Huntsville’s Bedsole Sets Record in 200 IM Medley

Boosts Panthers to the Top of First-day Leaderboard

Three records fell Friday as the 65^th AHSAA State Swimming and Diving Championships got underway at Huntsville Aquatics Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Huntsville High School senior Luke Bedsole, who came into the 2024 state meet owning four individual AHSAA state records and sharing two relay team state records, set one record in the Class 6A/7A boys competition Friday night in the 50-yard freestyle – swimming a 19.82 time to break his own standard (20.16) set at the 2023 state meet. The time ranks as state record for classes.

His performance helped Huntsville scored 143 points in Friday’s competition – putting the Panthers’ boys firmly in first place in Class 6A/7A heading into Saturday’s final competition. Vestavia Hills came in second at 107, and James Clemens was third with 84 points after day one.

Luke Bedsole (center) stands on the awards block after breaking his own AHSAA state swimming record in the 50-yard free style finals at the AHSAA State Swimming Championships. Also earning a medal were J.P. Pace of Huntsville (left) and Christian Bowens of Northridge (right). (AHSAA PHOTO | David Holtsford)

Bob Jones led the 6A/7A girls’ standings with 138 points and Huntsville was second with 114.5. Grissom was third after Friday’s scoring with 106 points.

In the Class 1A/5A girls’ scoring, Westminster Christian of Huntsville built a 14-point lead over LAMP of Montgomery after one with 104 points. LAMP had 90 and the Alabama School for Cyber Technology, also located in Huntsville, was third with 86 points. Scottsboro amassed 92 points and defending state champion Boaz posted 75 to lead the 1A/5A boys’ teams standings after the first day.

Westminster Academy’s medley relay team turned in a spectacular effort in the 200-yard medley relay to set a new record with a 1:50.26 time. The relay team consisted of Leilani Teter, Jackie Faircloth, A.J. Teter, and Lucia Perez. The old record (1:51.43) was set by Westminster Christian’s relay team in 2016.

The only other record that fell Friday came in the boys’ 1A/5 200-yard individual medley race. LAMP senior Alex Park swam the distance in 1:52.67 to eclipse the old record (1:53.23) he set in last year’s state meet.

Briarwood Christian’s Caroline Foster and UMS-Wright’s Elizabeth Elliott captured the 2024 AHSAA State Diving Championship in their respective classifications earlier in the day Friday at the 65^th AHSAA state swimming and diving championships.

The state meet will begin the final day’s competition Saturday morning with swimming prelims at 9:30 a.m., and swimming finals at 6 p.m. The boys’ diving competition will be held at 1 p.m., between the two swimming sessions.

Whitesburg Christian captured the 2023 state champions in the girls’ 1A/5A division, and Bob Jones in the 6A/7A division. Whitesburg, however, moved up to 6A/7A this season. Defending boys’ state champions are Huntsville (6A/7A) and Boaz (1A/5A).

Complete results can be found at the following links at the AHSAA website.

Girls Diving – https://www.ahsaa.com/Portals/0/Sports/Swimming/2024/friday%20dive%20results.pdf?ver=JjOnbRTeL45pkaYxSNxsug%3d%3d&timestamp=1732330237204