Ricky Quintana
Eastside senior Hannah Ahn won the 100-yard butterfly for the second time in a row and the Eastside boys team took fourth place in the 400 freestyle relay to highlight the area’s top performances at the FHSAA 2A State Swimming and Diving Championships at the Sailfish Aquatic Center on Saturday.
In the morning preliminaries, Ahn – a Brown signee – swam a personal best and school record of 23.65 seconds in the 50 freestyle, set a school record in the 100 freestyle in 51.68 in leading off the Rams’ 400 freestyle relay team, qualified first in the 100 butterfly and helped her team qualify for the 200 freestyle relay.
In the evening session, she led off with a third place finish in the 50 freestyle finals in 23.65 to match her preliminary time. This season, Ahn had lacked consistency in her 100 butterfly as she adjusted her technique. In the final, she fended off a late rush from Robinson’s Avery Hawker to win her second title in a row — 54.13 to 54.18.
For Eastside head coach Jon Allen, Ahn’s performance is something he has come to expect from her.
“Having this meet moved back a week was difficult because we were at the very end of our taper ready to swim last Thursday,” Allen said. “She handled it very well and ended up with the school records in the 50 yard freestyle, the 100 yard butterfly and the 100 yard freestyle. I’m just incredibly proud of her.”
On the boys side, Eastside senior Joseph Songayab swam six races on Saturday. After missing out on qualifying for the “A” medal earning finals sections by a combined 0.4 seconds in two events, Songayab helped the Rams to two podium finishes with their sixth place in the 200 freestyle relay and a fourth place in the 400 freestyle relay. The Rams swam with the same swimmers in both relays. Eric Gong, Abraham Burangulov, Cheongmin Lee and Joseph Songayab tied the best place in a relay by a Ram team with their fourth place finish.
“This team means everything to him,” Allen said. “Joseph definitely displayed his leadership qualities by overcoming that setback and just fighting back to lead the relays to some great finishes. He left here with two medals that he was not expecting but that he earned,”
Eastside boys finished 12th with 75 points and the girls finished 15th with 44 points.
Girls
50 freestyle, 3. Hannah Ahn, Sr, Eastside, 23.65. (Personal best and school record)
100 butterfly, 1. Ahn, Sr, Eastside, 54.13 (school record)
200 freestyle relay, 13. Eastside (Cecilia Duda, Ahn, Noelle Panna, Luana Kampf-Ziperer), 1:46.34
Boys
200 freestyle, 14. Joseph Songayab, Sr, 1:46.89
200 individual medley, 11. Eric Gong, Fr, Eastside, 2:00.51
100 butterfly, 12. Songayab, Sr, Eastside, 53.10
200 freestyle relay, 6. Eastside (Gong, Abraham Burangulov, Cheongmin Lee, Songayab), 1:29.75 (school record)
100 breaststroke, 12. Burangulov, So, Eastside, 1:02.67
400 freestyle relay, 4. Eastside (Gong, Burangulov, Lee and Songayab), 3:15.09 (school record)