Scotland’s Taylor Johnson, right, finished in second place in the 200-yard freestyle and sixth in the 500-yard freestyle to qualify for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s 3A State Swimming Championship during Saturday’s 3A Central Regionals at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
Contributed photo
GREENSBORO — Scotland women’s swimming’s Taylor Johnson will participate in states for the second straight year after qualifying in two events during Saturday’s 3A Central Regionals at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
Johnson, a sophomore, made states last year also, swimming in the 200-yard individual medley and 500-yard freestyle.
Johnson didn’t swim in the 200-yard individual medley this year at regionals but did again in the 500-yard freestyle, where she placed sixth with a time of five minutes and 48.02 seconds to qualify for the state tournament in the event again; it wasn’t her highest finish, though, as she came in second in the 200-yard freestyle with a personal best 2:06.94 to make it to states in two events.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s 3A State Swimming Championship will be Feb. 7-8 at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary.
While Johnson is the only Scotland swimmer to make states, she isn’t the only one that achieved a personal best in an event; two individual swimmers and two relay teams also did for Scotland.
Zoey Bowman of the Lady Scots had a personal best 1:08.60 in the 100-yard freestyle, coming in 13th. Scotland men’s swimmer Jack Herr set new career records in two events — the 50- and 100-yard freestyles; in the 50-yard freestyle, Herr came in 20th at 26.18, and in the 100-yard freestyle, Herr was 13th in 56.74. And the men’s 200-yard medley relay team of Ricky Zhang, Elisha Dockery, Herr and Kishawn Pate swam the event in 2:12.92 for a personal best and an 11th-place finish, while the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay team of Dockery, Pate, Mavin McKenzie and Herr had a new best-finish of 4:32.98 for 13th place.
Other Scotland swimmers and relay teams that swam in regionals but did not get a finish high enough for states include Bowman in the 50-yard freestyle, Houg in the 100-yard freestyle, Dockery in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke, the women’s 200-yard medley relay team of Bailey Brink, Houg, Faith Dockery and Bowman, the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Sonayla Thomas, Brink, Dockery and Houg and the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay team of Bowman, Dockery, Houg and Johnson; the men’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of McKenzie, Rylan Priest, Zhang and Pate was supposed to swim at regionals but did not enough swimmers to do so.
The Lady Scots were 13th in the team standings out of 19 teams with 46 points; Scotland’s men were 14th out of 18th with 24 points.