When Olympus junior Colleen MacWilliams dove into the pool for her final swim of the chaotic 2020-2021 high school season, the outcome realistically didn’t matter as the Titans had long since wrapped up their first girls swimming state title in school history.
There was no shortage of motivation for MacWilliams though, as she jumped into the pool for the final leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay with a 10-plus yard gap to make up.
She closed most of it down by the second turn and pulled away over the final two laps to put a feather in the cap of Olympus’ dominant showing at the 5A state meet at the Wasatch Aquatics Center in Heber City on Saturday morning.
“Relays are more rewarding because you’re with your friends and you’re pushing yourselves, and it’s more of a team effort,” said MacWilliams, who was named the 5A swimmer of the year after the meet.
Olympus won five of 11 events in finishing with 314 team points to easily finish ahead of second-place Park City, which tallied 205 points. A year ago, the Titans finished second to Timpview.
“It’s been a really hard year with Covid and everything, and we just trained through all of it. We were in the pool as much as we could. We really owe it to our coach because he just kept pushing us, and all the other girls, we just kept pushing each other to get faster,” said MacWilliams.
Olympus’ coach Tom Thorum said the mentality of MacWilliams to swim for her teammates instead of herself on that last race epitomizes why the Titans were so good this year.
“The culture those girls have is one of the best cultures I’ve seen on a swim team. They support one another, they motivate one another. An awesome group of special women,” said Thorum.
Olympus was the clear favorite coming into the meet after a great region season, and Thorum said his girls swam even better on Saturday than they did in Friday’s preliminaries.
“They swam markedly better today than they did yesterday, and they were more aggressive, more confident,” said Thorum.
MacWilliams was a part of four of those first-place finishes, winning the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle while swimming a leg in the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay.
Olympus’ other individual champ was Madeleine Moran, who lowered her state-leading 100 breaststroke time by posting a 1:05.14.
Kaiya Lawson contributed valuable team points as well with a third-place finish in both the 200 and 500 freestyle. She also swam a leg in the 400 free relay.
“She swam all three in a very short period of time. That’s just grit,” said Thorum.
The lone repeat state champion on Saturday came in the 100 backstroke as Bountiful senior Elliott Howe won with a time of 57.42.
Howe’s coach Alexa Lou Olson was named the swimming coach of the year by the coaches association after the meet.
Park City finished with two individual champs en route to its runner-up finish. Helena Djunic capped her outstanding career with a win in the 100 freestyle, while sophomore teammate Sara Wall sprinted to a win in the 50 freestyle.
The best race of the meet came in the 100 butterfly, with Springville’s Ellie Boyer posting a time of 58.28 to edge Mountain Ridge’s Anna Wekluk by .02 seconds. The top four swimmers all finished within .23 seconds of each other as everyone surrounding the pool glanced quickly up at the scoreboard to see who’s stretch touched the wall first.
Wekluk got to stand on the top podium in a later medals ceremony though as she swim a leg in the 200 freestyle relay.
East’s Lily Mayer was also an individual winner as she finished first in the 200 freestyle.
