High school swimming: Olympus boys and girls sweep 5A state championships

Olympus High School’s swimming program added more hardware to its growing trophy case on Saturday night at BYU.

Olympus’ boys ran away with the 5A state championship as expected, but the girls were the surprise 5A champs as they edged favored Skyline by one point, 334 to 333.

Neither Olympus team won the state title in 2023, and Abe Astle said that served as extra motivation all season.

“We came back and we all wanted to win. We’ve got a bunch of seniors who’ve been in the program for so long and they wanted to win,” said Astle, who was named the 5A boys swimmer of the meet.

Saturday’s 5A sweep gives Olympus’ boys program four state titles in the past five seasons and the girls three state titles in the past four.

Coach Tom Thorum said there was something extra special about this group though.

“This is one of the most special teams I’ve ever coached, both the men and the women. Incredibly grateful that we had this team come together,” said Thorum. “It’s really an amazing, special group.”

Astle was the star of the meet for the boys as he won the 200 individual medley, the 100 freestyle and then anchored Olympus’ state record setting 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams.

In Friday’s prelims, he set a new Utah state record in the 100 free (44.73) and also the 50 free with his opening leg of the 200 free relay.

“Abe was phenomenal and he’s still got his sights on some other big meets ahead. He’s looking at getting in Olympic trials kind of soon,” said Thorum.

Led by Astle, Olympus’ 200 free relay beat its own Utah state record from the prelims with a time of 1:24.03 in the finals.

In the 400 free relay to wrap up the meet, Olympus swam a time of 3:03.67, shattering the previous Utah state by two seconds.

Brighton also broke the record but finished second with a time of 3:04.78. The Bengals enjoyed a strong meet throughout the night led by Drake Doyle — who won the 200 freestyle and finished second in the 50 free — to lead his team to a team runner-up finish with 268 points.

Skyline finished third with 243 points.

Last year’s girls champ Skyline finished second, and it was certainly a bittersweet feeling for its swimmers, and not just because of the one-point loss.

Skyline’s 200 free relay team was disqualified in the preliminary round, which prevented it from collecting potentially 40 points in Saturday’s event final.

Skyline beat Olympus in the Region 6 meet, but because of the DQ, the state meet was tight throughout, with the Titans clinching the championship with a second-place finish in the final 400 free relay.

Skyline won that relay with standout Jade Garstang swimming the third leg and capping a phenomenal state meet that included two Utah state records and two relay titles — including a new Utah state record in the 200 medley relay.

Garstang, a junior who’s committed to the University of Arizona, broke the Utah state records in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke in Friday’s prelims, and on Saturday she lowered her time in the 100 fly even more, winning with a time of 53.17.

“I’m kind of shocked. I didn’t think I was going to drop that much time, but I’m really happy,” said Garstang.

Over the past month, Garstang’s time in the 100 butterfly has dropped from 55.70 to 54.49 to 53.65 to 53.17. She’s not 100 percent why she’s been able to shave two and a half seconds, but said a more healthy back has certainly helped.

With another season of high school swimming ahead of her, the sky’s the limit on her potential.

“I just hope I can do something similar next year so I don’t like plateau. That’s my only concern,” said Garstang.

Highland’s Veronica Black was a double winner as well on Saturday, winning the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke.

Other individual girls winners were Skyline’s Rori Sorensen in the 200 free, Viewmont’s Gabby Henry in the 50 free, Wasatch’s Ana Diedrichs in the 100 free and Olympus’ Rainie Moran in the 500 free.

Moran was the only individual winner for Olympus’ girls, and was one of four freshman who made big contributions for the Titans along with Greta Doretto, Vienna Lemmon and Sophie Wrona.

“We’re very happy. We’ve been very emotional, crying with happy tears,” said Moran. “It’s been all about having fun, because when you have that attitude you can push even hard. It’s just important to have fun throughout these meets.”

Coach Thorum attributes so much of Olympus’ success the past five years to the Olympus Aquatics program that was founded in 2013.

