Anderson County swimmers excel at championship
Several area high school swimmers posted impressive times this weekend at the Knoxville Interscholastic Swim League City Championships, held at the University of Tennessee’s Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.
Anderson County High School had three individual swimmers reach the finals Sunday night in their respective events.
For the Lady Mavericks, Donovan Rainey delivered a pair of top-five finishes in the championship finals. She placed third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 55.24 seconds and fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1 minute, 11.79 seconds.
Senior Avery Coker finished fifth in the boys’ 100-yard butterfly, clocking in at 53.23 seconds.
Landon Rainey also earned two top-10 finishes, taking fifth in the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.59) and ninth in the 100-yard freestyle (50.28).
The Anderson County boys also qualified for the city finals in two relay events.
The team of Coker, Jack Davis, Landon Rainey, and Shea Rainey finished 11th in the 200-yard medley relay (1:50.64) and 13th in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:37.49).
Anderson County Coach Stephanie Coker praised her team’s performance.
“We did well,” she said. “I had swimmers and relay teams reach the finals.
“Everybody who swam lowered their times, and they all had fun. At the end of the day, that’s the important thing.”
Oak Ridge senior Andrew Chou had a standout day, breaking the school record for the 100-yard butterfly twice on Sunday. He clocked a time of 49.45 seconds in the preliminaries, surpassing Tais Brown’s previous mark. In the finals, Chou broke his own record, touching the wall in 47.31 seconds.
Chou was also part of Oak Ridge’s 200-yard freestyle relay team that broke the school record twice. He teamed up with Micah Brown, Dorian Volcaansek, and Colin Suddeth to post a time of 1:29.73 in the finals, finishing in second place.
