Relay team leads Wolves to 2nd place at Bryant meet
BRYANT — The relay team of seniors Lucas Amerson and Hunter Speas, junior Noah Smith and freshman Ethan Smith led Lake Hamilton to a second-place finish on Thursday in the Old South Invitational swimming and diving meet at the Bishop Park Aquatic Center.
The Wolves earned 232 points in the meet. Host Bryant placed first in the boys’ competition with 362 points, while Little Rock Christian was third with 200 points.
Freshman Eben Sanders earned the best finishes for Hot Springs, which finished with 134 points. Junior Mason Vondenstein led Lakeside to 93 points.
Bryant also won the girls’ competition with 401 points, while Little Rock Christian took second at 375. Lakeside earned
96 points, Hot Springs had 84 and Lake Hamilton finished with 38.
It was the final regular-season meet for many teams. Russellville was announced last month as this year’s host of the Class 5A state meet on Feb. 2223.
Lake Hamilton’s relay team took first place in the 200-yard medley with a time of 1:49.74. Bryant was second at 1:52.42, El Dorado was third at 1:52.42 and Hot Springs finished fourth at
1:59.13.
The Wolves also won the
400-yard freestyle relay in
3:42.60. Bryant came in second at 3:56.41.
Noah Smith also led the field with two individual wins. He won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:01.30. Little Rock Christian’s Jordan Jones was second at 2:15.02, while Amerson took third at 2:21.41.
Smith also won the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of
5:05.31. Ethan Smith followed in second place at 5:22.89. Pulaski Academy’s Harper Chambers placed third with a time of 6:15.35.
Ethan Smith also swam a runner-up time of 2:02.27 in the
200-yard freestyle event. Little Rock Christian’s John Issac Majors won with a time of 1:58.36.
Amerson gave the Wolves runner-up points in the 100yard backstroke at 1:04.87. Bryant’s Samuel Vinson won the event at 1;03.39, while El Dorado’s Everett Gati took third at 1:05.71.
Speas took third place in two events. He swam the 100-yard freestyle in 0:54.11. Jones won at
0:52.23 and Payton Allman, of El Dorado, was second at 0:53.44.
Speas barely missed out on second place in the 100-yard breaststroke. He finished with a time of 1:09.57, while Bryant’s John Gavin Miller took second at 1:09.46.
The event was one of two won by Vondenstein. He took first place at 1:05.63.
Vondenstein also won the 50-yard freestyle in 0:22.67. Sanders was fourth in the event at 0:24.15, while his Hot Springs teammate Aaron Navarro finished sixth in 0:24.41.
Sanders earned third place in the 100yard butterfly at 1:02.74. Majors won the event in 0:58.10, edging out El Dorado’s Hudson McDiarmid, 0:58.55.
The Trojans took second in the 200yard freestyle relay at 1:40.38. Bryant narrowly won at 1:39.65. Lakeside finished fifth in 1:43.12.
Lakeside senior Nicole Burek earned two top-four finishes in the girls’ events. She was the runner-up in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:21.29. Mount St. Mary’s Kate Goldtrap won in 2:20.73.
Burek finished fourth in the 50-yard freestyle at 0:27.64. El Dorado’s Lorin Utsch won in 0:25.77.
Freshman Tillie Reagler gave Hot Springs third-place points in the 100yard backstroke at 1:15.76. Sophomore Emma Campas also placed fourth in the
100-yard freestyle at 1:02.37 and sixth in the 50-yard freestyle at 0:28.01.