The girls of Madison Central and the boys of Tupelo swept all 6 relay races to win their respective titles at the Mississippi Class 2 State Championships over the weekend.
Girls Meet
Madison Central went virtually unchallenged in the three relays and also got a pair of individual wins from Jessica Blanchard to take the state title.
Blanchard won the 200 IM early, going 2:11.06 to win by more than three seconds. Later in the meet, she’d go 1:08.72 to take the 100 breast after coming out of prelims as the second qualifier.
That 100 breast win paired with Madison Central’s 3:44.52 win in the 400 free relay (with a four-second margin of victory) to give the team two straight event wins to close the meet, and wins in three of the final four races when you throw in the 200 free relay (1:40.84 and a win by almost three seconds).
Central bookended the meet with wins, opening up with a 3.9-second domination of the 200 medley relay at 1:50.37.
Northwest Ranking was the closest team challenger, taking second on the back of two second-half wins. AK Mitchell came out of the traditional diving break (though there was no diving event contested here) by winning the 100 fly in 58.62, a dominating showing. Two events later, her teammate Addison Russell won the 500 free in 5:20.75.
The only female swimmer competing for Harrison Central, Kyjana Webber came up big with two state titles. She touched out Madison Central’s Paige Kessler for the 50 free win 24.34 to 24.37, then again topped Kessler for the 100 free title in 53.02.
Other event winners:
- Desoto Central’s Shelby Hale won the 200 free in 1:58.34. She was also second in the 100 fly.
- Gabrielle Ivey went 1:00.71 to top a tight 100 back field for Ocean Springs.
Top 5 Teams:
- Madison Central – 140.5
- Northwest Rankin – 81.5
- Tupelo – 77
- Desoto Central – 54
- Picayune Memorial – 34
Boys Meet
Tupelo needed only one individual win to take the meet thanks to a relay sweep, and that lone individual title came from Donovan Crossen in the 500 free.
Crossen went 4:48.08 to take that win, beating the field by more than 3 seconds. One event later, Tupelo would win the 200 free relay in 1:29.48 in a big win over their closest challengers from Clinton High Schol.
Clinton was also second behind Tupelo in the 200 medley relay, 1:42.60 to 1:40.02. The meet was already well in hand by the closing 400 free relay, but Tupelo took that one for good measure, going 3:16.83.
Second-place Clinton was led by the duo of Noah Young and Blaise Vera, each of whom won twice. Young took the 200 IM (1:54.24) and 100 back (52.40) both by wide margins, and Vera ruled the sprints, taking the 50 free (20.77) and 100 free (45.84).
Other event winners:
- Also winning twice was Hernando High’s Stetson Lamb, who took the 200 free (1:39.18) and 100 breast (57.15) in a unique event combo.
- Alex Miller took the 100 fly in 51.43 to help his Oak Grove team take third overall.
Top 5 Teams:
- Tupelo – 133
- Clinton – 70.5
- Oak Grove – 59
- Hernando – 47
- Starkville – 34.5
Shelby Hale ended up going 158.34 to win the 200 Free and the real excitement was the 400 Free Relay split where she was out in 24.64 and brought it home in 27.96 to swim the final leg of Desoto Central High School 2nd place finish in 52.60. Shelby is only in 8th grade and 13 years old.
Nice job everyone! Some very close races.