Anyone who watched Wilson senior Sammie Hamilton swim this year has witnessed history, and that’s certainly saying something considering she’s a swimmer from the Aquatic Capital of the World.
Hamilton added her name to the incredible aquatic history at Wilson by winning the 500-meter Freestyle at the CIF State Swimming & Diving Championships at Clovis West High School. She took the title with a time of 4:47.30 and also placed eighth overall in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:50.61.
“It’s all kind of gone so fast for me,” Hamilton said of her high school career. “I feel like I was just at a different level just a few years ago when I started at Wilson as a freshman. I switched club teams and went through a lot of big changes and worked a lot harder.”
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It was the fast starts that were key to her success, and Hamilton had a blistering opening split of 25.54 in the 500 race. Her time also earns her more All-American recognition.
Earlier this month, Hamilton won the CIF-SS Division 1 championship in the girls’ 500 freestyle, posting a time of 4:46.63. She won the event by more than six seconds over the field, and was less than seven seconds off the Division 1 meet record.
At the Moore League finals last month, Hamilton repeated as the 200 and 500 freestyle champion in historic fashion with two league records and All-American standards. She also anchored a big win in the 200 free relay and 400 free relay, the latter of which also set a league record.
“I used to want (to make history and break records) and now I can understand why that’s actually happening,” Hamilton said. “I made it happen.”
Also at the CIF State meet, Long Beach Poly sophomore Lucas Jue placed fifth in the 500-yard freestyle at 4:25.44.
The Long Beach Poly boys’ 200 medley relay was 32nd with a time of 1:36.76 in the preliminaries. Poly senior Sofia Brys went 55.92 in the 1000 butterfly prelims.
