Rebel swimmers place top in state
While the season for club swimming and diving competitors is year round, members of high school teams from around the state finished off the AHSAA swim and dive season at Auburn University on Dec. 2.
Vestavia Hills High School took 17 swimmers and one diver to state, with 10 qualifying for finals.
The Rebels kicked off the swim meet with a podium finish, the first of two they would take during the finals session. The girls 200 medley relay team of junior Grace Uldrich, freshman Adeline Carroll, eighth grader Dana Mays and seventh grader Aurelie Walker swam about a second and a half faster than their seed time to go 1:50.33 and place third.
Mays and Walker went on to place fourth and fifth in the girls 200 freestyle, respectively, with teammate Sydney Nelson, a junior, taking eighth. Sophomore Nick Velezis placed 10th in the boys 200 freestyle.
Carroll then swam her first individual event for the session, the 200 individual medley, and dropped over a second and a half to place ninth, before teammates Uldrich placed seventh and Walker eighth in the girls 50 freestyle. Sophomore Sam Campbell earned 14th in the boys 50 freestyle.
Nelson was up next with her second individual event of the session and placed 14th in the girls 100 butterfly. Mays followed as her second individual event as well, with a 12th place finish in the girls 100 freestyle.
The Rebels then swam their second relay of the day, the girls 200 freestyle relay, with Nelson, Walker, Anne Lauren Ingram and Rachel Morris swimming two-tenths faster than their prelims time to claim 11th.
The boys 200 freestyle relay team of Chip Hwang, Nick Tavakoli, Campbell and Velezis placed 13th after shaving about six tenths off of their prelims results.
In the last of the individual events for the state meet, Uldrich placed eighth in the girls 100 backstroke. Carroll then placed ninth in the girls 100 breaststroke after dropping over a second from her swim in prelims.
To cap off the meet, the Rebel girls made podium again, this time in the 400 freestyle relay. The team of Uldrich, Nelson, Carroll and Mays came together and swam nearly three seconds faster than their prelims swim and finished with a time of 3:39.00 to claim third place.
All four girls were happy with their race and very excited to stand on the podium again.
“It’s always fun when you make podium, and the fact that we make it twice in one day in one state meet, who knows what’s going to come next year,” Mays said.
Swim coach Oliver Aaron said this meet helped them end the season on a high note. This was his first year coaching.
“I think the girls and the guys came out and did really well [in prelims] setting themselves up for [finals],” he said. “It was really fun; I think it was a really good meet.”