The Mississippi State High School Championship swim meet came to a close on October 26th with the St. Andrews girls taking the class one championships, the St. Joseph Madison High School girls taking the boys class one championships, and Tupelo High School taking both the boys and girls class two championships.
CLASS ONE (1A-4A)
The St. Andrews girl absolutely dominated their competition, winning every event other then the 50 yard free and 200 yard free relay. The girls finished with 122 points over last years winner: Cleveland High School who placed second with 90 points.
The girls started off by winning the 200 yard medley relay in a new class one record of 1:52.14. The team was made up of Maggie Gleason, Carly Good, Alex Good, and Mollie Shepard. The team beat their own record of 1:52.64 from last year. The same team went on to win gold in the 400 freestyle relay, again breaking the class one record finishing in a time of 3:41.43. That time also broke the Mississippi high school state record set by the same team last year. Gleason, Good, and Good all won two individual events as well, bringing all of their totals to an impressive four victories.
Carly Good, 17, went on to win the 200 IM and 100 breast. She touched in at 2:14.84 during her 200 free, and 1:10.05 for her 100 breast. Carly set the class one records in both of those events last year, but failed to better her times at these championships.
Good’s sister, Alex, also came away with two big wins as she trudged to the wall to take the top time in both the 200 and 100 freestyles. Good touched the wall in 1:55.23 in the longer of the two races, taking the 100 in a swift 53.31. Like her sister, Good is the class one record holder in both events, however she also fell shy of her record times.
St. Andrews’ freestyle leadoff swimmer Maggie Gleason, 16, came home with wins in the 100 fly and 100 back, setting a class one record in the 100 back. Gleason touched the wall in 59.83 to break her own 100 fly record of 1:00.80 by almost a full second. Gleason won the 100 back in 59.93.
Madison St. Joe’s swimmer, Niijor May, finished with a big win in the 50 freestyle, breaking the class one record. May touched the wall in a fast 25.06. She was well off Bailey Scott’s state record of 23.76.
On the men’s side the St. Andrews team wasn’t able to shake their competitors as they finished second with 86 points to Madison St. Joes 107 points. St. Joes was able to take home two relay victories, finishing first in the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay. In the latter of the two, they faced off in a tough battle with the St. Andrews boys, pulling away for a victory. Both teams finished under the class one record of 3:35.68 with St. Andrews touching the wall in 3:32.67, St. Joes touching for a new record at 3:29.50. St Joes also broke the 200 medley relay record, finishing in 1:48.22 to break the previous mark of 1:48.35.
The only individual win of the day for St. Joes came from Walker Burrow. Burrow placed first in the 100 back in 57.09, breaking Cleveland High School swimmer Will Week’s record of 59.07 from last year. Burrow added a second place finish to his medal count in the 100 fly, finishing second to St. Andrews swimmer Jack Smithson.
Freshman Jack Smithson led the St. Andrews men with their only two victories of the meet, grabbing both the 100 fly and 200 IM titles. Smithson touched the wall in a new class one record of 53.41. The record he broke belonged to Burrow who also broke his own record of 55.45, touching the wall in 54.48 to finish behind Smithson. Smithson went on to set another record in the 200 IM. He stopped the clock at 2:01.18 to smash the previous record set by Wally Wibowo of 2:06.62.
Wibowo, 18, however was able to take two titles at this years championships, securing victories in the 50 and 100 free. Wibowo broke the 50 second mark in the 100, touching the wall in 49.43. In the splash-and-dash Wibowo punched in a quick 22.27.
St. Patricks swimmer Zach Cruthirds was also able to head home with two victories. The 17 year old swimmer placed first in both the 200 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, breaking the record in the breaststroke. Cruthirds touched the wall in 1:02.80 to break St. Andrews swimmer Winn Walker’s record of 1:05.18.
CLASS TWO (5-6A)
The Tupelo high school boys and girls both took victories during the class two section of the meet. The boys secured 101 points to second place finisher Madison Central high school who finished with 80 points. The girls finished the meet with 124 points to trump Oxford high school’s 90.
The Tupelo boys and girls both started off the meet with victories in the 200 yard medley relays. Connor Anderson who led off the winning relay came home with three more golds in the meet, winning the 100 fly, 100 free, and aiding the 200 freestyle relay team to a victory. Anderson was just short of the class two record in the 100 fly, finishing in a time of 52.73. In the 100 free however, Anderson was able to break the record of 47.66 set by Parker King last year. Anderson out-touched competitor Sean Kirwan from Olive Branch high school 47.59 to 47.62. They were both under the record.
The 200 free relay that Anderson led off broke the class two record that the Tupelo boy set last year by over a second. The boys finished with a time of 1:27.70 to top last year’s 1:29.17. The Tupelo girls weren’t able to take the relay title like the men, finishing in third place to Madison Central and Starkville. All three teams were under Starkville’s record from last year of 1:43.61, Madison Central breaking the record by over a second. Madison Central took the victory by out-touching the record holders 1:42.52 to 1:42.58.
Tupelo swimmer Cris Roberts also had a high medal count to add to the overall points, taking home two individual victories as well as a first place finish in the 200 medley relay and a second place finish in the 400 free relay. Roberts was able to set class two records on the way to victories in the 100 back and 100 fly. Roberts set a new record in the 100 back of 58.98 and bettered her own record in the 100 fly of 57.31 to 57.27.
A couple more class two records were set in the girls 200 IM by Taylor Ballard, girls 100 free by Kyjana Webber, boys 100 back by Cory Person, boys 100 breast by Ralph Moore, and the girls 100 breast by Laken Vickers.
Full meet results can be found here: http://www.misshsaa.com/sports/swimming.aspx