Four Lake Monsters compete at state swim meet

Four local swimmers competed at the state swim meet recently.

Sean Murphree shined in the 9-10 age group. He took second in the 100 fly and dropped over five seconds from his preliminary swim during finals. It was a tough weekend of swimming for him, swimming finals in every event, so twice per day. He also took home two thirds, in the 50 back and 200 IM.

His teammate, Jeremiah Coutts, had a fantastic first-ever state meet. He made finals in four events, topping the charts with a 5th place in the 400 freestyle. His best swim of the meet was his last event, the 100 backstroke, where he had a less-than-ideal prelim swim, but was fortunate to have another chance to swim at night. He blasted off the wall, nailed his turn, which was his problem that morning, and came home kicking like mad to drop five seconds off his prelim swim and finish sixth.

Hannah Simpson, 9, was the team’s only returning swimmer to the long course state championships, and competing at the bottom of her age group made for a weekend of tough competition. She shattered her previous best time in the 100 backstroke by 13.49 seconds, getting 11th place and finishing as the sixth 9-year-old. 

Last but certainly not least, Ajalin Simshaw, age 12, was the “oldest” swimmer in the meet. She had a tall order in almost every race as her age group was super competitive, but she continued to impress all weekend long. Aja made finals each day, went faster in every finals swim, and capped off her meet with a fourth place finish in her signature event, the 200 breaststroke. She went out almost too fast, but swam a nearly perfect race to out-touch several girls at the finish.