Making the first state trip of 2023, the Decatur Eagles swimmers made their way to San Antonio to compete at the 4A meet on Feb. 9-10. 

The boys medley relay brought home gold, with seniors Eli Dollins and Brody McKeel and sophomores Johnny Albaugh and Logan Fultz making up the team. They won first place with a time of 1:40.66, an improvement from their season time of 1:45.

Along with their win in the medley relay, the team also got bronze in the 200 freestyle relay, which helped the boy’s team place third in the overall meet. 

“The relay kind of dominated,” Dollins said. “We dropped a lot of time and overall our team all dropped time in each of their legs.”

The boy’s team wasn’t the only team that found success at state. The girl’s 400 freestyle relay, including senior Hannah Smith, junior Zoey Hall, and freshmen Kenzi Hays and Kady Martinez, brought home a silver medal with their time of 3:50. 

“It was exciting to medal this year,” Smith said. “I was able to go to state last year, but since there was no 4A division we didn’t place.”

Beyond their top three finish for the relay, Hall was able to climb the podium two more times for her finishes in her individual events. Hall placed second in the 100 freestyle and third in the 100 backstroke, bringing the junior to a total of three medals. 

“I’ve been to state for two years, not including this one, so I knew what it was going to be like so I could stay calm. I also just wanted to do well, I didn’t care about placing but just dropping times in my events,” Hall said. “In my other two races I kind of knew I would medal, but my 100 freestyle was a shock and super exciting.”

With more swimmers advancing than ever before, state was set to be a special meet for the Eagles no matter what the outcome, but the added hardware cemented it in the recordbooks for Decatur swim. 

“The thing that stood out most was everyone being there for each other,” Hall said. “It really felt like it was the team against the world that weekend.”