By Hope Feliciano, Co-head Coach
The 2021–2022 season was a great return to some form of normalcy for Rowland Hall’s swim team. While there were still many obstacles to overcome, the swimmers showed their dedication to success, both in and out of the water. Rowland Hall competed in four multi-team meets throughout the season, ending with the Region XV Championship and, ultimately, the 3A State Championship. With our team being much smaller than most, with only 12 athletes, we often faced larger and faster schools—this did not prove to be a challenge for our talented swimmers, as the results during the season showed.
At the Region XV Championship, the Winged Lions faced off against five other schools in the area. Both women’s relays (200 Yard Medley [2:12.51] and 200 Yard Freestyle [1:58.96]) placed third overall, receiving medals. These two relays consisted of Taryn Thompson, Ava Erickson, Sophie Zheng, and Isabelle Louis. In the spirit of teamwork, both the men’s relays (200 Yard Medley [1:56.93] and 200 Yard Freestyle [1:44.42]) also finished with a third-place medal. These relay team members were Henry Erickson, Mahit Dagar, Ben Schiffman, and Liam Boyle.
Nine Rowland Hall swimmers qualified for the 3A State Championship, held at Brigham Young University on February 11 and 12. Day one provided swimmers with the opportunity to qualify for the final session of the meet, to be held on day two. Only 32 individual swimmers and 20 relays qualified for day-one prelims, and the top 16 individuals and relays returned the next day for finals. The top eight individuals and top three relays received medals and podium recognition. All nine of our swimmers returned for day-two finals, both for individual events and as relay qualifiers.
The results at state were better than the coaches could have asked for, as the boys team placed seventh of 22 teams and the girls team placed eighth of 24 teams—and those squads are three or four times the size of ours! Individual and relay results were as follows:
- Ninth grader Tessa Bartlett placed sixth in her 200 IM (2:38.07) and seventh in her 500 Freestyle (6:14.21), achieving personal best times in both events.
- Sophomore Taryn Thompson finished eighth overall in the 100 Backstroke (1:13.50).
- Sophomore Sophie Zheng placed third overall in the 100 Butterfly, with an impressive personal best time (1:06.80).
- Ninth grader Ben Schiffman finished second in the 200 IM (2:02.78) and third in the 100 Backstroke (56.24).
- Sophomore Thomas Shakib finished fifth in the 200 IM (2:12.04).
- Junior Liam Boyle placed fifth in the 100 Free (52.93).
- The Women’s 200 Medley finished ninth (2:11.13), and the 200 Freestyle relay finished eighth (1:55.07); swimmers were Taryn Thompson, Ava Erickson, Sophie Zheng, and Isabelle Louis.
- The Men’s 200 Medley placed sixth (1:51.17), and the 200 Freestyle relay placed 10th (1:39.14); swimmers were Henry Erickson, Thomas Shakib, Ben Shiffman, and Liam Boyle.
Though they did not qualify for state competition this year, swimmers Mahit Dagar, Sylvia Twahirwa, and Claire Wang were contributing team members at meets during the season.
Throughout the season, our small-but-mighty team swam many personal bests and demonstrated excellent team spirit by cheering each other on throughout every meet. Co-head Coach Cole Jackman and I are extremely proud of the work the swimmers put in and look forward to seeing much future success, as we graduate only three seniors! Congrats, “Finned” Lions!
We have not yet held our end of season team and awards celebration, so award winners for the 2021–2022 season will be announced at a later date.
Athletics