Lehi Sports
Lehi swim team shows well at state meet
The Lehi swim team earned its highest 5A placements since 2015 in both the boys and girls divisions in the state meet at Brigham Young University on Feb. 18.
Skyline was the overwhelming winner on both sides of the competition. The Pioneer boys finished fifth with 136 points behind Park City at 157, and the Lehi girls came in ninth with 99 points behind Springville at 125.
Leading the way for the Pioneers was senior Bryce Broadhead, who put an exclamation point on his superlative season with three state medals and multiple records.
In his signature event, the 100-yard backstroke, Broadhead broke the school record three times and set a new 5A record, improving his seed time by nearly a second to claim the gold medal with a mark of 48.63 seconds.
He also finished first in the 100-yard butterfly at 50.21 seconds. He earlier set a school record in this event as well.
In addition, Broadhead helped Lehi claim the silver medal in the 200-yard medley relay with senior Bridger Smith, junior Jan Peischler and senior Matthew Pendleton. The squad cut 2.5 seconds from their seed time to finish at 1:37.04, also a new school record.
Smith later captured silver in the 100-yard breaststroke, dropping more than a second from his seed time to set a new school record in the preliminary at 57.30 seconds. He swam a 57.33 in the final.
Here are Lehi’s other top-eight finishes by event at the statemeet.• In the girls 200-yard medley relay, the Pioneers broke the school record and cut their seed time by more than three seconds as they earned the fifth spot in the preliminaries. They reduced the time by an additional 1.09 to post a 1:52.30 for another school record and finished fourth in the final with freshman Alyssa Soderquist, junior Sydney Zurmely, freshman Kalia Hasselbach and junior Addi Zobrist.• Smith cut more than two seconds from his seed time in the 200-yard individual medley preliminaries and finished fifth in the final.• Zurmely earned the bronze medal in the girls 100-yard breaststroke, moving up from seventh in the preliminaries and cutting nearly three seconds from her seed time to finish at 1:07.68. Zobrist also improved her seed mark and came in fifth in this event.• Peischler cut his time at both stages of the 100 breast and claimed sixth place.
In addition, Zobrist was 11th in the 50 free, Lehi was 13th in the girls 200 free relay, Hasselbach was 10th in the 100 back, and the Pioneers came in ninth in both 400 free relay events.
“This weekend we had a great meet,” said Coach Alec Huff. “Walking into it we weren’t sure what to expect but we were excited to see what would happen.
“The girls far exceeded any expectation that we as coaches had,” he continued. “Breaking the school record twice in the 200 medley relay, plus Sydney Zurmely and Addi Zobrist finishing top five for the 100 breaststroke. And Kalia Hasselbach getting a second swim in the 100 back.
“The boys swam really well and we had some surprise swims going into state from Matt Pendleton that we were excited about,” the coach said.
“Bryce Broadhead was one of the headlines on Saturday. Breaking the state record for the 100 backstroke, winning the 100 fly and scoring the most points out of the 5A boys were his biggest accomplishments this weekend,” Huff said.
“We’re so proud of Bryce and the rest of the team. We set eight new school records this season and we have some good young swimmers who will be back again in the fall,” he concluded.
