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

Olympus, 334Skyline, 333Wasatch, 216Highland, 175Brighton, 156Timpview, 134Springville, 125Alta, 110

Individual results

200 medley relay

Skyline (Felica Shi, Elaine Liu, Jade Garstang, Shayla Zulcic), 1:46.36 — new state recordOlympus, 1:47.23Highland, 1:51.03Springville, 1:54.68Woods Cross, 1:54.74Alta, 1:55.39Kearns, 1:56.68Box Elder, 1:58.21

200 freestyle

Rori Sorenson, Skyline, 1:56.03Greta Doretto, Olympus, 1:56.08Audrey Bradley, Brighton, 1:58.76Avery Haynes, Wasatch, 1:58.80Beca Bringard, Skyline, 1:58.90Sophie Wrona, Olympus, 1:59.80Ellinor Plant, Highland, 2:01.08Isabella Williams, Skyline, 2:01.10

200 individual medley

Veronica Black, Highland, 2:06.78Rainie Moran, Olympus, 2:09.35Kate Reichner, Timpview, 2:10.11Sadie Macdonald, Olympus, 2:10.98Vienna Lemmon, Olympus, 2:11.70Elaine Liu, Skyline, 2:11.77Kate Brower, Springville, 2:12.86Paige Hicken, Wasatch, 2:15.26

50 freestyle

Gabby Henry, Viewmont, 23.74Reece Andrews, Wasatch, 24.16Ofa Fa, West, 24.49Reagan Patterson, Bonneville, 24.58Lauren Greenwell, Olympus, 24.79Alanna Holzer, Woods Cross, 24.84Eva Phillips, Timpview, 25.49Olivia Stout, Salem Hills, 25.51

100 butterfly

Jade Garstang, Skyline, 53.17Gabby Henry, Viewmont, 56.77Reece Andrews, Wasatch, 57.01Vienna Lemmon, Olympus, 58.26Kate Reichner, Timpview, 59.09Eva Phillips, Timpview, 59.90Ava Hansen, Timpview, 1:01.13Keira Jameson, Skyline, 1:01.47

100 freestyle

Ana Diedrichs, Wasatch, 52.30Taylar Hooton, Olympus, 52.53Reagan Patterson, Bonneville, 53.66Ofa Fa, West, 53.83Greta Doretto, Olympus, 54.42Avery Haynes, Wasatch, 54.44Isabella Williams, 54.73Shayla Zulcic, Skyline, 54.76

500 freestyle

Rainie Moran, Olympus, 5:11.48Coco Riding, Spanish Fork, 5:14.61Beca Bringard, Skyline, 5:15.28Audrey Bradley, Brighton, 5:15.70Sadie Macdonald, Olympus, 5:16.15Rori Sorenson, Skyline, 5:17.69Macie Poulson, Springville, 5:23.47Ryli Jonart, Skyline, 5:29.36

200 freestyle relay

Olympus (Sophie Wrona, Rainie Moran, Greta Doretto, Lauren Greenwell), 1:38.55Brighton, 1:42.48Highland, 1:42.79Timpview, 1:42.99Viewmont, 1:44.04Alta, 1:44.90Kearns, 1:48.11

100 backstroke

Jade Garstang, Skyline, 53.75Taylar Hooton, Olympus, 56.50Ana Diedrichs, Wasatch, 56.57Felicia Shi, Skyline, 59.32Ava Glissmeyer, Woods Cross, 59.56Coco Riding, Spanish Fork, 59.86Brinley Weight, Springville, 1:00.18Sydney McElwee, Olympus, 1:00.55

100 breaststroke

Veronica Black, Highland, 1:02.37Grace Cannon, 1:06.67Lauren Greenwell, Olympus, 1:06.78Elaine Liu, Skyline, 1:07.22Paige Hicken, Wasatch, 1:07.87Sofie Anders, Alta, 1:08.26Kate Brower, Springville, 1:09.34Lucy Kokeny, Brighton, 1:09.83

400 freestyle relay

Skyline (Isabella Williams, Shayla Zulcic, Jade Garstang, Rori Sorenson), 3:34.06Olympus, 3:34.52Wasatch, 3:38.30Woods Cross, 3:43.07Timpview, 3:44.12Brighton, 3:47.11Springville, 3:47.33Alta, 3:47.36

5A boys state meet

At BYU

Team scores

Olympus, 499Brighton, 268Skyline, 243Springville, 127Alta, 119Wasatch, 118Woods Cross, 110Viewmont, 100

Individual results

200 medley relay

Olympus (Will de la Garza, Owen Hartman, Benjamin Hatchard, Kevin Tu), 1:32.68Skyline, 1:32,68Springville, 1:37.88Woods Cross, 1:39.64Alta, 1:39.75East, 1:41.28Wasatch, 1:41.42Bountiful, 1:42.23

