The boys’ and girls’ swim and dive teams competed in the state championship swim and dive meet February 6-8 at Georgia Tech. The boys came in 4th place, and the girls finished 5th overall.

The biggest highlight for the Golden Lions was on Thursday night when freshman Julia Herring captured 1st place in the 1 meter dive.

“There’s no one on my year-round dive team that was competing in 4A-5A classification, so I felt confident I would do well,” said Herring, who also set the 6 and 11 dive school records. 

Herring began diving four years ago.

“I was a very serious gymnast until about 5th grade, when I quit because it was a lot,” she said. “I was at the gym for four hours a day and I was only 11 years old. So I quit gymnastics and started diving.”

She now trains for about three hours a day, five days a week at Georgia Tech with the Atlanta Diving Association.

Senior Riley Hendrix, who will swim at Tulane next year, capped off her high school swimming career with two 2nd place finishes in the 100 Free (51.74) and the 100 Back (55.49). Both times are also new school records.

Also placing for the girls was freshman Morgan Jenny, who placed 2nd in the 500 Free.

On the boys’ team, sophomore Noah Daniels came in 3rd in the 100 Back and 100 Fly, and junior Henry Halloran finished 2nd in the 200 IM. Both were also on the 200 Medley Relay team that placed 3rd with seniors Max Craciun and Tucker Bush.