Eastside, Led by Hayden Penny Wins SCHSL 4A State Championship

2020 SCHSL Girl’s 4A State Swimming Championships

• October 10, 2020
• North Charleston Aquatic Center, North Charleston, SC
• Course: SCY
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2020 SCHSL 4A Girls Championships” 

The South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) held its State Championship meets this weekend, marking the first high school state championship meet since the coronavirus pandemic. 

The meet was held at the North Charleston Aquatic Center, which has the capacity to hold over 1,000 swimmers. Due to COVID restrictions, there were no spectators allowed at the meet, and the number of swimmers participating had to also be limited. 

Schools competing in the SCHSL’s 4A division fall between the 3A and 5A schools in terms of size under the reclassification that was based on enrollment numbers as of mid-2019. 

In the team battle, the defending state champions, Eastside High School, once again emerged victorious with a total of 398 points. Hilton Head Island came in the runner-up position, finishing with 258 points, also repeating their finish from last year. 

Team Scores:

1. Eastside (398)
2. Hilton Head (258) 
3. Lucy Beckham (230.5)
4. May River (205)
5. James Island (149.5)

En route to its team victory, Eastside won two individual events and two relays. 

The school’s first victory came in the 200 IM, where freshman Hayden Penny cruised past the field to touch in a final time of 2:04.28. With this, she beat the rest of the field by over 7 seconds and dropped 2.5 seconds from her seed time. 

Penny got Eastside’s second win in her other individual event, the 500 freestyle, where she swam to a final time of 5:00.84 to claim the victory. 

Immediately after Penny’s 500 freestyle, Eastside captured its first relay win of the day, posting the top time in the 200 freestyle relay. The team of Laila Harvey, Grace Fowler, Lauren Adams, and Ella Penny combined to finish in a time of 1:39.94 in a tight battle against May River, who finished in second with a time of 1:40.45. 

Eastside finished out the day with its final victory in the 400 freestyle relay, where the team of Adams, Eva Kelly Tzouvelekas, Ella Penny, and Hayden Penny touched about 6 seconds ahead of the field in a time of 3:31.98. Notably, Hayden Penny anchored that relay in 51.39, showing impressive range considering she had just won the longest race of the day a few minutes before. 

Other Highlights:

• May River won the 200 medley relay with a final time of 1:49.70. The team of Allie Ingram, Shelby Gourley, Hannah Yemec, and Lily Bostwick prevailed over second-place Lucy Beckham by about 2 seconds. 
• South Aiken’s Kaitlyn Golyski won both the 200 and 100 freestyle events. In the 200, Golyski posted a 1:52.09 to drop almost 6 seconds off of her seed time. Similarly, she touched in 51.78 in the 100, which took 3 seconds off of her seed time. 
• Jane Koch won over a very tight field in the 50 freestyle, finishing in a time of 24.13 en route to her victory. 
• Lancaster senior Mackenzy Mills successfully defended her title in the 100 backstroke, hitting the wall in a time of 55.92. Mills dropped almost exactly a half second off of her winning time from last season (56.43). 
• Mill’s teammate and fellow senior Taylor Teague emerged victorious in the 100 breaststroke, finishing in a time of 1:07.24. This improved on Teague’s 5th place finish from last season (1:11.43) , and her time was over 3 seconds faster this season.