2019 Louisiana High School Division 1 State Championships
- Fri. Nov. 22 – Sat. Nov. 23, 2019
- SPAR Aquatic Center
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Division 1 – small schools
- Full results
- Team scores
Girls Meet
Mount Carmel junior Emily Schexnayder won back-to-back titles in the 100 fly then 100 free to highlight the girls meet. Schexnayder pulled off the tough sprint double with ease, winning both races by solid margins. She was 57.86 to win the 100 fly by seven tenths, then 53.13 to take the 100 free by the same margin. That 100 fly was a lifetime-best, and the 100 free only a half-second off her best.
Schexnayder went 3-for-4 in event wins. She led off the 200 free relay in 24.79, joining Caleigh Miller, Tatum Hankins and Carley Kronlage to go 1:41.30 for the win. She also split a field-best 25.8 on fly on the medley relay.
St. Joseph’s won the meet by almost 60 points despite not winning a single event. Depth carried the day for St. Joseph’s, which had a couple of runner-up finishes. Sophomore CeCe Werth was second in the 200 free (1:58.35) and junior Amanda Andrews second to Schexnayder in the 100 fly (58.58).
Lafayette junior Anni Thompson joined Schexnayder as a double-event winner individually. Thompson was 2:08.71 to dominate the 200 IM, winning by almost three seconds. She also paced the 500 free in 4:58.63, cutting five one-hundredths from her lifetime-best.
That 500 was a spectacular race between Thompson and Barbe junior Natalie Stump. Stump fell a tick behind early but charged hard over the final 100, coming within a tenth of Thompson. Stump was 4:58.75, her first time ever under five minutes. She also crushed the 200 free earlier in the meet, going a career-best 1:52.98 and trouncing the field by five seconds.
Other event winners:
- Mount Carmel freshman Miller (part of that winning 200 free relay above) won the 50 free individually. The 9th-grader was 24.64 to win by a tenth.
- Lillian Tichenor out of Captain Shreve was another freshman winner. Tichenor went 1:00.33 to win the 100 back.
- Northshore senior Aubrey St. Pierre won the 100 breast in 1:06.55. Her three-second margin in that race made her by far the meet’s fastest breaststroker, and her field-best 29.7 split powered Northshore’s 200 medley relay to the state title in 1:51.28.
- Mandeville won the 400 free relay, going 3:41.50 on a 54.0 leadoff from sophomore Ellie Fritscher.
Top 5 Teams:
- St. Joseph’s Academy – 295
- Mandeville – 238
- Mount Carmel – 233
- Northshore – 200
- Dominican – 159
Boys Meet
Junior Mitchell Gillem won the 100 free and paced two relays to help Catholic High School win the boys meet by more than a hundred points. Gillem won a tough 100 free title, going 47.11. St. Paul’s Jesse Cheng was just a half-second back. Gillem was a fingernail from winning titles in all four of his swims. He went 21.33 in the 50 free, but though that was a lifetime-best by three tenths of a second, it was just .06 behind state champ Mike Foley out of Jesuit.
Still, Gillem came back from that touchout to win the 100 free and then go undefeated through the freestyle relays. He split 21.50 on the second leg of the 200 free relay, joining Garrett Accardo, Landon Godso and Mason Nyboer to go 1:28.12 for the state title. Probably his best swim of the day was a 46.71 split on the 400 free relay, joining Nyboer, William Kitto IV and Accardo (who was 47.5 on his leg) to win in 3:10.95.
Jesuit’s Foley was a double-individual winner, leading his team to a solid second-place finish. Foley was 21.27 to win that 50 free, and also crushed a 50.56 in the 100 back to win by two seconds. His teammate Philip Endom was second in that race, and also won the 200 IM earlier on with a 1:53.89.
Foley also led off Jesuit’s 200 medley relay, which won in 1:37.26. Foley was a field-best 23.27 on the backstroke leg.
Northshore’s Michael Bonson and Zachary High senior Eric King were the other individual double-event winners. Bonson, a senior, topped both distance free fields. He was 1:39.92 to win the 200 free, only about a second and a half off a Collin Bone state record. He was also 4:33.30, winning by about a second, though he was about five off of his own state record from 2018.
King won the 100 fly in 51.25 (a narrow win of three tenths) as well as the 100 breast in 58.79, another tight finish.
Other event winners:
- Jesuit MR
- Bonson 2/5
- King FL/BR
Top 5 Teams:
- Catholic – 489.5
- Jesuit – 367
- St. Pauls – 181
- Mandeville – 131
- Northshore – 128
