It was all worth the wait for the Lady Eagles of Skyline High. After narrowly losing the state title to Olympus a year ago (by one point), the Eagles prevailed at this year’s USHAA 5A state swimming championships held at Brigham Young University on Valentine’s Day weekend. 

The Lady Eagles scored 360 points to beat Olympus (348), relying on the final event of the competition, the 400-meter free relay. Skyline had a six-point lead over Olympus before that race, which the Eagles won by less than a second. The team of senior Bella Williams, sophomore Rory Sorenson, sophomore Shalya Zulcic and senior Jade Garstang took the race in a time of 3:31.08, a new 5A state record. Olympus was second at 3:31.85, which also eclipsed the previous state record. It was Garstang, who also won two individual titles in the 100 fly and 100 backstroke, who secured the victory with her anchor lap after Olympus had made up a two-second deficit in the third leg of the race. 

“It was one of the most exciting races I’ve ever seen as a coach,” Skyline coach JP Hynes said. He said he anticipated it might come down to the final race between the two schools, and it did.

Skyline’s girls were helped immensely by their showing in the 500 freestyle, where four Eagles were among the top nine finishers. Sorenson was third, junior Keira Jameson was fifth, junior Ryli Jonart was eighth and sophomore Sady Jonart was ninth–big points for Skyline.

Though Skyline finished second as a team in the boys’ division to Olympus, the Eagles opened Saturday’s finals with a new state record in the 200 meter medley. The team of seniors Nash Hale, Yungpen Tao, Chase Johnson and Ben Goetsch won in a time of 1:31.74, breaking the record set by Olympus last year.

It was a great weekend for Skyline in the pools at BYU. Garstang took firsts in the 100 fly at 53.66 and 100 back at 53.63. The girls’ 200 freestyle team of senior Elaine Liu, junior Elsa Bringard, along with Sorenson and Zulcic, took home second in a time of 1:39.03. Liu also placed third in the 200 IM (2:07.27) and third in the 100 fly (57.27). Williams was third in the 50 free at 24.75. Sorenson took third place in both the 200 free (1:56.44) and 500 free (5:13.49). 

In addition to the boys state record in the 200 medley, other top three finishes for Skyline included Nash Hale with a second in the 200 IM (1:51.33) and 100 back (48.38); Goetsch with a second in the 50 free (21.30), Johnson with a first in the 500 free (4:40.09) and third in the 100 fly (50.72), and a second-place finish in the 400 free relay with the team of Goetsch, Nash Hale, Kai Hale and Johnson (3:07.52).

Behind Skyline and Olympus in girls’ team scoring were Wasatch at 272, Highland at 175 and Timpview at 168. Olympus easily won the boys’ team title with 470 points, followed by Skyline at 283, Wasatch at 219, Brighton at 180 and Viewmont at 168. λ