Two swim titles unexpected for Bay's Loyd (See Photos)

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Bay junior Taylor Loyd was the favorite to win the girls 100-yard freestyle in Thursday’s Bay County High School Swimming Championships.

By the slimmest of margins.

The seed sheet listed her .24 seconds faster than close friend and Mosley junior Regan Bulin. But a late kick after Loyd saw Bulin catching her, gave Loyd her first county championship.

Less than an hour later, Loyd won the 100-yard backstroke and her second county title.

“Really, all I can think about right now was how much it hurt to get to this point,” an overjoyed Loyd said. “Not only to win one title, but to win two county titles, it’s not something I expected to happen as a junior.”

Loyd and teammate Allison Troia stood out on the results board because they were two of just six swimmers not from Mosley to win a county title. However, the Dolphins’ boys and girls teams were able to overcome a new scoring system aimed at giving the other three school at the Frank Brown Park Aquatic Center a better chance to compete. They still won county championships with totals of 778 and 729, respectively.

Arnold was second in the girls event with 501 points, Bay was third with 317 and Rutherford fourth with 151. Arnold also was second in the boys meet with 396 points, Rutherford was third with 331 and Bay fourth with 298.

“We asked the swimmers what they wanted to swim today, I didn’t enter them in what they will be in the district meet,” Mosley coach Sue Cottrill said. “A lot of the kids got to swim in events they normally don’t get to swim in, and we were amazed repeatedly by some of the performances we don’t usually get to see.

“It is difficult to compete with a team that has as much depth as Mosley does this year and the last couple years. Traditionally Mosley has won the local meets because of the depth that they have. There have been a few very outstanding swimmers in the history of Mosley, but Mosley’s strength has been in the amount of above-average swimmers instead of stars.”

While the water was swarming with Dolphins, the Arnold Marlins swam at record-breaking paces. Cody Bronnenberg broke his school record in the boys 500-yard freestyle in 4:59.21 bettering the old mark by .47 seconds. Bronnenberg also won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:02.39. Teammate Nicole Gazia tied a school record in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:02.79.

“I think our kids did pretty good, we were just trying to do a little better because our district is next week,” Arnold coach Mike McMullan said.

Mosley had two swimmers who won multiple events. Michael Perdomo won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:50.52 and the 100 freestyle in 50:42. Mosley’s Kyle Olstad won the girls 200-yard freestyle in 2:02.57 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.7.

Loyd was the talk of the meet, however, with hugs and congratulations coming from swimmers and coaches, regardless of affiliation.

“We knew she’d do pretty well,” Bay coach Sarah Guillot said. “But because she swam a lot of competitive events, it was nice to see her take two.”