The meets, hosted at the University of South Carolina, were both postponed by a week after historic flooding washed across the state. South Carolina still kicks off high school championships across the country, due primarily to the fact that most high school teams in the state practice outdoors in neighborhood or country club pools, and weather becomes inhospitable for outdoor training after October.
Girls Meet
The girls of the Academic Magnet High School won the 2015 South Carolina High School League 3A Championships with 436.50 points on October 17 over last years champions, Hilton Head High School, who placed 2nd this year with 304 points.
Top 5 Teams:
- Academic Magnet
- Hilton Head
- A C Flora
- Bishop England
- Christ Church Episcopal School
The Raptors started the meet off with a 2nd place finish in the 200 medley relay. The team of Annalise Hafner, Julia Zimlich, Elaine Zhou and Styler Ayers finished in a time of 1:53.47, just split seconds behind the Myrtle Beach team, who clocked in at 1:53.22. Zhou was the only first place finish for Academic Magnet, but they picked up points with at least 2 or more individual scorers in every event. The 2014 100-yard fly defending champion won the event in a time of 54.75, a few seconds off of her time last year (54.63).
Christ Church Episcopal School didn’t have the depth to place the higher than 5th place overall but had double winner Sydney Baker who made an impression. She remained undefeated in both the 200-yard free (1:53.07) and 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.99).
Other outstanding swims came from double winner, Chapin senior Catherine Bendziewicz, who won the 50-yard free in a time of 24.08 and the 100-yard free in a time of 52.45, 3 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Sarah Reamy of Hilton Head was the only swimmer to break the 5 minute barrier in the 500-yard free, finishing in a time of 4:59.74, dropping 7 seconds from last year’s second place swim. She also placed 3rd in the 200-yard free (1:53.99) and helped lead the 400 free relay to a first place finish (3:38.99), along with teammates Karah Kurtz, Victoria Gill and Isobella Brockmann.
Claire Holliday of South Pointe, who was the 5th place finisher in the 100-yard backstroke at the 2014 championships, won this year in a tim of 59.57, just shy of her personal best.
Boys Meet
Eastside High School, who placed 3rd last year, won with 381.50 points, just 48 points ahead of 2014 and 2015 runner up Academic Magnet High School.
Top 5 Teams:
- Eastside
- Academic Magnet
- Hilton Head
- Christ Church Episcopal School
- Waccamaw
Eastside started the meet off on a rough star with a DQ in the 200 medley relay, but didn’t let that stop them from taking the title. Although they didn’t win a single event, their places in top 20 finishes made up the winning points.
Patrick Sullivan of the Waccamaw High School contributed valuable points to his team, winning both the 50-yard free in a time of 21.73 and the 100-yard free in a time of 47.93, and being the only swimmer at the meet to go under 22 and 50 seconds in the 50-yard and 100-yard free respectively. He also joined teammates John Crosby, Jonah Crosby and Sean King and helped lead his team to a first place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:31.84), ahead of 2nd place finisher Hilton Head (1:32.50) and 3rd place South Pointe (1:33.93).
Junior at Palmetto, Talmadge Davis was successful at defending his titles in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle, finishing in times of 1:41.26 and 4:33.14 respectively.
Other outstanding swims came from Academic Magnet’s Cooper Pitts, who was the champion in both the 200-yard IM (1:53.69) and 100-yard breaststroke (57.69), regaining his title from last year as well as shedding a second in both events, and finishing way ahead of the field in both events. teammate Carter Brzezinski, also made an impact, winning the 100-yard backstroke (52.10) and placing 2nd in the 200-yard freestyle (1:43.31). He also helped lead the 200-yard medley relay to victory, with teammates States Beall, Garrett Smith and Pitts.
Academic Magnet senior Carter Brzezinski was also under 50 seconds in the 100 free at 47.10 leading off the 400 freestyle relay!