2020 TISCA Tennessee High School State Championships
- Friday, February 7 – Saturday, February 8
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
- Prelims 9:30 AM / Finals 6:00 PM (U.S. Eastern Time)
- Live Stream links
- Psych Sheets
- Results available on Meet Mobile
Meet Format
Tennessee is a unique format, splitting the high school meet lineup across two days, with morning prelims and evening finals:
Day 1 (Friday):
- 200 medley relay
- 200 free
- 200 IM
- 50 free
- Boys diving
- 100 fly
Day 2 (Saturday):
- 100 free
- 500 free
- 200 free relay
- Girls diving
- 100 back
- 100 breast
- 400 free relay
Swimmers to Watch
Alex Walsh, Harpeth Hall
Senior Alex Walsh holds state records in the 200 free and 100 breast, but perhaps the biggest storyline is her attempt to retake the 100 back record from younger sister Gretchen. Alex Walsh held the record at 52.80 through last year, but when she jumped out of that event for the 100 breast (just missing her own state record in 59.08), Gretchen snuck in to take the 100 back mark to 51.57. Alex Walsh has been 50.88 in club competition, so there’s a good chance she takes the record back from her younger sister. Alex Walsh will also chase her own 200 free record of 1:45.05 from last year.
Gretchen Walsh, Harpeth Hall
Junior Gretchen Walsh is probably the headliner. Smashing two state records last year in the 100 fly and 100 back, Gretchen Walsh will try two different events this year: the 50 free and 100 free. Walsh already owns the 50 free record at 22.26 from 2018, but she’s been 21.82 in club competition since. Keep an eye on the national high school record of 21.64 set by Olympian Abbey Weitzeil back in 2015. Walsh already owns the independent school national record.
In the 100 free, Gretchen (career-best 47.49) will chase state (48.67, Kristen Vredeveld), national independent high school (48.39, Missy Franklin) and national overall high school (47.09, Abbey Weitzeil) records.
Will Jackson, McCallie
On the boys side, McCallie high looks to defend its state title, won by 40 last year. Defending 500 free champ Will Jackson returns, and looks to add the 200 free after placing second by .01 seconds last year. Jackson has been 1:37.72 and 4:28.24 in those events.
Joseph Jordan, Oakland
Oakland senior Joseph Jordan is in the hunt for an elusive state record. The future Tennessee Volunteer has been 20.54 in the 50 free, and could challenge the 20.21 state record set in 2017 by distance ace Trey Freeman. Coleman Kredich, now graduated and moved on to Duke, missed that record by .01 last year.
Ellie Waldrep, Baylor School
Despite Harpeth Hall’s star power and national records last year, it was the Baylor School that won the meet and took home our High School Team of the Year Swammy Award. Now-junior Ellie Waldrep returns from that team after finishing as the runner-up in the 100 back and 100 fly last year. With Gretchen Walsh out of the way in the 100 fly, Waldrep (lifetime-best 53.87) has a clearer path to victory. She’ll battle the other Walsh, Alex, in the 100 back this year, and with a career-best 52.42 from last year, she could be in line for one of the fastest times in state history, even if she takes silver again.
No wonder they put up such fast times at the Tennessee meet. Breaking it into two days is a huge advantage. Most of the rest of the country has the whole meet, prelims and finals in one day, or only breaks out prelims for the 500, so the kids are racing eight times in a single day.
Most of the country splits their meet. Not exactly the way Tennessee does it, which is unique, but most of the country does split.
and the Olympics… no wonder they are always so fast there… they split that into a whole dang week!!
Assuming it’s the same Trey Freeman as the UF sophomore, if he has the state record in the 50 from 2015… he would have been a high school freshman. Is that for real???
Yep, same Trey Freeman, although as it turns out, Tennessee has an error in their records – it looks like they updated the time to Freeman’s 20.21, but forgot to update the school and the year. It was actually at the 2017 meet, not the 2015 meet, on a relay leadoff. We’ll correct above and alert them to the error.
I believe (and correct me if I am wrong) that the Tennessee High School State Meet is unique in that it only has one meet. There is no division for 1A, 2A, etc. private or public, and even allows 8th graders to swim and home school students to swim as well.
The Tennessee state meet is unique because it’s not run by the TSSAA – the organization that runs most high school sports in the state. Instead, it’s run by the Tennessee Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (TISCA). Idaho had a similar setup until recently. I think now, most other state meets are run by the state organization.
Off the top of my head, Illinois, New Mexico, West Virginia, and Hawaii have only a single class/division. I feel like there’s one or two others, probably in the northeast, that fit the bill as well.
Interesting, I wasn’t aware there were others with only one division. Do they also allow 8th grade and home schools as well?
I’m not positive, I’d have to look into it. There are definitely other states that allow 8th graders and home schoolers, but I’m not sure if any states have “all of the above”.
Not sure about home schoolers but NY state allows 7th and 8th graders
NM has homeschoolers, 8th graders (from some school districts; some don’t allow), and sometimes a few exchange students all in one big meet! It’s a lot of fun.
Homeschool students are allowed, however it’s 9-12th only.
FYI: The trolling posts highlighting random swimmers on the Psych Sheet to impress your friends isn’t all that entertaining. Just wanted to save you the trouble for next time.
Random!? Man isn’t random. Man trains alongside half of the swimmers in the article and has been learning from them everyday.
Thomas Miller is the new big name in swimming and das on PERIODT
I see there are a number of high school state championships in the next couple of weeks. It doesn’t seem like there’s standards from state to state for HS swimming. For examples, some states allow the athletes to just attend their club practices, while others can only attend club practices that don’t conflict with HS practices. Some state champs have prelim/finals while others do not. Who and where are these decisions made, and is there any indication of standardizing across the country in the future?
I think it varies by state. HS state swimming is independent from USA Swimming. So there isn’t really a standard across all states.
Anonymous – generally, the governing body for each state’s high school sports gets to make these decisions. The National Federation of High School Sports Associations (NFHS) does have create standard rules for each sport (e.g., stroke and turn rules for swimming), but gives each state a wide degree of latitude in how they set up the season and state championships. Especially in swimming, the situation is so different from state-to-state that it’d be difficult to come up with a one size fits all approach across the nation. From my perspective, the wide variety of available pool space in each state drives much of the decision-making with regard to both of the examples you brought up. In Virginia, a lot of… Read more »
I think Roswell T Miller is an up-and-coming swimmer in this meet. Be on the lookout for him! He’s seated pretty well in the 100 back
I think you’re forgetting a big one. Thomas Miller is a senior from MBA is looking to lead the SeaDogs to victory. He’s seeded 14th in the 100 back but he’s looking to make a come up
Agreed
Ya, been waiting for him to Crush that 54.0 for some time now. I think the time is now. #rollred