5A girls state swim meet
At Wasatch Aquatics Center
Saturday’s final results
Team scores
1. Olympus, 314
2. Park City, 205
3. Timpview, 175
4. Skyline, 171.5
5. Wasatch, 163.5
6. Brighton, 138
7. Springville,116
8. Mountain Ridge, 111
Individual results
200 medley relay
1. Olympus, (Taylar Hooton, Madeleine Morgan, Colleen MacWilliams, Daria Wozniak), 1:47.54
2. Timpview, 1:50.01
3. Park City, 1:51.89
4. Skyline, 1:52.09
5. Mountain Ridge, 1:52.40
6. Maple Mountain, 1:53.42
7. Viewmont, 1:54.68
8. Springville, 1:55.06
200 freestyle
1. Lily Mayer, East, 1:54.80
2. Hanna Asaivarevic, Brighton, 1:55.52
3. Kaiya Lawson, Olympus, 1:56.81
4. Savannah Eatough, Provo, 2:00.43
5. Audrey Bradley, Brighton, 2:01.86
6. Lauren Snyder, Wasatch, 2:02.37
7. Madelyn Maccabee, Springville, 2:02,42
8. Meg Harris, Wasatch, 2:03.36
200 individual medley
1. Colleen MacWilliams, Olympus, 2:08.80
2. Ellie Boyer, Springville, 2:13.24
3. Audrey Weller, Maple Mountain, 2:12.86
4. Lauren Greenwell, Park City, 2:17.00
5. Adessa Talbot, Cottonwood, 2:15.74
6. Emily Harvey, Skyline, 2:18.50
7. Ainsley Warren, Brighton, 2:17.30
8. Annie Reichner, Timpview, 2:16.09
50 freestyle
1. Sara Wall, Park City, 24.21
2. Ally Boynton, Woods Cross, 24.41
3. Anna Wekluk, Mountain Ridge, 24.42
4. Gracie Crandall, Timpview, 24.50
5. Trevi Ogilvie, Wasatch, 24.95
6. Rachel Dalton, Skyline, 24.95
6. Katelyn Teng, Timpview, 25.29
8. Taya Riser, Timpanogos, 25.32
100 butterfly
1. Ellie Boyer, Springville, 58.28
2. Anna Wekluk, Mountain Ridge, 58.30
3. Elliott Howe, Bountiful, 58.34
4. Sara Wall, Park City, 58.51
5. Madeleine Moran, Olympus, 59.02
6. Emily Harvey, Skyline, 59.78
7. Taylar Hooton, Olympus, 1:00.23
8. Adessa Talbot, Cottonwood, 1:00.92
100 freestyle
1. Helena Djunic, Park City, 52.14
2. Hanna Sasivarevic, Brighton, 52.89
3. Gracie Crandall, Timpview, 52.93
4. Taya Riser, Timpanogos, 54.40
5. Annie Robinson, Timpview, 54.61
6. Savannah Eatough, Provo, 54.83
7. Rachel Dalton, Skyline, 54.98
8. Lauren Gassman, Alta, 55.43
500 freestyle
1. Colleen MacWilliams, Olympus, 5:05.94
2. Lily Mayer, East, 5:16.83
3. Kaiya Lawson, Olympus, 5:17.21
4. Grace Humbert, Highland, 5:24.96
5. Lauren Snyder, Wasatch, 5:25.85
6. Ashlyn Hicken, Wasatch, 5:29.35
7. Lily McClellan, Box Elder, 5:30.71
8. Beca Bringard, Skyline, 5:34.33
200 freestyle relay
1. Mountain Ridge (Gennovah Hansen, Chalisse Rich, Anna Wekluk, Shelby Hawes), 1:40.21
2. Olympus, 1:41.24
3. Wasatch, 1:42.18
4. Skyline, 1:42.65
5. Woods Cross, 1:43.78
6. Spanish Fork, 1:45.04
7. Park City, 1:45.27
8. Box Elder, 1:45.87
100 backstroke
1. Elliott Howe, Bountiful, 57.42
2. Ally Boynton, Woods Cross, 57.45
3. Taylar Hooton, Olympus, 57.69
4. Annie Reichner, Timpview, 57.83
5. Helena Djunic, Park City, 57.95
6. Daria Wozniak, Olympus, 1:01.10
7. Natty Alonso, Cottonwood, 1:02.28
8. Janelle Mammen, Springville, 1:02.93
100 breaststroke
1. Madeleine Moran, Olympus, 1:05.14
3. Audrey Weller, Maple Mountain, 1:06.38
2. Lucy Johnson, Skyline, 1:07.44
4. Elle Decker, Viewmont, 1:07.75
5. Sadie Duke, Bountiful, 1:08.80
6. Lauren Greenwell, Park City, 1:10.15
7. Angie Fregoso, Skyline, 1:10.50
8. Annie Robinson, Timpview, 1:11.59
400 freestyle relay
1. Olympus (Kaiya Lawson, Taylor Etherington, Taylar Hooton, Colleen MacWilliams), 3:36.92
2. Timpview, 3:38.02
3. Park City, 3:41.33
4. Brighton, 3:41.62
5. Maple Mountain, 3:45.12
6. Wasatch, 3:47.40
7. Springville, 3:49.19
8. East, 3:50.37