High school swimmers make waves at state
To cap off the season, local swimmers competed for their high schools at Auburn University on Dec. 1-2. Spain Park walked away with a state championship and a record-breaking swim by sophomore Ward Lockhart.
Hoover High School, under the direction of coach Lori McCombs, had 11 swimmers qualify for the meet and eight made finals. Spain Park’s coach Sally Mathias took 14 swimmers and three divers, and 12 competed in swimming finals while all three divers made the top 16. One student, eighth grader Ramsey El-Fallah, competed in both swimming and diving.
Starting with the girls 200-meter medley relay, Spain Park placed sixth and Hoover took 16th place. Jag Abby Brown Strohmeier, a sophomore, then placed sixth in the girls 200 freestyle shortly before fellow sophomore Ward Lockhart finished second in the boys 200 freestyle.
Spain Park senior Bailey Deas placed eighth in the girls 200 individual medley, as well as Hoover freshmen Ariana Zamani and Caroline Lawrence earning seventh and 14th, respectively, in the same event. Jag Justin Zhang then placed tenth in the boys 200 individual medley.
Hoover freshman Erica Han later took tenth in the 50 freestyle and followed that swim with a fifth place finish in the 100 freestyle. Spain Park’s Austin Stallworth, a sophomore, took fifth in the 50 freestyle, followed by Evan Trueb, a junior, who claimed 16th.
The Jags also had two swimmers compete in the 100 butterfly: senior Bailey Deas, who placed fourth, and freshman Katie Groves, who placed tenth. Strohmeier returned in the following event, the girls 100 freestyle, to claim eighth, and Stallworth placed fifth overall in the boys equivalent.
The Bucs had two freshmen in the 500 freestyle, too. Zamani claimed fifth place after a two-second decrease from her prelims race time and Ali Ouellette earned 11th place. Spain Park seventh grader Carson Muir took ninth after swimming nearly six seconds faster than her prelims time.
Spain Park then earned their state champion title for the weekend when Lockhart dropped over two seconds from his prelims 500 freestyle swim to go a 4:38.88, winning by over eight seconds. He also broke the Class 6A-7A record for the event.
Hoover earned their spot on the podium in the following race.
The Bucs’ 200 girls freestyle relay team of Han, Zamani, Ouellette and Lawrence came together to drop over two seconds and earned third in the state. Lawrence, who anchored the relay, barely out-touched a swimmer from James Clemens to claim their place by 0.21 seconds.
Spain Park’s girls relay took 14th in the same event, and the boy’s team of Lockhart, Trueb, Zhang and Stallworth placed second with a time of 1:28.83.
Zhang swam the last individual event of the day for Spain Park and Hoover, placing eighth in the 100 backstroke.
For the final event, the Jags claimed eighth place in the girls 400 freestyle relay and the Bucs capped off the meet with their final race with a ninth-place finish in the same event. Spain Park boys took fifth.
Spain Park also had three divers compete at the state meet: Zachary El-Fallah, who placed second; Jon Pickett, who placed sixth; and Ramsey El-Fallah, who placed 13th. Ramsey El-Fallah also swam in the 400 free relay in both prelims and finals.
While McCombs said the highlight of the meet for her was watching the 200 free relay make podium, she said it was a great experience to go out and cheer on her swimmers even though she might not be their year-round coach.
“It’s unbelievable what all they go through to make themselves elite athletes,” she said. “It was absolutely a wonderful experience for me because I know what’s going on and I get to be their biggest fan.”
Mathias said she was pleased with everyone’s events and is looking forward to next year.
“I was very pleased with my swimmers’ performance and I think it was one of the best teams we’ve had in recent years,” she said, noting Spain Park has a young team with just two senior girls. “I just plan on them all improving.”