The Alexander City Outlook

15 Torpedoes qualify to go to state meet

The Alexander City Torpedoes didn’t have the numbers they usually do, and they were even without one of their top swimmers this weekend at the district swim meet in Valley.

But, that didn’t stop the Torpedoes from sending a total of 15 team members to the state meet, as four individuals and three relay teams qualified for a nine events overall for the final competition July 23-24 in Cullman.

“I’m really pleased,” Torpedo head coach Barrie Hamilton said. “Everyone bettered their times and that’s really all you can ask for. The number of qualifiers wasn’t as high as it had been, but, again, we didn’t have as many kids as we normally do and a lot of our top swimmers stayed in Auburn for the summer. We had a lot of near misses, too. I think we did a good job overall, and, I believe our swimmers will have a pretty good shot at state.”

To advance to the next level, swimmers had to beat the sixth-best time from last year’s state meet in each event.

The top individual swimmer was 7-year-old Cade Wright, who qualified for two events. He finished sixth in the 100 individual medley with a time of 1:55.72, which is 24 seconds better than what he needed. In the 25 freestyle, Wright’s time was 17.69 seconds, good for fourth place and good enough to advance.

Zach Mosley qualified for the 50 butterfly in the 13-14-year-old division with a time of 38.34 seconds. Gracie Knowles made state in the 8-and-under 25 backstroke with a third place finish and time of 22.97 seconds. Erin Smith qualified for the 8-and-under 100 individual medley after finishing third in 2:08.56.

The relay team of Gracie, Alana and Olivia Knowles and Danielle Mitchell qualified for the 100 free relay (1:29.76) and the medley relay (2:00.73).

In the 11-12 200 free relay, the group of Morgan Couch, Brianna Jones, Kayla Bowles and Elizabeth Stanbrough advanced with a time of 2:53.16. The final qualifier was the team at 9-10-year-old 200 free relay. Andrew Stanbrough, Sam Mosley, John Bailey Bowles and Tyler Hamilton swam a time of 3:08.70 seconds.

One of the top swimmers all year for the team and a probable state qualifier was Scottlyn Carr. She sprained her ankle and was unable to compete