Bolles Dominates FHSAA 1A State Champs; Zuchowski, Pelaez & Heck Set Records (original) (raw)

2021 FHSAA Championship – Class 1A

The Bolles School dynasty continued on Saturday as the Bulldogs won the FHSAA Class 1A State titles in decisive fashion, continuing a tradition of excellence that’s been going on for over 30 years. The Bolles School boys have won every FHSAA championship they’ve competed in since 1988, while the girls have gone undefeated since 1991.

GIRLS MEET RECAP

The Bolles girls won four events, including two relays, to place first in the standings with 370 points, 132 clear of runner-up Saint Andrew’s (238).

The team of Katherine Meyers-Labenz, Jessica Strong, Julia Murphy and Alexandra Zorn started things off with a win in the 200 medley relay, clocking a time of 1:43.95 to get under the AA-A cut of 1:44.21 and lead Kings (1:44.86) by nearly a second.

Meyers-Labenz would later team up with Megan McGrath, Sabrina Lyn and Manita Sathianchokwisan to win the 200 free relay in a time of 1:32.68, with Sathianchokwisan putting up a noteworthy 22.30 anchor split.

Individually, McGrath won the 200 free for Bolles in 1:48.60, while Sathianchokwisan topped the 100 free in time of 49.10.

South Florida Heat sophomore Erika Pelaez soared to a new State Record in the girls’ 100 backstroke, finishing in a time of 52.34 to erase **Clara Smiddy**‘s 2013 mark of 52.46. Smiddy was also a former member of SFH.

Pelaez, 15, now ranks 29th all-time in the girls’ 15-16 age group, having only recently aged up.

Pelaez also won the 50 free in 22.29 over Sathianchokwisan (22.38), just .07 off the State Record set by Lexie Mulvihill (22.22) last year.

Pelaez finished her standout meet by leading off the South Florida Heat 400 free relay in 49.03, under the individual 100 free winning time.

In that relay, the Saint Andrew’s girls denied Bolles the relay sweep by out-touching them by .05 in 3:23.46, with Aspen Gersper providing a key lead-off leg of 49.62. Gersper was also an individual winner in the 100 fly (54.02).

OTHER EVENT WINNERS

TEAM STANDINGS – TOP 5

  1. Bolles, 370
  2. Saint Andrew’s, 238
  3. Pine Crest, 200
  4. The King’s Academy, 186
  5. Cutler Bay Senior High School, 166

BOYS MEET RECAP

The Bolles boys won by a whopping 399.5-point margin, putting 574 on the board. The King’s Academy won a tight battle for second over Saint Andrew’s and the South Florida Heat.

Bolles won eight of the 11 swimming events on the schedule, including a relay sweep and a pair of doubles turned in by Andres Dupont Cabrera and Miguel Rojas Newman.

To kick things off in the 200 medley relay, the quartet of Carter Lancaster (22.69), William Heck (24.03), Rojas Newman (21.55) and Tucker Peterson (20.01) put up a time of 1:28.28, just over half a second off the National Relay Record held by the Baylor School (1:27.74, 2014) and less than three tenths off the State Record set by Bolles in 2012 (1:28.02—a team that featured Ryan Murphy, Joseph Schooling and Santo Condorelli).

Dupont Cabrera, Heck, Peterson and Ethan Maloney also split 20-low in the Bulldogs 200 free relay win, posting an elite time of 1:20.30, with Dupont Cabrera leading off in a scintillating 20.07—a time that would’ve won the individual 50 free.

In the 400 free relay, Bolles rolled to another big win in 2:58.10, with Dupont Cabrera again producing the top split at 43.49 swimming third.

Individually, Dupont Cabrera placed first in the 100 free (43.74) and 200 free (1:35.90), with South Florida Heat’s Kaii Winkler the runner-up in both (44.00, 1:36.78).

Rojas Newman won the 50 free (20.49) and 100 fly (48.26), both extremely tight races where the top-six finishers were within a few tenths of one another.

Also winning for Bolles was Heck, who first set a new State Record in the 100 breast prelims at 53.64. He followed up by winning the final in 53.95.

Also setting a new State Record was The King’s Academy’s Josh Zuchowski, who clocked 1:45.51 in the 200 IM to break the 17-year-old record of 1:46.31 set by Bradley Ally in 2004.

Zuchowski, a senior, also won the 100 back in 47.29.

OTHER EVENT WINNERS

TEAM STANDINGS – TOP 5

  1. Bolles, 574
  2. The King’s Academy, 174.5
  3. Saint Andrew’s, 165
  4. South Florida Heat, 159
  5. Trinity Prep, 129.5

In This Story

Bradley Ally
Joseph Schooling
Ryan Murphy
Santo Condorelli

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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