Local swimmers, divers bring home top state meet finishes

Swimmers and divers along the U.S. 280 corridor traveled to Auburn University the first weekend in December to compete in the AHSAA swimming and diving state championships. Those who qualified for finals competed Dec. 2.

1A-5A

Briarwood Christian School kicked off the finals session for Class 1A-5A in the 200-yard medley relay, where the girls team of Claudia Steiner, Amelia Steiner, Jenna Nelson and Grace Patterson earned sixth in 2 minutes, 2.46 seconds. Teammates Nathan Watkins, Joseph Bell, Mason Mathias and Patrick Dixon followed, placing third with a 1:56.19.

In a quick turnaround, Mathias then secured the 1A-5A state title in the boys 200-yard freestyle, after dropping more than two and a half seconds from his prelims swim to go 1:42.07. The Westminster School at Oak Mountain’s Campbell Lemons took second, with a 1:44.19. Both boys dropped time from their 2017 swims, when they came in third and second, respectively.

Briarwood’s Amelia Steiner swam the 100-yard freestyle, where she claimed second (54.78). Westminster’s Laura Clayton Raines took fifth (58.82).

In the 500-yard freestyle, Lions swimmer Claudia Steiner took fourth (5:36.46). Teammate Mathias again took the state title in the boys event with a 4:36.12 — 10 seconds faster than his prelims swim, and eight seconds faster than his 2017 swim. Lemons trailed by eight seconds and placed second (4:44.24).

Briarwood’s Claudia and Amelia Steiner, Audrey Dykes and Patterson then claimed third in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:47.42), while Westminster’s team of Abigail Stephenson, Joanna Linder, Campbell Torgerson and Raines took seventh (1:52.82). Nathan Watkins of Briarwood continued the individual events and placed eighth in the 100-yard backstroke (1:06.14), and teammate Amelia Steiner earned third in the 100-yard breaststroke after a near two-second drop to swim a 1:09.94.

Westminster girls Caroline and Campbell Torgerson, Reagan Allen and Linder finished out the meet by taking sixth in the 400-yard freestyle relay (5:01.44) and Briarwood’s Holden Patterson, Watkins, Bell and Mathias earned second (3:38.78) in the boys relay. 

Westminster also had one diver compete, Elizabeth Wheeler, who took sixth overall.

6A-7A

For 6A-7A, Chelsea High School, Spain Park High School and Oak Mountain High School had athletes competing at finals.

Spain Park had two swimmers walk away with state titles: Zachary El-Fallah, in the boys 1-meter diving, and Ward Lockhart, in the boys 500-yard freestyle. 

El-Fallah won his title by 56.25 points, after coming in second in 2017. According to the AHSAA website, El-Fallah is the first Spain Park diver to win the 1-meter championship.

Lockhart won his event and broke the 6A/7A record twice — once in prelims and once in finals. His winning time was 4:36.87. Lockhart also won this event in 2017. 

Lockhart later placed second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:42.24), similar to last year, and teammate Abby Brown Strohmeier placed fifth in the girls 200-yard freestyle (1:55.13). Chelsea’s Cathy Diaz took 16th (2:04.77).

Strohmeier also swam in the 100-yard freestyle and took third (52.76), while fellow Jags Austin Stallworth, Justin Zhang and Evan Trueb earned third (47.57), sixth (48.97) and 16th (51.70), respectively, in the boys event.

Stallworth took second in the 50-yard freestyle (21.75), too, and was part of the boys freestyle relays that included Lockhart, Zhang and Trueb. Together, they took second (1:28.40) in the 200-yard freestyle relay and third (3:15.65) in the 400-yard freestyle relay after dropping nearly a second from their prelims swim.

Zhang also earned ninth in the 100-yard backstroke (54.69).

On the girls’ side, Spain Park’s Katie Groves, Taylor Trible, Carson Muir and Strohmeier placed 10th in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:43.57).

Groves also swam an individual event, the 100-yard butterfly, and placed eighth (59.73), while Oak Mountain’s Norah Simich took 14th (1:02.19).

In distance freestyle, Muir claimed fourth (5:19.76) in the 500-yard freestyle, and Diaz placed 10th (5:24.82).Oak Mountain’s Haley Burt swam the sprint freestyle events, taking second in both the 50-yard freestyle (23.84) and 100-yard freestyle (51.62). This is an improvement from her 2017 finishes, where she took fifth and fourth, respectively.

See full results at ahsaa.com.