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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HUNTSVILLE – Swimmers and divers from around the Shelby County area made waves at the AHSAA swimming and diving state championships on Nov. 22 and 23 at the Huntsville Aquatic Center, but none bigger than Andrew Groves and Caroline Foster of the Briarwood Christian Lions.

Groves walked away with a pair of state championships in the Class 1A-5A men’s 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle. He capped off his senior year on top of the podium as he finished the 100 fly in 51.35 seconds and the 100 free in 47.25 seconds to secure two first-place finishes.

As for Foster, she secured first place as an eighth grader in the Class 1A-5A women’s 1-meter diving championship. She earned a score of 290.80 to walk away with the state championship for Briarwood.

Those performances weren’t the only notable ones from county teams as swimmers from Spain Park, Westminster School at Oak Mountain, Indian Springs and Helena secured top-six finishes in the state meet.

Spain Park’s Carrie Corgill finished in second place in the Class 6A/7A women’s 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.43 seconds.

Anna Grace Lynch earned a pair of top-four finishes for the Jags as she came in second place in the Class 6A/7A women’s 100-yard freestyle with a time of 52.81 seconds and fourth place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.92 seconds.

Both Corgill and Lynch joined Anne Russell and Jose Corgill on the relay teams which brought home two second-place finishes. Spain Park secured second place in the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:39.58 and in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:49.80.

The Jags’ William Russell earned third place in the Class 6A/7A men’s 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 57.22 seconds and sixth place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 51.72 seconds.

Anne Russell rounded out Spain Park’s big finishes as the seventh grader came in fourth place in the Class 6A/7A women’s 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:14.41.

Westminster earned three top-five finishes, including a pair of third-place finishes from Elliot Wilson.

Wilson earned third place in the Class 1A-5A women’s 100-yard freestyle with a time of 55.20 seconds as well as the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:00.42.

Palmer Vander Noot secured fifth place for the Knights in the Class 1A-5A women’s 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:06.07.

Indian Springs’ Milan Mehra came in the top six in two separate events, including fifth place in the Class 1A-5A men’s 100-yard butterfly with a time of 58.39 seconds and sixth place in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:53.98.

Helena’s Merrick Blackman led the way for the Huskies with a sixth place finish in the Class 6A/7A girls 200-yard freestyle behind her time of 1:45.43.

Three different teams placed in the top 10 of their divisions as the Spain Park girls came in sixth in Class 6A/7A with 162 points, Briarwood’s boys claimed 10th place in Class 1A-5A with 64 points and Westminster OM’s girls finished in 10th in Class 1A-5A with 58 points.