Swim Devils begin state Friday
Published 12:00 pm Thursday, February 6, 2025
TIFTON — Tift County’s Swim Devils have a long Friday ahead of them. They will be at Georgia Tech for the Class 6A swim meet and, if successful, Ivey Vickers and crew could be there from 7:30 a.m. Friday until late Saturday.
Relays have been Tift’s specialty all year and the Swim Devils will have qualified for all six of them in Atlanta.
Anna Lupo, Brianna Domagala, Brynna Burke and Kendall Sasser are the girls 200 medley relay team. Mary Frances Dove, Sasser, Domagala and Jovia Burke will vie in the 200 freestyle relay; and Dove, Lupo, Brynna Burke and Jovia Burke will swim the 400 freestyle.
Lauren Maag, Raylee Walker, Leighellyn Bengston and Bailey Brock are alternates for the 400 relay team.
Tift’s girls have the eighth best cut time in the 200 freestyle relay at 1:42, barely eight seconds behind No. 1 Brookwood’s 1:36.
The girls 200 medley team had the 15th quickest cut time, according to the psych sheet, giving them an excellent change of making the finals, as does the 400 freestyle team.
Rocky Faw, Brayden Rowland and Karson Ponder combine to make up the 200 medley crew for the boys. Faw, Ponder, Chase Walker and Aiden Thrasher are the 200 freestyle unit; with Faw, Ponder, Rowland and Thrasher in the 400.
Individually, Brynna Burke is to compete in the 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle. Jovia Burke and Dove each have the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Domagala will be swimming in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke.
Abby Lupo made the cut in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. Anna Lupo additionally has the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly. Sasser has additional events in the 50 and 100 freestyle.
No boys will compete in individual events this year.
The Swim Devils have great finals odds on a few events. The 100-yard butterfly is one of them as Anna Lupo’s cut time of 58.52 seconds is seventh best and Abby Lupo’s of 58.95 seconds is ninth best. Domagala could slip into the finals as her time has been 1:01.57, 20th in the state.
Brynna Burke’s specialty, the 500 freestyle, sees her in 13th place among qualifiers with a time of 5:23.
Anna Lupo’s 200 freestyle time of 2:02.33 is 16th best among qualifiers. In swimming the 50 freestyle in 25.5 seconds, Jovia Burke is 18th and Dove (25.71) is 21st in the sport’s most popular event.
Jovia Burke is on the edge of the finals with a 56.12 cut time in the 200 freestyle, 21st on the psych sheet among qualifiers.