Curzan’s Nat. HS Record, Top Recruits Boone, Ivan Highlight NCHSAA 4A Champs

2021 4A NCHSAA State Championships

• February 12-13, 2021
• Triangle Aquatics Center, Cary, NC
• Short Course Yards
• Results on Meet Mobile “2021 4A NCHSAA State Championships” 

North Carolina’s top high school swimmers met for the 4A State Championships this weekend. The meet included many fast swims, including a National High School Record, courtesy of Claire Curzan. The 4A division consists of the state’s largest schools and is the top division under the NCHSAA. 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the field was limited to the top 12 qualifiers in each event, rather than the usual 16 swimmers per event. Also, swimmers competed with empty lanes between them, only occupying 4 out of the 8 lanes per heat. 

Women’s Meet

W.A. Hough managed to handily defeat the field in order to claim that women’s State Championship title. The reigning State Champions, Green Hope, finished 4th overall. 

Top 5

1. W.A. Hough 100
2. Needham Broughton 70
3. Myers Park 65
4. Green Hope 49
5. Apex Friendship 37

The aforementioned Curzan stole the show during the women’s meet. The junior from Cardinal Gibbons immediately set the tone for her day in the 100 butterfly, where she swam to a time of 50.35 to tie her National High School Record in the event. Curzan set her original record at the same meet last season, and holds a best time of 49.73 from last August, which made her the youngest woman to ever go under the 50-second barrier. 

Curzan also won the 100 backstroke, swimming a time of 51.57 en route to victory. Although she was slightly off of her own state record, which stands at a 51.38, Curzan still crushed the field by almost 2 seconds. Closing out the day, Curzan split a leading-off 48.73 on Cardinal Gibbons’ 400 freestyle relay, which finished 6th overall in 3:31.29. Curzan’s split was a new state record, taking down the time of  49.25 that Teresa Ivan posted earlier in the day during the individual 100 freestyle. 

Ohio State commit Teresa Ivan also had a strong showing, coming out of the weekend with the “Outstanding Female Swimmer of the Meet” award. Ivan, who swims for Ardery Kell, started the meet by splitting a 22.47 on the school’s 200 medley relay that finished 7th overall in a time of 1:47.50. 

Afterwards, Ivan won the 50 freestyle in a time of 22.46, knocking two tenths off of her best time of 22.63. She then swam the 100 freestyle, touching first in a time of 49.25, which came about a tenth off of her best time, which stands at a 49.09. Ivan’s times in both events also included new State Records, undercutting the old records of 22.54 and 49.68, respectively. Although, Curzan ended up breaking the 100 freestyle record shortly afterwards. 

Ivan closed out the day by posting her fastest 50 freestyle of the meet, anchoring Ardrey Kell’s 200 freestyle relay with a split of 22.26. The team finished 3rd overall in a time of 1:36.84. 

Other event winners: 

• 200 Medley Relay: W.A. Hough (Amaya Hanley, Grace Rainey, Elizabeth Sowards, Kyra Tonsil) – 1:42.98
• 200 Freestyle: Morgan Razewski, W.A. Hough- 1:46.74
• 200 IM: Brooke Zettel, Apex Friendship – 1:56.89
• 500 Freestyle: Keelan Cotter, Green Hope – 4:47.87
• 200 Freestyle Relay: Needham Broughton (Elena Dry, Taylor Morris, Lily Welsh, Olivia Gschwind) – 1:34.16
• 100 Breaststroke: Grace Rainey, W.A. Hough – 1:01.05
• 400 Freestyle Relay: Needham Broughton (Dry, Morris, Welsh, Gschwind) – 3:25.22
• 1M Diving: Andra Buchan, W.A. Hough – 433.35

Men’s Meet

Green Hope High School repeated as State Champions, scoring a total of 83 points to come in ahead of runner-up South Mecklenburg High School. Green Hope has now won 4 straight State Championship titles.

Top 5:

1. Green Hope 83
2. South Mecklenburg 64
3. Cardinal Gibbons 55
4. Athens Drive 53.5
5. Myers Park 38

NC State commit Garrett Boone of South Mecklenburg was named the meet’s Outstanding Male Swimmer. Boone is currently ranked #18 in SwimSwam’s High School Class of 2021. 

Boone started his day by splitting a 22.85 on South Mecklenburg’s 200 medley relay, which ended up finishing in a time of 1:35.00 to come in second overall. He then went on to win the 50 freestyle in a time of 20.32, narrowly out touching Diggory Dillingham who finished 2nd in 20.53. Boone was only slightly off of his best time, which stands at a 20.00.

Later, Boone swam the 100 backstroke, where he touched first in a time of 48.28. With this, he cut over a second off of his seed time and came within .2 of his best time of 48.06 that was set in December. Boone closed out the day by splitting a 45.66 on the lead-off leg of South Mecklenburg’s 400 freestyle relay that finished 3rd overall in a time of 3:08.96. His best time currently stands at a 43.76, which was also set in December. 

Junior Michael Cotter of Green Hope also had a dominant meet. Cotter, who is also committed to attend NC State, swept the distance events. He began in the 200 freestyle, posting a time of 1:36.49 to come in first by almost exactly 3 seconds. With this, Cotter came less than a tenth of a second off of his best time, which stands at a 1:35.39.

Cotter then posted a time of 4:26.59 to win the 500 freestyle. Although he was slightly off of his best time of 4:23.55, Cotter still won the race by over 4 seconds, dominating the heat. 

Notably, Cotter also produced splits of 25.57 on the breaststroke leg of Green Hope’s 200 medley relay and 43.92 on the anchor leg of the school’s 400 freestyle relay. Both relays won in times of 1:33.58 and 3:05.40, respectively. 

Other event winners:

• 200 IM: Ryan Silver, Athens Drive – 1:51.29 
• 100 Butterfly: Tate Bacon, Wake Forest – 48.05 
• 100 Freestyle: Diggory Dillingham, Ardrey Kell – 45.42
• 200 Freestyle Relay: Cardinal Gibbons (Joshua Moore, Mason Taylor, Patrick Drake, David Greeley) – 1:25.28
• 100 Breaststroke: John Reese Taylor, Needham Broughton – 56.38 
• 1M Diving: Whit Andrus, RJ Reynolds – 486.10