“It’s taken a while for those kids to mature through the program and then start going to high school, and this is the result of teaching kids how to swim when they’re really young,” said Thorum.

“But also we’ve had some hard times, we’ve had some ups and downs and it’s sort of learning how to be good teammates, learning how to be positive and how to support each other in good times and bad is a big deal.”

With such big contributions from four freshmen, more state titles are certainly in the future for Olympus’ girls.

For the boys, in addition to Astle’s two wins, Will de la Garza also won the 100 butterfly. It was Olympus’ depth that separated it from the pack, as it had at least two swimmers place in the top six in every individual event and a total of 22 swimmers place in the top eight across the eight individual events.

“They’ve just been really good with being grateful for the moment. They came together as a team, showed a lot of love toward one another and they’ve just been a solid team,” said Thorum.

Other individual winners for the boys were Roy’s Sam Williams in the 50 free, Skyline’s Alexander Stewart in the 500 free, Brighton’s Luan Barnard in the 100 back and Woods Cross’ Justin Chamberlain in the 100 breaststroke.

5A girls state meet

At BYU

Team scores

1. Olympus, 334

2. Skyline, 333

3. Wasatch, 216

4. Highland, 175

5. Brighton, 156

6. Timpview, 134

7. Springville, 125

8. Alta, 110

Individual results

200 medley relay

1. Skyline (Felicia Shi, Elaine Liu, Jade Garstang, Shayla Zulcic), 1:46.36 — new state record

2. Olympus, 1:47.23

3. Highland, 1:51.03

4. Springville, 1:54.68

5. Woods Cross, 1:54.74

6. Alta, 1:55.39

7. Kearns, 1:56.68

8. Box Elder, 1:58.21

200 freestyle

1. Rori Sorenson, Skyline, 1:56.03

2. Greta Doretto, Olympus, 1:56.08

3. Audrey Bradley, Brighton, 1:58.76

4. Avery Haynes, Wasatch, 1:58.80

5. Beca Bringard, Skyline, 1:58.90

6. Sophie Wrona, Olympus, 1:59.80

7. Ellinor Plant, Highland, 2:01.08

8. Isabella Williams, Skyline, 2:01.10

200 individual medley

1. Veronica Black, Highland, 2:06.78

2. Rainie Moran, Olympus, 2:09.35

3. Kate Reichner, Timpview, 2:10.11

4. Sadie Macdonald, Olympus, 2:10.98

5. Vienna Lemmon, Olympus, 2:11.70

6. Elaine Liu, Skyline, 2:11.77

7. Kate Brower, Springville, 2:12.86

8. Paige Hicken, Wasatch, 2:15.26

50 freestyle

1. Gabby Henry, Viewmont, 23.74

2. Reece Andrews, Wasatch, 24.16

3. Ofa Fa, West, 24.49

4. Reagan Patterson, Bonneville, 24.58

5. Lauren Greenwell, Olympus, 24.79

6. Alanna Holzer, Woods Cross, 24.84

7. Eva Phillips, Timpview, 25.49

8. Olivia Stout, Salem Hills, 25.51

100 butterfly

1. Jade Garstang, Skyline, 53.17

2. Gabby Henry, Viewmont, 56.77

3. Reece Andrews, Wasatch, 57.01

4. Vienna Lemmon, Olympus, 58.26

5. Kate Reichner, Timpview, 59.09

6. Eva Phillips, Timpview, 59.90

7. Ava Hansen, Timpview, 1:01.13

