Louisiana High School City Swimming Championships
- October 27th & 28th, 2018
- Baton Rouge & New Orleans, Louisiana
The 2018 Baton Rouge & New Orleans City Swimming & Diving Championships, the last step of competition before the November 14th-17th State Championship meet, were held last weekend. At the City level, all 4 of Louisiana’s high school divisions race together before they split back out into their respective divisions, split by enrollment, for the state meet.
Swimmers qualify via time standards, not placement, to the state meet. Division 1 includes the largest schools, while Division 4 includes the smallest schools.
Baton Rouge City Championship
The Baton Rouge championship was won by the St. Joseph’s Academy girls, who were last year’s state Division I champions; and the Catholic High School boys, who were last year’s state Division I runners-up.
Among the highlights:
- LSU commits Jolee Liles (Parkview Baptist School/Crawfish Aquatics) and David Boylan (east Ascension High School/Crawfish Aquatics) were named Swimmers of the Meet after each broke a pair of Meet Records.
- Liles, a senior and the State Record holder in the 200 IM and D3 record holder in the 500 free, swam two different events at this year’s meet. First she swam a 1:49.09 in the 200 free, which not only won the race by more than 8 seconds, but also broke the old Meet Record that had stood since 1995, when another Parkview Baptist swimmer, Shelly Ripple, swam 1:51.53. Liles then won the 100 fly in 55.40, which again broke Ripple’s Record of 56.80. The 200 free is Liles’ lifetime best, while the 100 fly was .03 short.
- Boylan, also a senior, opted instead to use the meet as a tuneup for his two primary events: the 200 IM and 100 fly, and he was rewarded. Not only did he break two Meet Records, but he swam faster than his 2017 State Championship time in both events. He won the 200 IM at last year’s state championship meet in 1:53, and swam a 1:51.03 in the final on Sunday to take the city title (by more than 7 seconds). John Michael Moore previously held the Meet Record with a 1:53.64 from 2009. Then in the 100 fly Boylan swam a 50.60, which broke a 27-year old Meet Record that was set by Daniel Huang in 1991. At last year’s state meet, Boylan was a 53.12 in the 100 fly for 3rd place.
- Rylee Moore of Parkview Baptist won the girls’ 200 IM in her teammate Liles’ absence in 2:06.35 and also topped the 100 back field in 54.90. That’s a new lifetime best for her.
- Dutchtown’s Zachary Babin swept the boys’ 100 free (47.90) and 200 free (1:41.18). Those are both huge drops (1 second and 3 seconds, respectively) from his times at last year’s state championship meet.
- Mason Nyboer from Catholic High won the boys’ 500 free in 4:33.09, an All-American Consideration Time, after placing 2nd to Babin in the 200 free.
Girls’ Top 5:
- St. Joseph’s – 568
- University High – 271
- Baton Rouge Magnet – 255
- Episcopal – 210
- Parkview Baptist – 205
Boys’ Top 5:
- Catholic High School – 568
- Dutchtown High – 236.5
- Episcopal – 193
- University High – 189.5
- East Ascension High – 189
New Orleans City Championship
Mandeville High School won the New Orleans city championship in a 10-point nailbiter over Saint Scholastica on the girls’ side, with last year’s Division I state runners-up from Mount Carmel taking 3rd, well back. Jesuit High School won the boys’ title running away, more than doubling the score of runners-up ED White Catholic High.
The girls’ team title came down to the final relay, where Mandeville High and Saint Scholastica were seeded well ahead (10 seconds) of the rest of the field. That meant that whichever team won the final relay would take the team title, and in spite of the two fastest legs of the field from Saint Scholastica’s bookends Gabriella O’Neil (53.77) and Gabriella Fouchi (53.39), Mandeville won the race with depth 3:40.00-3:40.91. Fouchi did make up 2-and-a-half seconds on her anchor leg, but it wasn’t enough.
Other Meet Highlights:
- While the girls’ records remained in-tact, Northshore High School junior Michael Bonson made an early impact on the boys’ record book. He won the 200 free in the first individual event of the meet with a 1:41.45, and broke the Meet Record of 1:43.02 set by Brian Carr in 2009. That crushes Bonson’s best time by 2 seconds and puts him in contention for the Division I state title in the event in just under 2 weeks. He also won the 500 free, albeit not in a record, with a 4:42.43. That record belongs to Andre’ duPlessis in 4:37.68, who would go on to win back-to-back NCAA titles in the 500 free for Texas in 1989 and 1990.
- Charles Korndorffer also broke a Meet Record, winning the 100 back in 50.66. The old record of 50.86 was set in 1996 by Jason Galatas. That was Korndorffer’s 2nd win, after having topped the 100 fly earlier in the meet.
- Davis Edwards won the boys’ 200 IM in 1:52.24, which was another Meet Record. He cleared the old mark by Thomas Vanderbrook by more than 2 seconds.
- While the aforementioned Saint Scholastica senior Fouchi won the girls’ 50 free in 24.35, it was Kathryn Mipro from Cabrini High School won won the individual 100 free in 54.01. Fouchi, meanwhile, took the 100 back as her 2nd event and won in 59.31.
- Saint Scholastica’s O’Neil won both the 200 free (1:54.89) and 500 free (5:09.69).
- The future is bright for Mandeville High. In a meet largely owned by veterans, the freshman Ellie Fritscher won the 100 fly in 59.37 and finished 2nd in the 200 IM in 2:11.00.