How sweep it is: Tift swim earns region swim crowns for 8th straight year

Published 12:30 pm Saturday, January 29, 2022

DOUGLAS — Tift County’s last Region 1-7A swim meet was quite the successful one Friday. At South Georgia State, the Swim Devils swept to the championships yet again.

This was the eighth consecutive sweep of the crowns for Tift and the ninth straight for the Lady Devils. The Lady Devils dominated, which was totally expected. They finished at 220 points, far ahead of Camden County’s second place at 151. Colquitt County scored 82 and Lowndes was at 58 to complete the standings.

For the third consecutive year, the Lady Devils won all 11 events at region.

Head coach Ivey Vickers said she was more worried about the boys. They came through by the slimmest of margins, 171 to 162 for Camden. Lowndes scored 108 and Colquitt’s Packers had 44.

It was a complete team effort for boys and girls of Tift, the usual names excelling and others stepping up as well.

“We had kids who don’t normally score points medal,” Vickers said. “The girls swam probably the best they’ve swam all year, but the boys, I can’t say enough about them. It was probably the best meet I’ve ever been to, other than the state finals.”

Vickers praised Camden. “They have eight kids who can go,” she said.

A big secret to success was one of the meet’s toughest events, the 500 freestyle. Rarely do schools enter more than one or two swimmers. Assistant Kristin McElroy’s strategy, said Vickers, was to load it up.

Alex Shepherd won in 5:31. Colquitt’s William Sopp was second at 5:43. But then came Aiden Trasher of Tift in third, Chase Walker in fourth, Hector Montalvo in seventh and Aaron Patel in eighth.

“We’ve been looking it for two weeks,” said Vickers of the planning she and assistants McElroy, Teresa Walker and Caleb Dawson had been doing. “[McElroy] is probably the best strategist I’ve ever seen.”

The Swim Devils weren’t just hanging out in the pool for the 500, either. All of them beat their seed times. “We loaded it up,” she said. “They all scored points and we needed those points desperately.”

There was a similar story in the girls 500. Eden Troxell won, as is her custom. Brynna Burke was second, with Maddie Perrin sixth and Hannah Walker eighth.

Relay saw Anna Lupo, Ainsley Toews, Troxel and Cason Johnston win in the 200 medley by six seconds and the 200 freestyle by four. The Lady Devils made it a total sweep with Burke, Kendall Sasser, Raylee Walker and Ava Wilson winning the 400 freestyle relay.

The boys 400 freestyle team of Ian Mobley, Shepherd, Tucker Dowdy and Hayden Roberts had a first place of their own.

Troxell won the 200 freestyle in 2:01, four seconds ahead of a teammate and 18 ahead of anyone else.

Roberts was first in the 200 individual medley, a sweep for Tift with Toews also winning. Roberts and Lupo pulled the same trick in the 100 butterfly, winning both for the Swim Devils. Lupo later won the 100 backstroke and Toews was victorious in the 100 breaststroke.

Johnson got into the individual victories list in the 50 freestyle, by a slim margin of 26.35 seconds to 26.73 of Camden. She won again in the 100 freestyle, this time by a bit more than a second.

“They swam their hearts out,” said Vickers. “I’ve never been prouder of a group of kids.”

State will be next for Tift, happening Feb. 3-5 at Georgia Tech. Vickers said the squads had made all the cuts they needed, with one last coming in Friday.

“Hopefully, they can go up there and accomplish some more goals.”

Others scoring at region were:

Boys 200 medley relay: Dowdy, Roberts, Mobley and Shepherd (2nd) and Raymond Delgado, Landon Parrish, Ethan Stalnaker and Ben Wilson (6th).

Girls 200 medley relay: Raylee Walker, Wilson, Burke and Sasser (3rd).

Boys 200 freestyle: Shepherd (2nd), Delgado (4th), Parrish (7th) and Thrasher (8th).

Girls 200 freestyle: Burke (2nd) and Kate Marie Womack (6th).

Boys 200 individual medley: Dowdy (3rd) and Stalnaker (4th).

Girls 200 individual medley: Wilson (2nd).

Boys 50 freestyle: Mobley (3rd).

Girls 50 freestyle: Ella Benton (6th), Hannah Larger (7th) and Maddie Perrin (8th).

Girls 100 butterfly: Raylee Walker (6th) and Benton (7th).

Boys 100 freestyle: Mobley (3rd), Parrish (6th) and Wilson (7th).

Girls 100 freestyle: Sasser (4th) and Brianna Domagala (6th).

Boys 200 freestyle relay:Stalnaker, Wilson, Parrish and Delgado (4th) and Montalvo, Patel, Walker and Thrasher (5th).

Girls 200 freestyle relay: Hannah Walker, Womack, Benton and Juliana Hooks (4th).

Boys 100 backstroke: Dowdy (3rd), Delgado (4th) and Patel (6th).

Girls 100 backstroke: Sasser (2nd) and Raylee Walker (4th).

Boys 100 breaststroke: Stalnaker (3rd) and Wilson (8th).

Girls 100 breaststroke: Wilson (2nd).

Boys 400 freestyle relay: Montalvo, Thrasher, Patel and Walker (4th).

Girls 400 freestyle relay: Larger, Perrin, Domagala and Jude Hawsey (6th).