Both the boys and girls team titles at the Utah Class 5A State Championships came down to the final relay, with the girls of Sky View and the boys of Viewmont holding on for hotly-contested team trophies.
Girls Meet
Sky View didn’t win an event until it most needed to, winning only the closing 400 free relay to seal an overall team title.
Heading into that final event, Sky View held a narrow 5-point lead over Brighton with West High School also lurking. With the relay counting for double points, the meet would come down to how the three programs finished in the final heat.
But Sky View got the field’s best anchor leg from sophomore Megan Brimhall at 52.4 to pick up the win, touching out Brighton by just under half a second. Brighton had its own tough anchor, freshman Rachel Butler, who split 52.7 but came up just short.
Sky View’s team featured freshman Millie Miggin (55.6 on the leadoff), sophomore Lainey Bingham (56.5) and senior Olivia Christiansen (55.8) and went 3:40.54. Brighton was 3:40.97, and West took fourth overall to earn a third-place team finish.
Individually, the star was Cottonwood sophomore Rhyan White, who won two events, led a winning relay and broke a 5A and overall state record in the 100 back. In that race, White was 53.45, blowing out the field by more than five seconds.
White also went 55.27 in winning the 100 fly, and booked her team a two-plus second lead on the field while leading off the 200 medley relay in 25.5. Her teammates Katelyn Price, Rachel Anders and Hannah Dibb joined her to go 1:50.66 and win the event by just .05 seconds over a surging Viewmont.
White was named female swimmer of the meet for her efforts.
Also doubling up on wins was Brighton’s Butler, who took the 200 IM (2:08.43) and 500 free (5:04.06). Butler was faster in prelims of the 500 free, going 4:58.61. She coasted the final and still won by 17 seconds, saving up her best swimming for that relay anchor leg that almost won the meet for Brighton.
West High’s Autumn Wolfgramm won one individual event and one relay. She joined Fane Wolfgramm, Julia Sherman and Emily Dixon to go 1:39.58 in winning the 200 free relay – that team was powered by a 24.5 leadoff leg from Fane, the younger Wolframm in her sophomore year, and the senior Autumn anchored in 23.6.
Autumn also won the 200 free, going 1:54.70.
Other event winners:
- Westlake senior Kenzie Ford took the 50 free in 23.95.
- Hunter senior Claire Jackson picked up the 100 free win in 52.52.
- Viewmont seniors Mariah and McKenna Gassaway went 1-2 in the 100 breaststroke, with Mariah winnin gin 1:03.93 and McKenna going 1:04.36.
Top 5 Teams:
- Sky View – 262
- Brighton – 251
- West – 233
- Cottonwood – 185
- Viewmont – 180
Boys Meet
Viewmont senior Drew Bonner broke a state record and won two individual events to lead his team to the overall points title.
Bonner’s record came in the 500 free, where he went 4:32.53 to pick up the win over tough Cottonwood freshman Jarod Arroyo (4:34.11).
Bonner also went 1:42.17 to win the 200 free, helping Viewmont build up a 29 point lead over Cottonwood and Lone Peak heading into the final relay. That was a safe enough margin to mostly end things, but still left the team winner officially up in the air until the final touch.
Cottonwood made a big surge, winning that 400 free relay, but it wasn’t quite enough to track down Viewmont, which took fourth in the relay. Cottonwood’s Arroyo led off in 48.2 and sophomore Christian Simon blasted a 47.5 split on the second leg to power teh team out to the lead. Freshman Colin Dailey came through with a 49.0 split and senior Jonah Simon ended things with a 48.0 anchor leg as Cottonwood went 3:12.92.
Arroyo and the older Simon, Jonah, each won individual events for Cottonwood. Arroyo took the 100 fly in 50.74, while Jonah Simon doubled up with the 200 IM (1:56.46) and 100 breaststroke (58.06).
Brighton swept a pair of relays, breaking the meet’s first state record in the 200 medley. The team of Brock Harries, Jack Binder, Parker Wiest and Brian O’Neal went 1:34.71 to win by about half a second and shatter the 5A and Utah state records. Binder had the field’s best breaststroke split at 26.0, Wiest led all butterflyers at 22.9 and O’Neal was 21.0 for the fastest anchor leg.
The same foursome would take the 200 free relay title later on with remarkable splitting consistency. O’Neal was 21.5 on the leadoff, with Binder going 21.6, Wiest 21.9 and Harries 21.5.
Harries also won the 100 free individually, going 47.53. In that race, he beat eventual 100 back champ Adam Edwards, who would go 52.80 to earn a touchout backstroke win later on.
The other individual winner was Westlake junior Kimble Petersen, who went 21.56 to take the 50 free by .05 over Brighton’s O’Neal.
Top 5 Teams:
- Viewmont – 256
- Cottonwood – 237
- Lone Peak – 229
- Mountain Crest – 213.5
- Brighton – 207