High school swimming: Class 4A state meet brings wins for Gage Hulbert, Grace Gavin

Gage Hulbert joined a select Mandarin swimming club and Grace Gavin carried on a proud Creekside tradition in the water in Friday evening's Florida High School Athletic Association Class 4A championships at Sailfish Splash Waterpark and Aquatic Center in Stuart.

Hulbert became only the third Mandarin boys swimmer in the program's 31-year history to win a state boys swimming title, joining Kris Caisse and Josh Waldrop.

The senior raced to first place in the 100 butterfly in an automatic All-American time of 48.01, winning by nearly two-thirds of a second. Two other locals, Sandalwood's Drew Salls (third) and Bartram Trail's Mason Campbell (fourth) also attained All-American consideration in the race.

Hulbert additionally placed seventh in the 200 free, where Atlantic Coast's Jack Hall took second in an All-American time of 1:38.09.

Salls, who had signed on Wednesday with North Carolina State, broke 20 seconds in the 50 free on his way to a second-place 19.97, and Hall came in third in the 500 free.

Gavin won the girls 100 backstroke in 55.09 in the latest strong day for the Knights' swimming program, the state champion in 2017, 2018 and 2020. The senior also placed fourth in the 200 individual medley.

Led by Gavin's victory and two fourth places from Anna Moore, Creekside finished with 155 points and fifth place in the girls standings — a solid outing, though off the first-place pace of champion Sarasota Riverview (275 points).

Nease's Dylan Ramos, Rich Nguyen, Joseph Wyatt and Matthew Koziol combined for third in the boys medley relay, and Bartram Trail's Campbell, Raymond Prosinski, William Cioffi and Nicholas Tayag took third in the boys 400 free relay.

Boys diving placed three locals in the top five in Nease's Aaron Storlie (second), Bartram Trail's Trevor Haskins (third) and Nease's Patrick Adams (fifth), while Sandalwood's Tayler Graham took fifth in girls diving.

Bartram Trail placed fourth to lead area boys teams, followed by Nease in sixth. Sarasota (211 points) and Venice (173) led the way from southwestern Florida.

Clayton Freeman covers high school sports and more for the Florida Times-Union. Follow him on Twitter at @CFreemanJAX.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: FHSAA swimming championships: Gage Hulbert, Grace Gavin win titles