Photo courtesy of 1rebelswimanddive
On October 1st, the Vestavia Hills Swim and Dive team competed in the Carson Muir Invitational at the Birmingham Crossplex. With the help of Spain Park High School and Vestavia Hills High School managing the meet, 314 athletes were entered from 27 high schools- the largest regular season high school meet ever!
The Carson Muir Invitational honors Carson Muir who was a “standout Spain Park Jaguar swimmer for six years, from 2017-2022, a State Champion in the 500-yard Freestyle in 2022. She was also a longtime member of the Birmingham Swim League, starting her competitive swim career at the age of 7. Following her graduation from Spain Park in May 2023, Carson continued her swim career at the University of Wyoming, where she specialized in Butterfly and Long Distance Freestyle events. She tragically passed along with two of her Wyoming teammates on February 22nd of this year in a one-car accident near Fort Collins, Colorado."
Photo courtesy of AL.com
With the largest gathering of swimmers in a regular season high school meet, athletes honored Carson by strongly competing and coming together as a community. Many athletes on the pool deck wore cowboy/cowgirl hats during the meet as a way to honor Carson. Additionally, country music played throughout warm-ups and up until the start of the meet. After hearing a few testimonies from her teammates and coaches, the swim meet commenced.
The 200-yard medley relays kicked off the meet. The girls' “A” and “B” relay teams placed fourth and fifth overall with time dropped on both relays. The “A” team relay for Vestavia boys finished first by over three seconds with senior Aiden Tillis on backstroke, senior William Lazenby on breaststroke, sophomore Andrew Hilsmier on butterfly, and middle-schooler Tucker Hicks on freestyle.
Many of our swimmers also placed in the top three in their individual events. The Rebels dominated the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle with first-place finishes for both Junior Rilie Reid and Hilsmier in both events bringing home big points for the team. Tillis finished second in the 200 freestyle. Lazenby podiumed with a third-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. Many athletes swam personal bests and qualified for the AHSAA State Championships at this invitational!
Around halfway through the meet, the Rebels competed in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Both the girls' and boys’ relay teams sprinted their way to a first-place finish. On the girls’ relay, junior Emily Jin led off as the first leg. Junior Angela Zhang held the lead with senior Jasmine Zhang diving in after her. Finally, Rilie Reid was the last leg and managed to cruise to a first-place finish by over four seconds. On the boys’ side, Tillis led off as the first leg with freshman Shepherd Rubin diving in after. Hicks was the third leg and Lazenby was the anchor. Both relays look incredibly strong for the AHSAA State Championships in late November!
The 400-yard freestyle relay finished up the swim meet. The girls placed second officially qualifying for the State Championships in all three relays. Additionally, the boys continued to dominate up until the end with another first-place finish. Winning all three relays played a significant part in the boys' team finishing first place overall at the Carson Muir Invitational. Additionally, the girls finished as the first-place overall team.
Now, we can’t forget about the dive team! Freshman Clara Karr (4th place), sophomore Aubrey Squires (6th place), and senior Lila Dirusso (8th place) placed in the top eight scoring points for the girls' team! Additionally, sophomore Pierce Bolton placed third scoring points for the boys! Great job to our divers!
With incredibly strong competition at this meet, the Rebels are looking extremely strong as they near the State Championships in Huntsville. Wish the Swim and Dive team the best of luck as they travel to the Boaz Rec Center to swim in the Pirate Invitation on Thursday, October 10th! Go Rebels!
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