ve had individuals in the past make it, two here, one year we had three, never taken a relay team. Super exciting to have that many going, and we feel that we’re going as a team, rather than just as individuals.”

Figarola will compete in five events in the boys’ 10-and-under age division — the 100-yard freestyle and backstroke, 50 backstroke and freestyle, and the 500 freestyle.

Busby is in the 100- and 50-yard freestyle and 50 breaststroke, in addition to the two relays. Harris and Norwood are also on the relay teams, while Norwood will also compete in the 50-yard breaststroke.

Figarola, Busby and Norwood all qualifying for individual completion was also big for the program, Mixon said.

“There’s not but probably handful of kids that go in the state of Mississippi that achieve the time standards,” Mixon said.

At such a large meet with dozens of top swimmers in each event, it can be difficult to finish near the top of the standings, but Mixon was very optimistic about his relay team’s chances.

“Really excited about our relay, I think maybe they can get a high finish,” Mixon said. “We’ve never had anybody place in the top 20. We’re talking about hundreds of kids in each event. Our relay has a chance to make top 20, maybe top 15, so it’s kind of exciting. We’ve been getting those guys hyped about that.”

Mixon hoped this year could be something special for his team.

“It’s really probably the most excited going into this event that we’ve ever been,” Mixon said.