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Provo • Grand County's girls and North Summit's boys made history Thursday at the Class 2A swimming championships.
Individual champions, many of them underclassmen, set records in both the girls and boys meets.
Grand County junior Alexa Pearce, whose father Brian is the Red Devil coach, won two individual events and was on two winning relay teams to lead her team to a close victory over second-place North Summit.
Pierce set a record in the 200-yard freestyle, won the 100-yard butterfly and was on the 200-yard medley relay team.
"It was my goal to get under two minutes," said Pierce about setting the 200-yard freestyle record of 1:59.56. "I was not sure I was going to do it. I was happy with it. This has been my goal."
Brian Pierce said his nine-member team was a long shot to win the title.
"North Summit and Emery had the numbers and had some good swims," he said. "We focused on winning our races … This is our first one. We hope there are more to come. We have some talented girls. It took the whole team to get here."
Grand County got a big boost from freshman Mary Kimmerle, who won the 100-yard freestyle and was part of the winning 200-yard medley relay team and swam on two relay teams.
Rowland Hall senior Julia Sanderson won the 2A girls swimmer of the meet by capturing the 500-yard freestyle in record time and added a 200-yard IM individual gold and a 200-yard freestyle relay goal to end her career.
"I was kind of nervous," she said, after cutting eight seconds off the 500 freestyle record. "It was my senior year and this was a way to wrap it up going to college."
Millard freshman Drew Roper was also a girls double winner in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke.
In the 2A boys competition, Eisley Scholes won the 100-yard breaststroke and was on two first-place relays as North Summit edged defending champion Emery 250-225 to win its first boys championship.
"We had a lot of guys who put in a lot of hard work," said North Summit coach Yance Fawcett, whose girls team won the title two years ago. "It was hard work and senior leadership."
Telos' Elliott Watt, who moved to Utah from Mississippi this year, set state 2A records in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle. The sophomore was named boys' swimmer of the meet.
Summit Academy's Johan Boer captured titles in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard IM.
After four events in the Class 5A meet, Viewmont held a 102-101 lead over Brighton in the boys' event while the Bengals held a 96-86 lead over the Vikings in the girls' competition.
The meet continues Friday when the 5A title will be decided, starting at 6 p.m. The first four events of 4A start at 10 a.m. and the first four events of 3A start at 2 p.m. All are at the BYU pool.
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Class 2A swimming
Boys Swimming
Team Scores: 1. North Summit, 250. 2. Emery, 225. 3. Rowland Hall, 157. 4. Grand County, 146. 5. South Summit, 110. 6. Summit Academy, 75. 7. Oakley, 63. 8. Wasatch Academy, 56. 9. Delta, 51. 10. Telos, 32. 11. Millard, 27. 12. American Leadership, 26. 13. Gunnison Valley,. 8.
200-yard medley relay: North Summit (Trystin Hellander, Eisley Scholes, Sam Crittenden, Eli Crittenden), 1:49.41 New 2A Record. 200-yard freestyle: Braxten Pierce, Grand County, 1:51.95. 200-yard IM: Johan Boer, Summit Academy, 2:10.98. 50-yard freestyle: Elliott Watt, Telos, 21.73. New 2A record. 100-yard butterfly: Jayden Grose, Millard, 57.98. 100-yard freestyle: Elliott Watt, Telos. 48.32, New 2A record. 500-yard freestyle: Braxten Pierce, Grand County, 5:18.00. 100-yard backstroke: Johan Boer, Summit Academy, 57.13. 200-yard freestyle relay: Emery (Nagte Gilbert, Keldan Guymon, Dakota Wright, Daryl Guymon), 1:38.56. 400-yard freestyle relay: North Summit (Eisley Scholes, Eli Crittenden, Trystin Hellander, Sam Crittenden), 3:36.15. New state record. 200-yard backstroke: Eisley Scholes, North Summit,. 1:04.20.
Girls Swimming
Team Scores: 1. Grand County, 237. 2. North Summit, 229. 3. Emery, 205. 4. Rowland Hall, 167. 5. Wasatch Academy, 97. 6. American Leadership Academy, 94. 7. South Summit, 76. 8. Gunnison Valley, 57. 9. Millard, 32. 10. Summit Academy, 28.
200-yard medley relay: Grand County (Mary Kimmerle, River Richards, London Richards, Alexa Pierce), 1:59.87. 200-yard freestyle: Alexa Pierce, Grand County. 1:59.96. New 2A record. 200-yard IM: Julia Sanderson, Rowland Hall, 2:16.77. 50-yard freestyle: Drew Roper, Millard, 25.86. 100-yard freestyle: Mary Kimmerle, Grand County, 56:48. 100-yard butterfly: Alexa Pierce, Grand County, 1:01.75. 500-yard freestyle: Julia Sanderson, Rowland Hall, 5:18.14. New state record. 100-yard backstroke: Drew Roper, Millard, 57.13. 200-yard freestyle: Rowland Hall (Alison Puri, Sophie Hannah, Bella Goh, Julia Sanderson), 1:51.58. 400-yard relay: Grand County (Alexa Pierce, River Richards, London Richards, Mary Kimmerle), 3:54.50. New State Record. 100-yard breaststroke: Jessica Rasmussen, Wasatch Academy.