Southern Utah high school swimmers win races, awards at state 4A and 3A championships

Cedar senior Tobler Dotson, the 4A male swimmer of the year, competes in the 100-yard butterfly finals, Provo, Utah, Feb. 12, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Jason Walker, St. George News

CEDAR CITY — Although there weren’t any team state champions from Southern Utah crowned at this year’s state high school swim meets, there were plenty of individual awards and accomplishments.

Snow Canyon swimmers atop podium with 4A girls runner-up trophy, Provo, Utah, Feb. 12, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Charlie Barnett, St. George News

As the 4A state meet wrapped up Saturday night at Brigham Young University in Provo, Snow Canyon senior Kylie Barber was named the 4A female swimmer of the year, while Cedar High senior Tobler Dotson won 4A male swimmer of the year honors.

Additionally, Cedar head coach Megan Moses was named the girls team coach of the year, while Cedar boys coach Garrett Dotson, Tobler’s older brother, shared boys team coach of the year honors with Sky View’s Marcus Singleton, whose boys won the 4A team title.

Cedar High’s boys team placed second overall at the state meet, while its girls team took fourth place. 

Meanwhile, the Snow Canyon girls ended up finishing in the runner-up spot, behind state champion Ridgeline. Snow Canyon’s boys team placed seventh.

Also making a strong showing from Southern Utah’s Region 10 was Crimson Cliffs, which finished third among the boys teams and sixth in the girls, and Desert Hills, which took fourth in the boys meet.

Earlier that same day, during the state 3A meet also staged at BYU, the Canyon View High School boys team placed second overall, with senior Max Cannon winning 3A male swimmer of the year and his coach Kirt Brown being named 3A male team coach of the year.

Following are selected top individual results from the respective meets, focusing on Southern Utah athletes:

4A girls

Snow Canyon seniors Kylie Barber and Afton Page capped off their successful high school careers with each winning both of their individual events at state.

4A girls 100 fly winner Afton Page of Snow Canyon congratulates fellow swimmer Jacey Mecham of Sky View, Provo, Utah, Feb. 12, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Jason Walker, St. George News

Barber won the 200 free in a time of 1:58.24 and the 100 free in a time of 52.46. Page won the 100 fly in 1:01.52 and the 100 back in 58.89. They also each swam a relay leg in the first and last events of the meet, helping the Warriors to a first-place finish in the 200 medley relay and a second-place finish in the 400 free relay.

Also from Snow Canyon, senior Hailey Phillips placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke and also swam in the winning 200 medley relay.

Another individual champion from Region 10 was Pine View junior Sorina Rom, who won the 100 breast in a time of 1:08.53. Rom also took third in the 100 free.

Top point earners from Cedar High were Olivia Price, who placed second in the 200 free and fourth in the 100 free; Hannah Edwards, who placed second in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 back; and Aspen Simper, who placed third in the 200 free and fifth in the 500 free.

From Crimson Cliffs, Kara Weiland placed third in the 50 free and fifth in the 100 back, while teammate Kensley Messinger took second in the 100 back and fourth in the 50 free.

For complete 4A state meet results, click here. See Ed. Note below.

4A state swimming championships, top five girls team results:

  1. Ridgeline, 306.
  2. Snow Canyon, 283.
  3. Sky View, 249.
  4. Cedar, 237.
  5. Green Canyon, 182.

Ed. Note: State meet officials rescored the girls 4A meet on March 2, after errors came to light involving one or more teams using a swimmer in a relay who had already competed in the maximum number of events allowed. The above list has been updated to reflect the adjusted team scores. Although the point totals of several teams did change, none of the changes affected any of the placings in the overall standings. Swimmers who competed in the affected races will be reissued the correct medals, officials said.

4A boys

Cedar senior Tobler Dotson won both of his individual races at state, taking first in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 51.71. He later won the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 59.18, which broke his older brother Reuben’s school record by one-tenth of a second. Reuben’s mark, set in 2020, had broken the previous Cedar High record that had been held by their older brother Garrett Dotson, who is currently the Cedar boys coach.

Josh Walker of Crimson Cliffs and David Leon-Moreno of Dixie at the start of the 4A boys 200 free finals, Provo, Utah, Feb. 12, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Charlie Barnett, St. George News

Also winning an individual event at state was Crimson Cliffs sophomore Josh Walker, who placed first in the 200 free with a time of 1:47.55. Walker also took second in the 100 back.

Other top performances from Region 10 boys, grouped by school, include the following:

Troy Eggers of Desert Hills placed second in the 200-yard individual medley and fourth in the 500 free. Freshman teammate Hunter Iverson took third in the 100 breast, while senior Dallas Schimbeck placed fourth in the 200 free and seventh in the 100 free.