8. Keira Jameson, Skyline, 1:01.47

100 freestyle

1. Ana Diedrichs, Wasatch, 52.30

2. Taylar Hooton, Olympus, 52.53

3. Reagan Patterson, Bonneville, 53.66

4. Ofa Fa, West, 53.83

5. Greta Doretto, Olympus, 54.42

6. Avery Haynes, Wasatch, 54.44

7. Isabella Williams, 54.73

8. Shayla Zulcic, Skyline, 54.76

500 freestyle

1. Rainie Moran, Olympus, 5:11.48

2. Coco Riding, Spanish Fork, 5:14.61

3. Beca Bringard, Skyline, 5:15.28

4. Audrey Bradley, Brighton, 5:15.70

5. Sadie Macdonald, Olympus, 5:16.15

6. Rori Sorenson, Skyline, 5:17.69

7. Macie Poulson, Springville, 5:23.47

8. Ryli Jonart, Skyline, 5:29.36

200 freestyle relay

1. Olympus (Sophie Wrona, Rainie Moran, Greta Doretto, Lauren Greenwell), 1:38.55

2. Brighton, 1:42.48

3. Highland, 1:42.79

4. Timpview, 1:42.99

5. Viewmont, 1:44.04

6. Alta, 1:44.90

7. Kearns, 1:48.11

100 backstroke

1. Jade Garstang, Skyline, 53.75

2. Taylar Hooton, Olympus, 56.50

3. Ana Diedrichs, Wasatch, 56.57

4. Felicia Shi, Skyline, 59.32

5. Ava Glissmeyer, Woods Cross, 59.56

6. Coco Riding, Spanish Fork, 59.86

7. Brinley Weight, Springville, 1:00.18

8. Sydney McElwee, Olympus, 1:00.55

100 breaststroke

1. Veronica Black, Highland, 1:02.37

2. Grace Cannon, 1:06.67

3. Lauren Greenwell, Olympus, 1:06.78

4. Elaine Liu, Skyline, 1:07.22

5. Paige Hicken, Wasatch, 1:07.87

6. Sofie Anders, Alta, 1:08.26

7. Kate Brower, Springville, 1:09.34

8. Lucy Kokeny, Brighton, 1:09.83

400 freestyle relay

1. Skyline (Isabella Williams, Shayla Zulcic, Jade Garstang, Rori Sorenson), 3:34.06

2. Olympus, 3:34.52

3. Wasatch, 3:38.30

4. Woods Cross, 3:43.07

5. Timpview, 3:44.12

6. Brighton, 3:47.11

7. Springville, 3:47.33

8. Alta, 3:47.36

5A boys state meet

At BYU

Team scores

1. Olympus, 499

2. Brighton, 268

3. Skyline, 243

4. Springville, 127

5. Alta, 119

6. Wasatch, 118

7. Woods Cross, 110

8. Viewmont, 100

Individual results

200 medley relay

1. Olympus (Will de la Garza, Owen Hartman, Benjamin Hatchard, Kevin Tu), 1:32.68

2. Skyline, 1:35.37

3. Springville, 1:37.88

4. Woods Cross, 1:39.64

5. Alta, 1:39.75

6. East, 1:41.28

7. Wasatch, 1:41.42

8. Bountiful, 1:42.23

200 freestyle

1. Drake Doyle, Brighton, 1:40.91

2. Alexander Stewart, Skyline, 1:41.53

3. Benjamin Hatchard, Olympus, 1:43.49

4. Easton Mousser, Springville, 1:44.11

5. Collin de la Garza, Olympus, 1:45.53

6. Casey Cummard, Timpview, 1:46.51

7. Jackson Hatchard, Olympus, 1:47.53

8. Josh Stevens, Salem Hills, 1:49.83

200 individual medley

1. Abe Astle, Olympus, 1:49.61

2. Luan Barnard, Brighton, 1:53.05

3. Isaac Wardle, Olympus, 1:53.59

4. Nash Hale, Skyline, 1:53.85

5. Glen Tanner, East, 1:55.82

6. Benjamin Schiffman, Brighton, 1:57.49

7. Chase Johnson, Skyline, 1:57.72

8. Justin Chamberlain, Woods Cross, 1:58.92

50 freestyle

1. Sam Williams, Roy, 20.68

