By Josh McFadden | [email protected]               

What began in late fall with early morning workouts and constant laps ended for the Highland swim teams at Brigham Young University, Feb. 14 and 15.

The Rams took 18 swimmers to the Class 5A state meet, which attracted 28 girls teams and 25 from the boys’ side. The Highland boys wound up taking ninth, while the girls netted 31 points to finish in 16th place. The boys had 120 points, 17 behind eighth-place finisher Spanish Fork.

Senior Michael Wallis was a star for the Rams. He helped the boys team amass some points by placing second in the 200-yard individual medley. He finished with a finals time of 1:56.41, a little more than three seconds behind the winner. Wallis was also big in the 100 backstroke where he placed fourth with a time of 52.54 seconds. He was just 1.5 seconds behind the runner-up. Wallis set school records in both events.

In arguably the toughest stroke in swimming, the butterfly, senior Zak Peterson placed sixth overall with a time of 53.55 seconds. Peterson also qualified for the finals in the 100 freestyle, swimming in 16th place at 51.16 seconds.

Sophomore Logan Browne braved the 500 free and came in eighth place with a time of 4:55.35. 

The boys team showed well in the 400 free relay event. Peterson, Nicholas Pembroke, Wallis and Browne combined efforts to place seventh. The group finished the race in 3:21.08. The 200 medley relay team fared even better, placing sixth. The same swimmers headlined that race, as the team wound up finishing the event in 1:40.49, breaking a school record.

The girls swam in a competitive field but produced some solid results. The 200 medley relay team of Grace Humbert (sophomore), Madi Harward (freshman), Olivia Dunn (sophomore) and Annie Murdock (freshman) placed 10th. The group swam the race in 1:56.61, just a second behind the ninth-place team from East.

Humbert was the top individual performer for the Rams. She was 11th in the 500 free. She followed up a preliminary round time of 5:34.37 to swim it in 5:33.17 in the final. She was only .23 second behind the 10th-place finisher.

The girls team had a lot of young faces on this year’s squad, which could bode well for next season and beyond.

Wallis and Murdock also earned academic all-state honors.

Also among the swimmers to go to state were Tanner Griffiths, Bennett Murakami, Josh Mayeda, Rhys Chatwin and Jared Wright on the boys side. For the girls, the team also included Kate Murdock, Maren Nixon, Katie Wells, Eden Counterman and Mddie Nordstrom.