200 freestyle

Drake Doyle, Brighton, 1:40.91Alexander Stewart, Skyline, 1:41.53Benjamin Hatchard, Olympus, 1:43.49Easton Mousser, Springville, 1:44.11Collin de la Garza, Olympus, 1:45.53Casey Cummard, Timpview, 1:46.51Jackson Hatchard, Olympus, 1:47.53Josh Stevens, Salem Hills, 1:49.83

200 individual medley

Abe Astle, Olympus, 1:49.61Luan Barnard, Brighton, 1:53.05Isaac Wardle, Olympus, 1:53.59Nash Hale, Skyline, 1:53.85Glen Tanner, East, 1:55.82Benjamin Schiffman, Brighton, 1:57.49Chase Johnson, Skyline, 1:57.72Justin Chamberlain, Woods Cross, 1:58.92

50 freestyle

Sam Williams, Roy, 20.68Sebastian Wrona, Olympus, 20.91Drake Doyle, Brighton, 21.18Kevin Tu, Olympus, 21.59Austin Partridge, Brighton, 21.60Isaac Ridge, Alta, 21.87Gavin Smith, 21.98Isaac Hale, Viewmont, 22.12

100 butterfly

Will de la Garza, Olympus, 49.74Benjamin Hatchard, Olympus, 50.41Josh Smith, Alta, 50.73Sam Williams, Roy, 50.87Josh Stevens, Salem Hills, 52.14Chase Johnson, Skyline, 52.39Brayden Stoddard, Wasatch, 52.83Conner Swensen, Olympus, 53.67

100 freestyle

Abe Astle, Olympus, 45.40Sebastian Wrona, Olympus, 46.21Austin Partridge, Brighton, 46.65Gavin Smith, Brighton, 47.72Isaac Ridge, Alta, 48.38Isaac Hale, Viewmont, 49.08Benjamin Goetsch, Skyline, 49.22Isaac Chomjak, Woods Cross, 49.35

500 freestyle

Alexander Stewart, Skyline, 4:37.17Miles Moran, Olympus, 4:39.24Easton Mousser, Springville, 4:43.69Glen Tanner, East, 4:44.50Benjamin Schiffman, Brighton, 4:44.59Collin de la Garza, Olympus, 4:49.49Jackson Hatchard, Olympus, 4:50.19Nathan Anderson, Springville, 4:57.17

200 freestyle relay

Olympus (Kevin Tu, Benjamin Hatchard, Sebastian Wrona, Abe Astle), 1:24.03Brighton, 1:24.51Skyline, 1:29.06Viewmont, 1:31.77Wasatch, 1:32.36Box Elder, 1:33.20Springville, 1:33.50Kearns, 1:33.50

100 backstroke

Luan Barnard, Brighton, 48.82Will de la Garza, Olympus, 48.88Nash Hale, Skyline, 50.32Kevin Tu, Olympus, 50.27Conner Swensen, Olympus, 52.72Aeddan Winter, Brighton, 52.86Corbin Lawes, Hunter, 52.97Dallin McKee, Box Elder, 53.63

100 breaststroke

Justin Chamberlain, Woods Cross, 57.02Owen Hartman, Olympus, 57.58Isaac Wardle, Olympus, 57.69Miles Moran, Olympus, 57.78Nick Oman, Springville, 58.61Yunpeng Tao, Skyline, 59.33Laiken Swensen, Olympus, 1:00.27Benjamin Eberly, Taylorsville, 1:03.05

400 freestyle relay

Olympus (Will de la Garza, Miles Moran, Sebastian Wrona, Abe Astle), 3:03.67Brighton, 3:04.78Skyline, 3:10.20Alta, 3:15.35East, 3:16.84Viewmont, 3:19.95Woods Cross, 3:21.59Wasatch, 3:21.63

Unified Girls Mixed 50 freestyle

Emrie Carroll, Salem Hills, 37.65Skye Bowen, Wasatch, 1:04.31Ella Thompson, Timpview, 1:08.53Sara Thompson, Timpview, 1:09.86Lily Orton, West, 1:25.51

Unified Boys Mixed 50 freestyle

Garrett Draper, West Jordan, 32.75Colton Reddon, Cyprus, 35.65Dylan Etherington, Brighton, 38.25Weston Stewart, Salem Hills, 39.16Landon Wade, Woods Cross, 1:00.62Zach Anderson, Cedar Valley, 1:16.75

Unified Mixed 100 freestyle relay

Dylan Ehterington, Brighton, 1:28.13Lily Orton, West, 3:09.40

Unified Mixed 100 freestyle relay

Salem Hills, 1:03.73Cyprus, 1:07.52Timpview, 1:32.91