2. Sebastian Wrona, Olympus, 20.91

3. Drake Doyle, Brighton, 21.18

4. Kevin Tu, Olympus, 21.59

5. Austin Partridge, Brighton, 21.60

6. Isaac Ridge, Alta, 21.87

7. Gavin Smith, 21.98

8. Isaac Hale, Viewmont, 22.12

100 butterfly

1. Will de la Garza, Olympus, 49.74

2. Benjamin Hatchard, Olympus, 50.41

3. Josh Smith, Alta, 50.73

4. Sam Williams, Roy, 50.87

5. Josh Stevens, Salem Hills, 52.14

6. Chase Johnson, Skyline, 52.39

7. Brayden Stoddard, Wasatch, 52.83

8. Conner Swensen, Olympus, 53.67

100 freestyle

1. Abe Astle, Olympus, 45.40

2. Sebastian Wrona, Olympus, 46.21

3. Austin Partridge, Brighton, 46.65

4. Gavin Smith, Brighton, 47.72

5. Isaac Ridge, Alta, 48.38

6. Isaac Hale, Viewmont, 49.08

7. Benjamin Goetsch, Skyline, 49.22

8. Isaac Chomjak, Woods Cross, 49.35

500 freestyle

1. Alexander Stewart, Skyline, 4:37.17

2. Miles Moran, Olympus, 4:39.24

3. Easton Mousser, Springville, 4:43.69

4. Glen Tanner, East, 4:44.50

5. Benjamin Schiffman, Brighton, 4:44.59

6. Collin de la Garza, Olympus, 4:49.49

7. Jackson Hatchard, Olympus, 4:50.19

8. Nathan Anderson, Springville, 4:57.17

200 freestyle relay

1. Olympus (Kevin Tu, Benjamin Hatchard, Sebastian Wrona, Abe Astle), 1:24.03

2. Brighton, 1:24.51

3. Skyline, 1:29.06

4. Viewmont, 1:31.77

5. Wasatch, 1:32.36

6. Box Elder, 1:33.20

7. Springville, 1:33.50

8. Kearns, 1:33.50

100 backstroke

1. Luan Barnard, Brighton, 48.82

2. Will de la Garza, Olympus, 48.88

3. Nash Hale, Skyline, 50.32

4. Kevin Tu, Olympus, 50.27

5. Conner Swensen, Olympus, 52.72

6. Aeddan Winter, Brighton, 52.86

7. Corbin Lawes, Hunter, 52.97

8. Dallin McKee, Box Elder, 53.63

100 breaststroke

1. Justin Chamberlain, Woods Cross, 57.02

2. Owen Hartman, Olympus, 57.58

3. Isaac Wardle, Olympus, 57.69

4. Miles Moran, Olympus, 57.78

5. Nick Oman, Springville, 58.61

6. Yunpeng Tao, Skyline, 59.33

7. Laiken Swensen, Olympus, 1:00.27

8. Benjamin Eberly, Taylorsville, 1:03.05

400 freestyle relay

1. Olympus (Will de la Garza, Miles Moran, Sebastian Wrona, Abe Astle), 3:03.67

2. Brighton, 3:04.78

3. Skyline, 3:10.20

4. Alta, 3:15.35

5. East, 3:16.84

6. Viewmont, 3:19.95

7. Woods Cross, 3:21.59

8. Wasatch, 3:21.63

Unified Girls Mixed 50 freestyle

1. Emrie Carroll, Salem Hills, 37.65

2. Skye Bowen, Wasatch, 1:04.31

3. Ella Thompson, Timpview, 1:08.53

4. Sara Thompson, Timpview, 1:09.86

5. Lily Orton, West, 1:25.51

Unified Boys Mixed 50 freestyle

1. Garrett Draper, West Jordan, 32.75

2. Colton Reddon, Cyprus, 35.65

3. Dylan Etherington, Brighton, 38.25

4. Weston Stewart, Salem Hills, 39.16

5. Landon Wade, Woods Cross, 1:00.62

6. Zach Anderson, Cedar Valley, 1:16.75

Unified Mixed 100 freestyle relay

1. Dylan Etherington, Brighton, 1:28.13

2. Lily Orton, West, 3:09.40

Unified Mixed 100 freestyle relay

1. Salem Hills, 1:03.73

2. Cyprus, 1:07.52

3. Timpview, 1:32.91