Swim and Dive Makes a Splash at State Championships

Jayant Bettadpur, Reporter| February 22, 2023

Sonny Wang ’23 cheers passionately after finishing his race. Wang became overjoyed as he finished first in the 50 yard freestyle and claimed the state title.

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Sonny wang poses With his fellow state finalists for the 50 yard freestyle. Wang finished second this year making it the second straight year he placed top 3.

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This past weekend, the varsity swim and dive team competed at the state championships at the University of Texas in Austin at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Preliminaries were held on Friday, Feb. 17, and the finals were held the next day. Swimmers consisted of both automatic qualifiers and call-ups from the previous region meet.

The first event was the girls’ 200-yard medley relay, with a team consisting of NamAnh Truong ‘26, Leah Zhang ‘26, Sophia He ‘25, and Grace Hewett ‘23, placing 18th overall.

Following the girls’ event was the boys’ 200-yard medley relay, with Raphael Wang ‘25, Nate Thomason ‘23, Grady Radcliff ‘23, and Sonny Wang ‘23 placing seventh in preliminaries and sixth in the championship final with a time of 1:32.80.

“It was a lot of fun,” Thomason said. “It’s nice to end the season with sixth. I think it’s the highest we’ve ever placed and we broke the school record in that event probably five to six times this season so it was fun to swim it again at state. It was pretty special, especially because most of us are going to college in different places and won’t be able to swim in the same place again.”

Several Warriors also participated in individual events, with Wang placing second in the boys’ 100-yard freestyle finals and first in the 50-yard freestyle finals. Additionally, Wang placed 11th in the 200-yard IM consolation finals, with He and Truong placing 13th and 16th in the girls’ 100-yard butterfly consolation finals.

Overall, the Warriors came out strong at the state meet, with several teams and individuals participating in consolation finals, and individuals even winning medals. Even though the state meet is the last meet of the season, the Warriors will continue practicing to prepare for next year.

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