Bearden makes biggest splash; MHS 4th at KISL
-Tom Sherlin/The Daily Times Feb 4, 2007
Maryville's Kelsie Saxe finished third in the girl's 100-meter breast-stroke Saturday.
By Kelly Franklin Daily Times Correspondent
The Knox-area Interscholastic Swim League was quite open with invitations to its annual High School
Championship Swim Meet but stingy with the hardware. Teams from as far afield as Cleveland and
Chattanooga converged at the UT Aquatic Center for this year's meet but once again west Knoxville
teams took home all the trophies.
Bearden, led by nationally-ranked swimmer A.J. Tipton, narrowly defeated Webb for its third consecutive
first-place finish with Farragut not far behind.Maryville, with a contingent of 48 swimmers participating
this year, placed fourth, well behind the lead triumvirate but also with a healthy gap in front of its closest
competitor, Sevier County. Heritage finished 15th, Alcoa 24th and William Blount 29th among the 38
competing teams.
Bearden's Tipton blew away his competition, winning the 200-yard freestyle with more than a
five-second gap in front of the next swimmer and the 100y fly by almost three seconds. Adam Parker
was the top Rebel scorer, with a first-place finish in the boys 100y freestyle event and a second-place
medal in the 100y backstroke.
Parker took an early lead and stretched it out for a nearly one-second gap over Cleveland's Mitchell
Crow in the freestyle race. He finished in 48:66 seconds, below his personal best, which he swam at last
year's state swimming championship meet. Parker said he had never gone up against Crow, who unlike
most top swimmers does not swim year-round as Parker does with Pilot Aquatic Club. "I saw (Crow) swim
this morning, so I was able to see how he swam," said Parker of his main challenger, "but I just focused
more on myself. On my turns I was a little far away from the wall, but I guess I didn't do too bad." In the
backstroke, Parker raced neck-and-neck with Jesse Sorrell of Webb School but was touched out on the
final reach. Sorrell finished at 54:43 seconds, with Parker at 54:47.
Kelsie Saxe had the top finishes in girls events, with a third-place medal earned in the 100y
breaststroke and fourth in the 200y individual medley. Another top-three finish went to Audrey Brown,
who placed third in the 500y freestyle. The only final-heat swimmer for other Blount schools was Chris
Meadows of Heritage, who finished eighth in the 100y breaststroke. The Mountaineers were
represented by Meadows and about 15 other swimmers. Alcoa coach Stacy Honabach brought a similar
size of Tornadoes to the meet, and William Blount had about 20 compete.
The Blount County championship meet will be held next Saturday at Maryville College. That meet will be
the final tune-up for most local swimmers who hope to compete at the state championships the following
weekend in Nashville. Maryville head coach Dan Rule was pleased with his team's work, saying, "the
finals (Saturday) were even better than we expected. We didn't have a single bad swim. The kids
stepped up to the plate and really got the job done and represented the school well."
Other top-eight finishes include:
* Girls 200 medley relay: MHS (Kendell Garrett, Saxe, Andrea Stooksbury, Julienne Mary), 5th
* Girls 200 free: MHS Kelly Jo Rath, 4th
* Girls 200 IM: Brown, 6th
* Girls 500 free: MHS Tina Lambert, 7th
* Girls 100 back: MHS Kendell Garrett, 8th
*Girls 200 free relay: MHS (Mary, Stooksbury, Brown, Saxe), 7th
*Boys 200 free relay: MHS (Spencer Pennington, Spenser Jarvis, Hunter Tipton, Parker), 8th
*Girls 400 free relay: MHS (Brown, Rath, Katie Wilcox, Saxe), 4th
* Boys 400 free relay (Graham Gilley, Pennington, Jarvis, Parker), 4th