HTHS swimmers make waves at state

Swimmers from all over the state traveled to Auburn University on Dec. 1-2 for the AHSAA swim and dive state meet, and Hewitt-Trussville High School took five swimmers: three juniors and two seniors. All five qualified in some capacity for the finals session Dec. 2.

Teammates Noah Weissgerber, Brandt Gooden, Drake Amick and Caleb Knox started the swim meet in the boys 200 medley relay. Both Weissgerber and Amick are juniors, while Gooden and Knox are seniors.

The relay was seeded 11th after prelims but suffered a disqualification in the finals session, negating any placement and time.

Knox then competed in the 200 freestyle, placing 16th and swimming a time of 1 minute, 57.09 seconds. While he added time to his prelims time, he swam about two seconds faster than his seed time for the meet. He went on to place 12th in the 100 freestyle, swimming a 51.05, which was faster than his original seed time, as well.

Teammate Drake Amick, a junior, also competed in an individual event: the boys 100 butterfly. Amick dropped almost a second from his prelims swim to earn 11th place with a time of 55.17, which was only two-one hundredths off his seed time.

To cap off the finals meet, teammates Will Bradley, a junior, Gooden, Knox and Amick competed in the boys 400 freestyle relay. Together, they swam a 3:35.10 and dropped 0.74 seconds to maintain their 11th place finish from the prelims session.