Baylor Girls Set 4 SCM Nat’l High School Records In Dual Meet

Led by three from Addison Smith, Baylor’s girls broke four national high school records in a short course meters dual with Science Hill High School in Tennessee.

High school short course meters formats are relatively few and far between nationally, and most of the records that fell had stood since the super-suit era of 2009 and before. Smith, a senior who will compete for Princeton next year, broke three records and narrowly missed a fourth. Her events fell in a tricky order, too, with two sets of back-to-back races across the meet.

Smith won the 200 free in 2:00.70, smashing the field by almost 16 seconds and taking down a 15-year-old record. The previous independent schools mark was a 2003 record from Elizabeth Hill in Georgia: 2:01.04. (Another Georgian, Amanda Weir, holds the overall high school record at 2:00.38). Smith split her race expertly (28.1/30.7/30.9/30.8) to crack the independent schools record. Even more impressive was that the event came directly after the 200 medley relay, where Smith anchored Baylor’s team in 26.17. The relay went 1:54.64, just barely missing a national record by two tenths of a second.

Smith would return to win the 400 free in 4:16.18, chopping two seconds off a 2008 national independent schools record. The overall high school record still remains at 4:12.68 from Erica Laning in 2016. Then, Smith jumped back onto anchor duty with the 200 free relay, splitting 26.20 as Baylor went 1:46.35 and broke Trinity Prep (FL)’s national independent school record of 1:46.98 from 2015. Also on the relay were Ellie Waldrep (26.93), Jewel Gordon (26.25) and Jamee Mitchum (26.97).

In the very next event, Baylor sophomore Waldrep went 1:00.34 to win the 100 back and crack a 10-year-old national record. The old record was 1:00.85 from another Baylor swimmer, Arden Pitman, and had previously stood as both the independent school record and the overall national high school record.

Baylor swept 11 of 12 events on the girls side, with Waldrep also winning the 100 fly (1:02.98).

Science Hill broke a national public high school record of its own in its one girls win. Cecelia Porter went 1:09.05 in the 100 breaststroke, taking more than a second off an 11-year-old record.

The Baylor boys won 10 of 12 events, getting double individual wins from Aidan Sims (200 free in 1:59.76, 400 free in 4:15.51), Jack Kirby (100 free in 51.80, 100 back in 56.89) and Alex Borisov (200 IM in 2:10.99, 100 breast in 1:05.65). Science Hill won diving (Nicholas Dorr, 178.65 points) and the 100 fly (Landon Potter, 1:00.92).

Full results are available on Meet Mobile.