OCALA - With much ballyhoo about their region races and times, both Noah Stotler of Clay High and William Shoesmith of Fleming Island High left nothing to question with both dominating their respective events to bring home state championship gold medals at the FHSAA Swimming and Diving Class 3A championships held last Saturday at Ocala's spectacular Florida Aquatic Swimming and Training facility.

"When you get to swim in a facility like this, you know the best in the state are going to show up," said Shoesmith, who pulled away near the midway point of his specialty, the 500 freestyle, to win in four minutes, 25.41 seconds with nearly two seconds on runner-up Lincoln Driesse of Nease High School in Ponte Vedra. "I always trust my training and race strategy to put me in a good position to control my race."

For Stotler, just a sophomore who came in with the top time in his region rankings in the 200 freestyle, blasted his field in the second half of his race to win gold in 1:36.74 with Ian Malone of Booker T. Washington High of Pensacola second in 1:37.70.

"I kind of felt him go out fast and saw where he was at the midway turn and turned it up a gear," Stotler said. "The difference between my 1:36 here and my 1:38 last week at regions was the competition next to me. They made me push a little deeper."

Both Stotler and Shoesmith swam in two events with Stotler fifth in the 100 butterfly and Shoesmith fourth in the 200 individual medley.

"For being such a young swimmer, Noah is one of the leaders of the team and does a lot to motivate and push the other swimmers on the team," said Clay coach Kasie Simmons. "He is all in to make this team better even with most of his training done with the Bolles club team."

In his 200 free final, Stotler's first 50 was faster with all splits from his preliminary swim with an opening 50 of 22.61 seconds followed by 50s of 24.09, 24.79 and 25.25. For Malone, his opening 50 put Stotler in second position, but from there, Stotler was stronger to the finish.

"I knew I was going to get faster than him as the race went on," Stotler said. "I saw him take off from the start, but I got up next to him after the first 50 and just swam controlled."

Both Stotler and Malone, second in last year's 200 free with Stotler 13th as a freshman, were nearly two seconds faster than the rest of the field after the first 50.

For Shoesmith, the absence of the swimmer he was most wary of prior to districts and regions, Cobe Hehenberger of St. Petersburg—fourth last year with Shoesmith eighth—altered his strategy just a tad.

"I figured Cobe would be the biggest challenger, but he didn't make regions because he got sick," Shoesmith said. "Him and I have trained together in different settings, so we knew each other's tactics."

With defending champion Ethan Ekk graduated from Tallahassee Chiles and second and third placers from 2024 also graduated leaving Hehenberger the top returner, Shoesmith was very aware of the presence of his new challengers; mainly Lincoln Driesse of Nease.

"I could see Lincoln in the lane next to me and when I saw him moving up after I had about a body length on him near the 350 mark, I knew I better drop the hammer," said Shoesmith, who opened with a 50.42 first 100 and second 100 in 53.40 to gap up on Driesse. Driesse stayed as runner-up and fought back with better splits in final 200. "He was coming, but I just did not panic and knew if I had to I had more in the tank."

The Fleming Island girls team took ninth place in the team points, fueled by senior Elizabeth Loehr—seventh in both the 200 and 500 free finals—leading a handful of swimmers in multiple events including all relays.

"In a meet of the caliber, the scoring goes to the top 16 places with medals to the top eight," said Fleming Island coach Matt Fetzner. "We have Elizabeth in a couple of finals and the bunch of them in the B finals plus the relays to score team points."

Fetzner maximized his girls team strategy with a ninth in the 200 medley relay (Klara Shoesmith, Summer Vanwagenen, Audrey Hall, Brooke Reynolds), a fourth in the 200 free relay (Klara Shoesmith, Katelyn Moore, Summer Vanwagenen and Elizabeth Loehr) and a fifth in the 400 free relay (Kinsey Yarbrough, Katelyn Moore, Caroline Kuhl and Elizabeth Loehr).

"The relays are double team points and we got good finishes today," Fetzner said. "We also had a few of them in individual events as well (Klara Shoesmith, Caroline Kuhl in 200IM, Summer Vanwagenen ninth in 100 breaststroke and Kinsey Yarbrough 16th in 200 free and 22nd in 100 butterfly)."

Also competing in the Class 3A races were Ridgeview High swimmers Jackson Strickland (21st in 100 breast and 20th in 200IM) and David Murphy (24th in 100 butterfly).

Also, for Fleming Island, sophomore transfer diver Rylan Mills, from Indiana, finished 12th in his first state meet.

In the Class 4A championships, held last Friday in Ocala, Oakleaf's 400 free relay girls team (Brylee Wood, Delicia Coleman, Alexis Huxohl and Ellie Brinkman) finished 17th in a new school record of 3:43.83.

Clay High's girls got an 11th in the 100 breast from senior Kylie Elrod and 22nd in the 200IM. Elrod was also on the Blue Devils' 200 medley relay team (Kylie Elrod, Haley Hajost, Taylor Hildum, Aubry Atkinson) that finished 17th.