Baylor Nelson Shatters State Record in 200 IM, Leads Team to First State Title

North Carolina High School 1A/2A State Swimming Championships

• February 11-12, 2022
• Triangle Aquatic Center, Cary, North Carolina
• Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
• Full Results

Baylor Nelson stole the show at the North Carolina 1A/2A State Championship meet last weekend, leading the Community School of Davidson to the first team State Championship in program history.

The Class 1A/2A meet is made up of the smallest 20% of North Carolina high schools, including a number of charter schools, like Nelson’s CSD.

Nelson and his CSD teammates made history on Saturday. Not only was it their first team title ever, but they came away with their first-ever relay titles as well, winning the 200 medley and 400 free relays.

Individually, Nelson graduates with a perfect 4-for-4 record in the 200 IM at the North Carolina State Meet, along with 7 total individual titles.

He is the first swimmer at any level of North Carolina high school swimming to four-peat in the 200 IM, though it has been achieved in other events.

Only Eugene Godsoe, who won four straight 100 fly and 100 back titles for Southeast Guilford in 3A from 2003-2006, has more individual state titles than Nelson.

Nelson began his day by leading off the CSOD 200 medley relay in a split of 21.82. His teammates Austin Hartsell, Aidan Lee, and Riley Hall followed behind to win the race in 1:37.68 – more than three seconds ahead of the field. The other three legs of that relay besides Nelson are scheduled to return next season.

In his first individual event, Nelson shattered his North Carolina State Record in the 200 IM, swimming 1:43.56. That broke both his 1A/2A Record, and his overall Record, of 1:46.07 done at last year’s state meet. The NFHS record book shows that as being the fourth-best 200 IM ever done in high school competition.

His best time in that event, from December’s Winter Junior East Championships, is 1:42.0.

Nelson then came back with another record in the 100 fly to win his third-straight title. Nelson won the race in 47.48. That broke his own A/AA Record from prelims (47.69), which in turn broke his 2021 record of 48.15.

The all-classes record of 47.01 still belongs to Max Edwards from 2019.

With a team title on the line, Nelson showed up big in the 400 free relay finale. His teammates Luke Weber (49.95), Austin Harstell (51.12), and Jacob Navarro (52.51) sat in 2nd place, about a second behind Raleigh Charter, but Nelson hit the water and anchored the relay in 43.75. They won the relay by over three-and-a-half seconds.

Raleigh Charter was anchored by senior Owen Ragsdale in 48.41, the next-best split in the field.

The next-fastest split in the field was a 48.99 by Mountain Island’s Jack Lazaroski, which helped his team place 4th.

Ragsdale and Hartsell were named the Sportsmanship Award winners at the meet, while Nelson was named the Most Outstanding Swimmer.

If Raleigh Charter and CSOD had finished in opposite positions in the final relay, Raleigh Charter would have won the meet by 1 point.

Nelson is the #1-ranked recruit in the high school class of 2022 and is signed to swim at Texas A&M University next fall.

Nelson was one of two individual double winners at the meet. Bradford Prep senior Reid Miller, who pushed Nelson on the opening 200 medley relay with a split of 22.47, won the 50 and 100 freestyles in season-best times of 20.55 and 45.18, respectively.

The win in the 50 free gives Miller three consecutive state titles in the event, while the 100 free is his first title in that race. He is committed to swim at North Carolina next fall.

Raleigh Charter used depth in their second place finish. They had no wins in the meet, but they did get a pair of runner-up finishes from sophomore Owen Von Weihe in the 200 IM and 500 free.

Other Event Winners:

• Asher Neumann from Highland Tech won the boys’ 200 free in 1:44.72. He was one of only two boys from his school, and three swimmers overall, to race at this meet. That’s his first career state title in his final season of high school swimming.
• Lincoln Charter’s Alex Givens won the 1-meter diving title with 423.45 points – 173 points better than the next-closest finisher. Givens, a Cincinnati commit, was 2nd to Campbell Worsley in each of the last two years, but Worsley graduated and began his collegiate career at North Carolina this season, paving the way for Givens to win his first state title.
• Topher Roberts of the North Carolina School of Science and Math won the 500 free in 4:43.20. That, along with a 4th-place finish in the 100 breaststroke (59.14), helped his team to a 3rd-place team finish.
• Elkin High School took advantage of no Baylor Nelson in the 200 free relay to pick up a team title. The group of Troy Snow (22.75), Thomas McComb (23.20), Marshall Wells (21.97), and Jack Zamudio (21.48) combined for a winning mark of 1:29.40 – two-and-a-half seconds clear of Mountain Island. CSOD, even without Nelson, still finished 4th in this relay.
• Mount Airy junior Matheson Williams won the 100 backstroke in 54.80, just out-touching Bishop McGuinness’ Tim Gaylord (55.04). Nelson actually held the lead in this race at the halfway mark, but a back-half split of 28.25 for Williams (four-tenths better than Gaylord) won him the race.
• Elkin, en route to a 5th-place team finish, came up with big points in the 100 breaststroke. Senior Jack Zamudio, previously the anchor of their winning 200 free relay, won in 56.21, while junior Marshall Wells finished 2nd in 58.26. For Zamudio, that was a best time by a full second. Wells had never broken the 1 minute barrier prior to this meet, dropping in total 2.6 seconds at the meet.