While Montgomery Bell Academy of Nashville was basking Saturday night in its first state swimming championship, the two Chattanooga boys’ programs that had dominated the competition for four decades had a stirring battle for second place.
McCallie rallied at Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville to edge top rival Baylor, which had won the last three TISCA state titles, for the runner-up spot. And Baylor swamped all opposition for girls’ supremacy, leaving Dan Flack as state coach of the year and Lady Raiders junior Ashley Vance as swimmer of the year.
GPS diver Julianne Wilson won one of the three girls’ events Baylor didn’t claim in the two-day tournament with an impressive 497.4 points. And the Notre Dame boys finished eighth out of 36 teams with Troy Tillman winning the 100-yard freestyle Saturday with an automatic All-America time of 45.46 seconds. He also had an All-America time in winning the 50 free Friday.
McCallie senior Sean Ryan followed a first-place All-America time in the 200 free Friday with another in the 500 free Saturday — the best high school time in the United States so far, a state-record 4:21.14. The Michigan recruit was named TISCA boys’ swimmer of the year.
McCallie’s Stan Corcoran got the boys’ coach of the year designation after the Blue Tornado wound up with 249 points to third-place Baylor’s 202. MBA had 357, winning the three relays and the individual medley.
One of the Big Red swimmers, Pat Killian, told the Tennessean newspaper the MBA seniors had been working for the title since seventh grade.
“We finished second to Baylor twice. It was frustrating at times, but everybody stepped up this weekend,” Killian said. “It was incredible.”
So was the Baylor girls’ dominance in accumulating 422 points to runner-up Harpeth Hall’s 206.5.
Baylor’s Kristen Vredeveld followed her All-America 50 free win Friday with a state-record All-America 50.08 in the 100 free, and teammate Emma Michaels was third. The Lady Raiders controlled the 100 breaststroke even more, with Vance and Alison Lusk first and second in All-America times of 1:02.2 and 1:03.21.
Baylor’s Arden Pitman won the 100 backstroke with an All-America 54.65, and the Lady Raiders added 200 and 400 free relay wins and All-America times to their 200 medley relay win Friday. Savannah Napier was sixth in the 500 free won by Knoxville Bearden’s Kennedy Higdon.
McCallie was second in the boys’ 400 free relay and third with Notre Dame second in the 200 free relay, all of those in All-America times. McCallie’s Kristopher Bryant and Baylor’s Brian Lee in the 100 back and Baylor’s Christian Carbone in the 500 free also got at least consideration for All-America status.
Spencer Rowe was a Baylor boys’ winner Saturday, taking the 100 breast in an All-America time of 56.21, and Tony Restaino led four McCallie divers in the top seven with a third-place performance.