Baylor, McCallie win state swimming titles

Baylor and McCallie won the 2019 TISCA state swimming and diving championships Saturday night at the Centennial SportsPlex in Nashville.

McCallie took the boys’ title by 40 points over Maryville, 271231, with Baylor third at 223.5 and Ensworth a distant fourth at 151. The Baylor girls edged Harpeth Hall, 320-314, with Hardin Valley, Maryville and Ensworth completing the top five at 151, 133 and 129.

Baylor’s two-gender strength provided its 14th consecutive combined championship. That came with 543.5 points, compared to 364 for Maryville and 280 for third-place Ensworth.

Friday, Baylor’s Ellie Waldrep, Jewel Gordon, Addison Smith and Callie West won the girls’ 200-yard medley relay in a school-record and NISCA automatic All-American time of 1:39.91, which is the fastest in the nation so far this year. Girls Preparatory School and Signal Mountain were third and fourth in that race.

Baylor’s Alex Borisov won the boys’ 200 individual medley and joined Jack Kirby, Aidan Sims and Will Tippett in a second-place 200 medley relay.

Smith was second in the girls’ 200 freestyle and Waldrep was second in the 100 butterfly in automatic All-American times, and Gordon in the 50 free and Haley Rice in 1-meter diving were third. GPS’s Ellie Taliaferro was the 50 free runner-up.

McCallie’s Jake Marcum and Will Jackson were first and second with automatic All-American times of 1:38.13 and 1:38.14 in the boys’ 200 free, and Max Ransom was fourth in the 100 fly. Those three with fellow upperclassman Reece Gallagher won the 200 free relay Saturday and with freshman Sam Powe capped the Blue Tornado’s title triumph with a firstplace 3:04.39 in the final event, the boys’ 400 free relay. Both relays were in All-American and school-record times.

That came immediately after Baylor’s Waldrep, Jamee Mitchum, Avery Wilson and West finished second to Harpeth Hall in holding off the Honeybears for the big prize. Earlier Saturday, Dallas Woods, Gordon, Mitchum and Smith were second in the 200 free relay, and Kirby, Tippett, Chapman Varnell and Michael Gullage trailed only McCallie’s foursome in the boys’ race.

Also Saturday, Baylor’s Smith and Kirby won the girls’ 500 free and boys’ 100 backstroke in All-American clockings of 4:46.1 and 48.21, Kirby was second in the 100 free, Waldrep was second in the girls’ 100 back in another All-American time and Borisov was second with McCallie’s Gullage fourth in the boys’ 100 breaststroke.

McCallie’s Jackson won the 500 free with Baylor’s Zach Kangiser fourth, the Tornado’s Marcum and Powe were second and fourth behind Kirby in the 100 back, and Signal Mountain’s Cecilia Porter was second in the girls’ 100 breast.

GPS got fifth-place finishes from Taliaferro in the 100 free and Emma Scruggs in the 100 back.