Warren Central swimmers win five titles at MHSAA state meet

Published 2:08 pm Sunday, October 20, 2024

Warren Central’s swimmers set the water on fire at the MHSAA Class 2 Championships on Saturday.

Ashtin Wallace and Avery Greer each won an individual state championship, and the Vikings added three relay titles as they finished second in both the boys and girls team standings at the season-ending meet in Tupelo.

Pearl River Central won the Class 2 boys’ team title, and West Jones won the girls’ championship. Class 2 consists of teams that are in Classes 5A and 6A in other sports.

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Wallace won the boys’ 200 yard individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 6.75 seconds, and narrowly missed a second state title in the 100 yard butterfly. He had a time of 53.48 seconds in the butterfly, and Saltillo’s Levi Johnson won in 53.31.

Wallace did get two relay gold medals, however. He teamed with James McKenna, Ace Orosco and Jacob Byrd to win the 200 yard medley relay in 1:47.92 — about 4 1/2 seconds ahead of runner-up Pearl River Central.

Wallace, McKenna, Byrd and Thomas Kilroy closed out the meet with another dominant victory in the final event, the 400 yard freestyle relay. Their time of 3:40.91 was nine seconds ahead of runner-up West Jones.

In addition to their victories, Warren Central’s boys had three second-place individual finishes. Byrd was second in the 500 yard freestyle, Orosco in the 100 freestyle, and Wallace in the 100 fly.

McKenna also placed third in the 100 yard butterfly and 100 backstroke.

Greer led the Lady Vikes with her state championship in the 100 yard freestyle. She hit the wall with a time of 56.61 seconds, just ahead of South Panola’s Allie Whitaker’s mark of 56.79 seconds.

Greer also finished second in the 200 yard individual medley, and later joined Kara Rowe, Addison Billings and Ella Opperman atop the podium in the 400 freestyle relay.

The Warren Central quartet blew away the field with a time of 4:14.51, six seconds ahead of second-place Lafayette.

The same relay group opened the meet with a second-place finish in the 200 yard medley relay, with a time of 2:08.81.

Billings and Rowe got onto the podium in several individual events, as well. Billings had a pair of third-place finishes in the 200 and 500 yard freestyle events, while Rowe was third in the 100 yard butterfly.