Powers in pool

By Staff
Ramey 2nd in diving, Priceville’s Sorrells has two top 10 finishes
Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
Hartselle diver Matt Ramey is already looking to next season after finishing second in the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Auburn University last weekend.
He isn’t alone, either.
Six other local swimmers had strong outings in the meet held at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center.
Ramey, in his first season of competitive diving, finished second in the 1-meter event Friday night to score 17 points for Hartselle.
Everett Sorrells, a junior at Priceville, had two top 10 finishes to help the Bulldogs finish 22nd overall in the boys’ team standings.
Hartselle finished 29th.
Hartselle’s girls were 31st overall after posting 14 points.
The state meet featured more than 500 swimmers and divers from 75 schools in all classifications. Bob Jones won both the boys’ and girls’ state championships.
Ramey finished second despite spending much of the competition in first place.
He struggled on his ninth dive and was unable to make up the deficit on his final two attempts.
Ramey had nine solid dives in 11 attempts, and finished with 366.45. But Murphy’s Robert Railey, and eighth grader, was nearly 25 points better in his 11 attempts.
Ramey also expects to challenge Railey for the title next year. “It’s a war now,” he said.
Last year’s state champion 1-meter champion, Lee Hollingsworth of Mountain Brook, finished third.
Everett Sorrells finished fourth in the Boys’ 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:03.30. He finished the event nearly two seconds faster than his state time from a year ago.
Sorrells also finished seventh in the 100 butterfly with a time of 54.69. His time was nearly three seconds faster than his state time in 2006.
Hartselle’s 200 free relay team of Jordan Bruner, Katie Kohlenberg, Taylor Bean and Jessica Horton finished 11th overall. The Lady Tigers finished with a time of 1:50.63 in the B-finals.
Hartselle was 19th in the 2006 state meet in the 200 free relay.
The Lady Tigers’ 200 medley relay team finished the preliminaries with a time of 2:05.46, but was disqualified in the B finals.
Falkville’s Faith Vest was 30th overall in the 200 yard IM and 33rd in the 100 butterfly.
Vest swam a 2:32.82 in the 200 IM preliminaries, but did not reach the finals.
She also had a time of 1:11.52 in the butterfly and missed out on a spot in the finals.
Hartselle’s Jessica Horton had a 15th place finish in the 50 freestyle after she swam the event in 26.47.
Horton was also 21st overall in the 100 freestyle. Her time of 59.55 was not fast enough to qualify for the finals.
Sarah Roark finished 36th overall in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:10.65 in the preliminaries.