State swimming: Dale sets state record; DHS wins four events

ATLANTA — Charles Todd has been coaching high school swimming for 24 years. He’s seen Olympic swimmers on the way up. In his view, Dalton High junior Taylor Dale “has the most talent” of anyone he’s ever had in the Catamounts’ lineup.

Dale backed up Todd’s opinion on Saturday against the best the state had to offer.

He took home three of the Cats’ four titles on Saturday at the Georgia High School Association’s Class A-4A state meet at Georgia Tech. He won two individual events — the 100-yard backstroke in 48.84 seconds and the 100 butterfly in 48.55 seconds, which set a new GHSA state record for the event — and one relay, the 200 medley with junior Pierson Scarborough and seniors Omar Farag and Wil Cushman in a time of 1:34.49.

Dale was seeded first in both individual events and the medley relay team also held the top seed entering the day.

“That was pretty sweet,” Todd said after Dale’s record-setting win in the 100 butterfly. “I’ve had some swimmers get a relay championship or an individual event title, but not one in each.”

Todd could not stop bragging on Dale, whose three titles at one state meet is the most for any swimmer in school history. It was also the most for any individual swimmer at this year’s event.

“I’ve coached Olympic swimmers, and he’s probably got the most talent out of anyone I’ve seen,” he said. “He potentially could be the best.”

Dale placed second in the 100 backstroke at last year’s state meet, the closest he’d come to a championship before Saturday.

“I’m just glad it happened,” Dale said after he won his third title. “I was excited, but was trying to keep my composure in between each event.”

Todd said Dale was “the story of the day” at the meet, but he definitely was not the only story for the Cats.

Scarborough, who barely crept into the final eight for the 100 breaststroke, surprised everyone when he tied Greenbrier’s Nick Brown for first with a time of 58.80.

“That came out of nowhere,” Dale said of Scarborough’s win. “He puts so much pressure on himself and tries to get his best swim possible, so it’s good to see this happen for him.”

Scarborough raced out to an early lead and brought home the Cats’ fourth title of the day, but he’ll admit that when he was in the water he had no idea how well he was doing. Even for a few seconds after the race finished, he was still oblivious to his accomplishment.

“I didn’t know I was in first,” he said. “I just looked at the clock and said, ‘Yeah, that’s a great time for me.’”

When he looked at the clock again, he noticed a No. 1 next to his name, which made his think twice.

“I said to myself, ‘That can’t be right,’” he said. “So I asked someone, and they said I got first.”

Todd said Scarborough, who like Dale will be back next year to defend his title, was not happy with his the time of 1:00.31 he turned in during Friday’s preliminaries.

“I just told him to relax,” the coach said.

Swimmers competed Friday to determine who would swim for state titles on Saturday. The top eight from Friday’s preliminaries earned an opportunity at a state title; the next fastest eight swam in the “B” final to determine the placing of ninth through 16th for purposes of team scoring.

Scarborough swam in the “B” final of the 50 freestyle event earlier in the day and finished sixth (0:22.10), good for 14th. Farag competed for a state championship with Dale in the 100 butterfly and placed sixth at 0:52.36. He also competed in the B final of the 200 individual medley and finished 10th with a time of 1:59.48.

Chase Hair finished 16th in the 1-meter diving competition, which was held Saturday morning before the individual and relay events.

In the relays, Dalton won the first event of the day — the 200 medley.

Dale gave Dalton a big lead in the first leg, the backstroke, completing his swim in 0:22.52. Scarborough finished his breaststroke leg in 0:26.35, Farag did the butterfly in 0:23.59 and Cushman brought it home in the freestyle in 0:22.03.

The same four competed in the last boys event of the day, the 400 freestyle, and finished fourth at 3:13.17. Cushman swam the first leg (0:49.17), Scarborough handled the second 100 yards (0:48.65), Farag swam third (0:49.94) and Dale finished it off (0:45.41).

Dalton finished with 152.5 team points, good for sixth place. Wesleyan won the meet with 202.5 points, and Chattahoochee placed second with 195. The next three ahead of Dalton were Johns Creek (188), Marist (180.5) and Westminster (161.5).

“I’m really proud of this whole team,” Todd said. “It’s been a really great group. And then it cap it off with a state meet like this has been great.”

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State swimming: Dale sets state record; DHS wins four events

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