Foundations — Grade 12 • Jackson, Mississippi
Saints Swimming Wins Repeat State Championships
Twenty Saints swimmers arrived in Tupelo Friday evening prepared to defend their 2020 Class I (1A-5A Schools) State Championship titles from the 23 other schools with qualified swimmers. After a strong Friday evening practice in the Tupelo Aquatic Center and a team dinner, the stage was set for a long Saturday of racing. The early morning prelims went exceedingly well for the swimmers as all 9 girls and 9 of our 11 boys advanced to the Saturday evening finals where the top 8 in each event would be swimming head-to-head for championship points. "During the break between prelims and finals, analysis of the morning results made it clear that the St. Patrick girls and guys had the best chance to challenge us for the State Championship honors," said Head Coach Thatch Shepard. "So any tweaks or adjustments to the relays had to focus on ways to keep St. Patrick from the upset they were clearly anticipating."
The St. Patrick girls came out of the blocks early in the evening finals and held an 8 point lead after the first 4 events. The girls were able to tie it up in the 5th event after the 500 freestyle from swims by Mary Elizabeth Kees and Anabelle Abraham. It was the powerful 4 x 50 relay foursome of Jamie Lee Jenkins, Hannah Grace Kerr, Bess Ketner, and Lydia Foster who swam to a silver medal finish, giving the Saints a 5 point lead going into the last three events. The St. Patrick team had no answer for backstrokers Gia Ngo and Pegah Vasighi-Ansarifar whose 3rd and 6th place finishes essentially put the St. Patrick upset on ice entering the final two events of the evening. When the final score was tallied, the St. Andrew’s girls had 108 points to the St. Patrick 92. Our Lady Academy (74), Vancleave (55), and West Jones (33) rounded out the top 5.
Shepard said, “In the 13 years I have been coaching the Saints swim team I don’t think there has been more of a team victory than this one. We may not have had as many trips to the top of the podium as we would have liked, but the grit and depth Coach Valerie Prado and I saw from all of our swimmers put the entire team on the top of the podium. I think one word describes this year’s team, it’s HOOAH!”
The girls' relays ended the evening with two silver medal finishes (200 and 400 free relays) and a bronze medal (200 medley). Gia Ngo led the girls in scoring with 13 individual points after a silver medal 200 yard Individual Medley (IM) swim and then a bronze medal 100 yard backstroke effort. Bess Ketner, putting her grit on display by swimming injured, had a silver medal placed around her neck from a huge 100 yard breaststroke after getting the 5th spot in the 200 IM for 11 points. Lydia Foster also came home with an individual silver medal from her blazing fast 100 yard freestyle that she followed up with a 6th in the 100 breaststroke and 10 total points. Anabelle Abraham was our only other girl to earn an individual medal, a silver earned from a close 200 freestyle (.18 ahead of third), and she followed it up with a 7th in the 500 free for 9 total points. Jamie Lee Jenkins scored 9 points (4th in 50 free, 5th in 100 butterfly) while senior Mary Elizabeth Kees brought in 7 points from a 5th in the 500 and 6th in the 100 fly. Claudia Maron was a big reason the Saints kept the St. Patrick girls from pulling away thanks to her 5 points from a 5th in the 200 free — cutting over 15 seconds off her North State entry time — and an 8th in the 100 butterfly. Pegah Vasighi-Ansarifar scored 3 points by finishing 6th in the backstroke where she started the morning prelims seeded 12th...Hooaah! Finally, senior Hannah Grace Kerr, earning medals in two relays, advanced from her morning swim in the 200 IM and secured a point in the finals with her 8th place finish.
"The boys took a different approach," continued Shepard. "They went on the attack from the very first race and built on that momentum, breaking the hopes of the St. Patrick boys early in the meet." The 200 yard medley relay squad of Luke Fender (backstroke), Rhodes Pharr (breaststroke), Elias Abraham (butterfly), and Heath Seawright (free) put a .14 second gap between the Saints and St. Patrick for the gold medal. The Saints' relays maintained a strong presence in the meet with a bronze in the 200 free relay followed by silver in the final event of the night, the 400 free relay. Those huge relay points, along with a pair of individual gold medal swims from Rhodes Pharr and one from Luke Fender, kept the St. Patrick team from making any runs at the Saints' early lead. At the end of the night the scoreboard showed the boys with 121 points over St. Patrick’s 88. St. Stanislaus (66), Cleveland Central (62), and Pearl River Central (51) completed the top 5 scoring teams.
Senior Rhodes Pharr led the boys in scoring with 18 individual points on top of his incredible contributions to Gold and Silver medal relays. He earned those points when he destroyed the 200 yard freestyle Class I (1A-5A) State Record (that he set last year) and then followed it up later in the evening by dominating the 100 breaststroke and setting new team records in both events. Because of his enormous contributions to this team championship along with his individual accomplishments, Saints fans are encouraged to vote for him as #MSPrep athlete of the week!
Luke Fender was next in individual scoring starting with a solid silver medal performance in the 200 IM, followed by winning the battle of the distance swimmers in the 500 free, scoring a total of 16 points. 7th grader Elias Abraham tallied 12 points in his first high school state meet where he earned silver in the 100 butterfly and 4th in the 200 free, two incredibly difficult races. Maury Allin was next on the team scoreboard: 8 points from great efforts in both the 200 IM where he got 4th and then the 100 breast where he got 6th. William Skelton was the second 7th grader to reach the podium individually, blowing away his best time in the 200 IM to take the bronze medal home followed by 8th in the 100 butterfly, for a total of 7 points. Thomas McCaffery advanced to finals in the 200 free and earned 4th in the 500 free for a total of 6 team points. Heath Seawright also scored 6 points for the team, earning 5th in the 50 free and moving from an 11th seed in the 100 back to 7th place. William McCaffery and Will Fender both joined in on the scoring with 2 points each. William captured his 7th place in the 200 IM, representing the first time EVER St. Andrew’s has scored 4 swimmers (the maximum allowable) in a single event. Will Fender pulled off his 7th place in the 500 free, advancing from the 9th seed to swim with his brother in finals.
Shepard said, “In the 13 years I have been coaching the Saints swim team I don’t think there has been more of a team victory than this one. We may not have had as many trips to the top of the podium as we would have liked, but the grit and depth Coach Valerie Prado and I saw from all of our swimmers put the entire team on the top of the podium. I think one word describes this year’s team, it’s HOOAH!”This is the 4th State Championship in a row for the girls and the 3rd in a row for the boys. These state championships represent the 7th girls title since they earned their first in 2011 and is also the 7th boys title after winning their first in 2012. The Saints will have their hands full next year if the want to keep our streak alive, as it appears the St. Patrick team is very young and has depth while we will have to farewell 5 seniors, Rhodes Pharr, Mary Elizabeth Kees, Hannah Grace Kerr, John Matthews, and Liza Lominick.
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Foundations — Grade 12 • Jackson, Mississippi