On Saturday, Newton County swim team competed in the MHSAA North State Championships in Cleveland against 16 other schools. Newton County sent 11 swimmers with individual qualifying times and four relays. Many swimmers swam fast enough to advance to the State Championships to be held on October 23, 2021, in Tupelo.
The accomplishments of this team are nothing short of amazing. Newton County is just in its second year in competing in swimming. Most of these swimmers have been training mere months compared to the years of training by their competitors. Despite their disadvantage, 9 swimmers advanced to the State Championships.
The State qualifiers are as follows:
Team co-captain Maya Olmstead, the only swimmer to qualify for State both years, qualified in the 100 yd Freestyle in which she placed second at the North State Championships and in the 200 yd IM (Individual Medley) where she placed third. Olmstead did an excellent job of setting the pace for the rest of the team.
Lauren Hopkins qualified in the 100 yd Freestyle and 100 yd Backstroke. Hopkins cut 4 seconds off her best Freestyle time and 2 seconds off her best Backstroke time to finish 5th and 6th respectively.
Ashlee McCall qualified in the 100 yd Freestyle and 100 yd Breaststroke. McCall placed 6th in the Freestyle with a 2 second time cut. While McCall did not place in the top 6, her time was still fast enough to claim one of four wild card spots for State.
Parker Lang and Easton Baker also clocked in times fast enough to qualify for State in the 100 yd Backstroke and 100 yd Butterfly, respectively.
All 4 of Newton County’s relay teams qualified for State. For the girls, the team of Olmstead, Hopkins, McCall, and Lily Kate Collison finished 2nd in the Girls 200 yd Medley Relay and 4th in the Girls 400 yd Freestyle Relay.
For the boys, the 200 yd Medley Relay team of Landon McConnell, Parker Lang, Easton Baker, and Logan Usry qualified for State by time while the 400 yd Freestyle Relay team of McConnell, Lang, Usry, and Dylan Neal clocked in a 4th place finish.
After State several will continue to train for year-round club swimming, also trained by the Newton County coaches, Bryan and Anthia Olmstead, at their pool. The goal after state is to train these few swimmers from state swimmers to national swimmers.
“At this point going from a State swimmer to a National swimmer is only a matter of training. The road ahead is difficult, but if the effort is put out, swimming on the National level is, at the least, a mathematical certainty,” Coach Bryan Olmstead.
