Seneca and Walhalla Boys and Girls swim teams recent accomplishments

“This is by far the fastest the state field has been for AAA swimming and AAA is dominated by private schools, however both Seneca and Walhalla represented quite well.”

–Swim Coach Steve Burkhart

Seneca swimming completed their sixth year Saturday night with outstanding performances!

7 boys and 7 girls competed in 9 individual events and 6 relays.

The boys efforts were led by podium finishes for senior Micah Zeller (2nd in 50 freestyle and 3rd in 100 freestyle) making this his fourth straight All-State Selection.

Phelim Crowley narrowly missed the podium with a 4th place in the 100 butterfly and 5th in the 8th in the 200 Individual Medley.  Caleb Zeller also made the top 10 in his 2 events with a 7th place in the 200 freestyle and 7th in the 100 freestyle. These 3 teamed with senior Trevor Shepherd for 6th place in the 200 free relay and 5th in the 400 free relay.  Trevor also competed with junior Tyler Plummer, senior Nick Wald and 7th grader Blake Clay in the 200 Medley Relay taking 20th place.

The Girls were led by 8th grader Lana Crain with an 8th place finish and 13th in the 100 Breastroke.  7th Grader Abby Zeller also finished 29th place in the 50 freestyle.

Senior Kylie Johnson, juniors Abi Johnson, Hailey Lambert and Gabbi Glover finished 20th in the 200 Medley Relay. Abby Zeller, junior Elli Berry, Lana Crain and Hailey Lambert finished 17th in the 200 Free relay and Lana, Abby Z, Elli, and Gabbi teamed for a 15th place 400 Free Relay.

The Boys finished 8th overall and girls finished 19th overall out of 34 teams competing.

Walhalla’s first season of high school swimming culminated Saturday with great performances from all the entire team.

Sophomore Chelsea Burkhart finished with a 3rd place finish in the 200 freestyle and earned Oconee County’s first ever swimming state championship in the 500 freestyle. Her teammate, sophomore Maddie Cochrane also earned a top ten finish in the 100 butterfly and a 27th place in the 50 freestyle. They teamed with 8th grader Addie Gremilion and 8th grader Gabbie Haubert to earn 13th in the 200 Medley Relay and 8th in the 400 free relay.  Addie and Gabbie also competed with junior Hannah Haubert and 7th grader Ava Schuller to take 20th place in the 200 free relay.

Walhalla boys were led by freshman Alex Burkhart’s 3rd place finish in the 500 freestyle and 5th place in the 200 freestyle. Junior Davis Dial finished 5th in the 500 freestyle and 6th in the 200 freestyle while his brother Dalton Dial placed 19th in the 500 freestyle and 16th in the 100 backstroke. These boys teamed with Luke Vosburgh to take 10th place in the 200 Medley relay. The Dials and Alex competed with 7th grader Brady Smith to take 11th in the 400 freestyle relay. Despite an excellent effort Luke, Brady, freshman Kaden Dickson, and junior Eli Wilson were disqualified in the 200 free relay.

Walhalla boys finished 10th and Walhall girls finished 11th out of the 34 teams represented.