David Leon-Moreno of Dixie took second in the 500 free and fifth in the 200 free, while Andrew Carlisle of Dixie placed third in the 100 back and fourth in the 100 fly.

Tanner Dodds of Cedar took third place in both the 200 IM and the 500 free. Cedar sophomore Ashten Krans took fourth in the 500 free.

From Crimson Cliffs, sophomore Bronson Plumb placed third in the 50 free and fourth in the 100 free.

Snow Canyon senior Jack Allred took third in the 100 free and fourth in the 50 free.

Both Desert Hills and Crimson Cliffs had a second-place relay finish, while Cedar finished third in two of the relay events.

For complete 4A state meet results, click here.

4A state swimming championships, top five boys team results:

  1. Sky View, 353.
  2. Cedar, 273.5.
  3. Crimson Cliffs, 251.
  4. Desert Hills, 201.
  5. Green Canyon, 200.

3A boys

Canyon View senior Max Cannon finished his stellar high school career with four gold medals on Saturday, winning both of his individual events and helping the Falcons win two relays.

Canyon View boys coach Kirt Brown and senior Max Cannon with their respective coach of the year and 3A male swimmer of the year awards, Provo, Utah, Feb. 12, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Mike Hudson, St. George News / Cedar City News

Cannon won the 200-yard individual medley in dominating fashion, his winning time of 1:52.43 being more than 10 seconds faster than that of the runner-up finisher. 

Even more remarkably, Cannon later broke the state 3A record in the 100-yard breaststroke, winning the race in 56.54 seconds. The previous state mark of 57.47, set in 1979 by David Lundberg of Timpview, had stood for almost exactly 43 years, but Cannon broke Lundberg’s mark during Friday’s preliminaries with a time of 57.18, then dropped it further on Saturday.

Cannon, who has signed to swim collegiately for BYU, also swam the breaststroke leg of the 200 medley relay and led off the 400 free relay, helping the Falcons to first-place finishes in both races. Canyon View’s time in the 200 medley relay was 1:39.33, less than four-tenths of a second away from breaking the state 3A record that has stood for 45 years (1:38.96 by Cyprus in 1977).

The Falcons finished the boys meet in second place with 322 team points, just 10 points behind state 3A champion Judge Memorial, which also won the girls state title at BYU on Saturday.

Also for the Canyon View boys, senior sprinters Ryen Bailey and William Edwards finished a respective third and fourth in the 50 free, with Bailey’s time of 22.97 coming just ahead of Edwards’ 23.15. Later, in the 100 free, their places were reversed, with Edwards taking third in 51.20 and Bailey finishing fourth with a time of 51.41.

Another top scorer for the Falcons was distance swimmer Jacob Grimshaw, who placed third in both the 200 free and the 500 free.

Also competing from Southern Utah at the 3A boys meet was Beaver High’s Robert Gonzalez, who took second in the 100 fly and earned 17 points as the 2A school’s lone male swimmer. 

Additionally, the top male point earners from Fillmore County’s Millard High were junior Ethan Bishop and senior Jacob Despain.

For complete 3A state meet results, click here.

3A state swimming championships, top five boys team results:

  1. Judge Memorial, 332.
  2. Canyon View, 322.
  3. Juan Diego, 194.
  4. Union, 184.
  5. Grand County, 146.

3A girls

Distance swimmer Addison Taylor of Canyon View won both of her individual events at the state 3A meet. Taylor, a sophomore, won the 200 free in a time of 2:03.01 and the 500 free in a time of 5:36.99.

Addison Taylor of Canyon View competes in the 3A girls 200-yard individual medley, Provo, Utah, Feb. 12, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Megan Cannon, St. George News / Cedar City News

Also from Canyon View, senior Kiley Reynolds took third in both the 200 IM and the 100 breast. The Falcons also placed third in two of the three relay events, helping the Canyon View girls to a sixth-place overall finish with 161 team points.

Meanwhile, the Millard High girls, which finished in third place overall, were led in points by swimmers Kailey Thurman, Aimee Thurman, Lizzy Despain and Emma Koyle.

For complete 3A state meet results, click here.

3A state swimming championships, top five girls team results:

  1. Judge Memorial, 316.
  2. Carbon, 210.
  3. Millard, 185.
  4. Juan Diego, 170.
  5. Ogden, 166.

Updated March 2, 11:15 a.m. to reflect adjustments to the 4A girls team scores (see Ed. Note above at the end of that section of the story).

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