The Panthers, after dominating at the Fayette County swim meet, swam their way to a top 20 finish at state.

“We knew we weren’t going to do great at state because we don’t have a diving team,” girls’ coach Rebecca Rickeard said.  However, with county records under their belts, the swimmers were ready to dive in.

Senior Andrew Hall, freshman Junhan Lee, and juniors Tim Wright and Robbie Scott,   placed 18th in the boys 200 medley.

“I was really pumped and I knew I was ready for this,” Lee said.

Even though the Panthers didn’t win state, they won the county meet for the 13th consecutive year.

“In the very first race, our boys’ 200 medley relay won and set a new school and county record, so that really fired up the crowd and the team and the momentum kept going from there,“ Rickeard said.  “That was followed by a big win by the 400 free girls’ relay, so it was just an exciting meet from the beginning.”

The meet was held in Clayton County at the Steve Lundquist Aquatic Center Friday, Jan 18.

“We’d won county for 12 years prior to this year, and we wanted to win not just for us but to keep in mind all the work that all the previous teams had put in,” boys coach Ben Williams said.  Williams, his first year as coach, knew the team had to keep their winning streak and reputation.

“The atmosphere of the meet was so exciting. We had a lot of parents and friends there to support the team, and that always makes a meet so much better,” Rickeard said.

Before the county meet, the swimmers knew the competition would be fierce, making their goal of winning harder to achieve.

“Everybody wants to win. This year was going to be hard because McIntosh had a lot of kids who moved up and were pretty good.”said sophomore John Michael Hall, who competed in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.

As part of his preparation, Hall said he swam two and a half hours after school and did 30 minutes of dry land [running and exercising outside of the pool].

The boys’ team beat McIntosh by 60 points and qualified a swimmer for every event at state, Rickeard said.  The girls beat McIntosh by a nail-biting two points, qualifying them for eight of 11 events at state. Sophomore Johanna Goldblatt qualified in four individuals and sophomore Sarah Phinney in two.

“Even though the Panthers have won county for more than a decade, it was still an emotional victory,” Rickeard said.

Overall, the Panthers beat McIntosh by a combined score of 726-664.