3 boys and 3 girls each won dual individual titles in both small-school classes of the Louisiana high school state meets. The smaller schools, in divisions III and IV, competed Wednesday and Thursday, while the larger schools will swim Friday and Saturday.
Division III
Senior John Miller of Parkview Baptist swept the distance races, going 1:42.71 to win the 200 free and 4:34.22 to win the 500. Those were both easily lifetime bests; Miller was 1:45.5 and 4:42.9 at state last year. Other dual event winners for the boys were E.D. White sophomores Nicolas Rathle and Jay Danos. Rathle won the 200 IM (2:04.00) and 100 free (49.48) and Danos was the 50 free (22.13) and 100 breast (1:02.47) champion.
3 girls also won two individual state titles each. Erin Trahan of Notre Dame High won the 50 free and 100 fly back-to-back. She was 24.19 in the 50 free and 57.16 in the fly, both lifetime bests. Trahan was the 50 free champion in 2012 and was runner-up in the 100 fly. Parkview Baptist’s Danielle Miles won the 200 and 500 frees in 1:59.29 and 5:20.37, respectively, and St. Louis Catholic’s Laura Patrick was the champion in the 200 IM (2:13.51) and 100 breast (1:08.91). All three girls are sophomores.
E.D. White won the boys overall title while claiming two of the three relays. The E.D. White team of Ken Toloudis, Nicolas Rathle, Jay Danos, and Andrew Soignet won the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:43.61, while the 400 free relay team of Rathle, Max Cowen, Toloudis, and Danos went 3:25.32 for the win.
Lutcher High School won the other relay. The team of Nick Gatch, Bailey Brack, Christian Matherne and Blake Roussel went 1:35.11 to win the 200 free relay. Other event winners for the boys were Parkview Baptist sophomore Chase Comardelle in the 100 fly (53.86) and Brandon Klibert of St. Charles Catholic in the 100 back (57.86).
The Vandebilt girls won the overall state championship, winning only one event along the way, the opening 200 medley relay. The team of Remi Bourque, AnnaLynn Haydel, Caroline Haydel, and Naomi Hill went 1:58.11. E.D. White’s team of Taylor St. Pierre, Noelle Toups, Adelyne Labat, and Lindsey Lucas won the 200 free relay (1:48.22) and Notre Dame High won the 400 free relay when Erin Trahan, Abigail Kilgore, Emily Lawson, and Sarah Simar went 3:50.14.
Other event winners for the girls were Haynes junior Jessica Ding in the 100 free (55.13) and her teammate, freshman Ashton Edler in the 100 back (1:03.88).
Full Division III results can be seen here.
Division IV
Newman High School won all three relays and Newman junior Jared Williams was a half-second off an overall Louisiana state record in the 100 fly, one of his two wins on the day. Williams went 50.10 in the 100 fly, winning by over ten seconds and posting a time that would’ve won the 100 free one event later. The state record is 49.63 – Williams should have one year left to chase that mark. He also won the 100 breaststroke, going 1:00.19, just missing his first time under a minute.
Williams’ teammate Harry Browne was another dual event winner. The senior went 1:48.55 to win the 200 free and 4:50.49 to win the 500, although neither was quite on his lifetime bests set last March.
Browne and Williams combined for the 200 medley and 400 free relay titles. They joined Tarik Anwar and Foppe Koper to go 1:43.91 on the medley and Anwar and Marc Matvienko to go 3:30.60 on the 400. Newman’s team of Matvienko, Drew Balkin, Robyn Krieger and Koper won the 200 free relay with a time of 1:40.26.
Dunham’s Kirkland Mawae was the other winner of dual individual events. He took the 100 free (50.55) and 100 back (54.63).
Other event winners were Newman’s Donovan Bendana in the 200 IM (2:14.08) and Paul Ahluwalia of the Episcopal School of Acadiana in the 50 free (23.83). That was an 8-second drop for Bendana and about a lifetime-best by about a half-second for Ahluwalia.
On the girls side, Episcopal High School dominated, sweeping the relays and watching freshman Chanler Thurley win two individual events. Thurley went 55.39 to win the 100 free, then came back to win the 100 breast in 1:09.09.
Episcopal is a young team, with multiple freshman contributing to state championship relays. The winning 200 medley relay was made up of three freshmen, Alyssa Kelliher, Turnley, and Mary Oliver. Only junior butterflyer Caroline Sides was an upperclassman. The team went 1:59.14. The 200 free relay, which also won in 1:47.51, was made up of freshman Camille Petty, freshman Oliver, sophomore Dru Powell, and freshman Bailey Stevens. Finally, the 400 free relay clocked in at 3:49.16 with the team of Turnley, Powell, Sides and Stevens sealing the meet for EHS.
Victoria Barczyk of Ascension Episcopal swept the distance free events. Her winning times were 1:55.06 in the 200 free and 5:09.82 in the 500 free. Also winning twice was Dunham’s Olivia Huffman, who went 24.68 in the 50 free and 1:00.74 in the 100 back.
Other event winners were Ascension’s Alexandra Thurman in the 200 IM (2:17.89) and Menard 8th-grader Brianna Serret in the 100 fly (1:03.00).
