Sprinting Into the Season

Photo credits: Lindsay Handey

On Tuesday, the 16th of September, the Rebel swimmers began their season off to a strong start! With over 200 swimmers from the region registered to swim, the Rebels hosted their first meet of the season at the Vestavia Hills Aquatics Complex.

Both the girls and boys teams came out with outstanding wins as the girls competed against 13 schools and the boys swam against 23. In terms of the State qualifying times, both teams met their marks by a healthy margin for both the 200 medley and freestyle relays. On the girls’ side, Rilie Reid qualified for State in the 100 Freestyle with a 56.34. On the boys’ side, Andrew Hilsmier and Bennett Lowther were comfortably under the qualifying time with their 47.65 and 48.77, respectively. In the 50 freestyle, Reid swam a 25.22, along with Hilsmier swimming a 21.78 and Lowther swimming a 22.53. And in the 200 Freestyle, Shepherd Rubin swam a 1:52.64.

There were also some notable races just barely missing their qualifying times:

• Elle Lourie with a 25.95 in the 50 Freestyle and a 5th place finish, missing the time by only .1 of a second

• Angela Zhang with a 2:06.33 and a 2nd place finish, missing the mark by less than a second

As a sprint format meet, many of these events are not included on the time standards for State; however, this was the only sprint-formatted meet the Rebels have scheduled for their season. Outside of the State events, there were still many outstanding swims such as:

• Anna Reece Handey’s 3rd-place finish in the 100 IM

• Wyatt Farrell and Hilsmier’s 3rd and 4th place in the 100 IM

• Elle Lourie’s 2nd-place in the 50 Butterfly

• Shepherd Rubin’s 3rd-place in the 50 Butterfly

• Both A and B relays in the mixed freestyle relays with their 1st and 4th-place finishes with Tucker Hicks, Anna Reece Handey, Shepherd Rubin, and Bennett Lowther in the A relay,

• Anna Reece Handey and Emily Jin’s 1st and 5th-place finishes in the 50 Breaststroke

• Farrell’s 4th-place finish in the 50 Breaststroke

Easing back into the high school season, our swimmers are training hard to earn their spots on the State team. The Rebels will host their next meet as well at the Vestavia Hills Aquatics Complex again on September 30th, so be sure to come and support your Rebel swimmers! This will be a state-formatted meet, which allows us to expect many more to meet their qualifying times. The State meet will be held at the Huntsville Aquatics Center on the last weekend of November. Best wishes to our swimmers!