Brookwood swimmers win at state

By Lindsay Field

Two local swimmers led Brookwood School to a second place finish, and one broke two state records in the GISA State Swim Meet over the weekend.
Hunter Hinson, 17, and Jackson Brannon, 15, both of Cairo, led the way for  Brookwood, tying for second place in the 2009 GISA State Swim Meet in Augusta  at the Augusta Aquatics Center on Saturday.
Brannon and Hinson, the only two athletes swimming on Brookwood’s team, competed against 32 teams, some that had as many as 40 or more swimmers.
“It was really exciting to get second in state with just two people,” said Brannon, a 10th-grader at Brookwood. “I had a great time, and I swam better than last year.”
Hinson, an 11th-grade Warrior, placed first in the 200 freestyle, setting a new state record at 1:44.82. He beat the old state record set in 2006 by three seconds.
He also placed first in the 100 backstroke and set another new state record with 51.84 seconds, 2.5 seconds faster than the previous record.
Hinson took home another first place trophy in the 100 butterfly with a time of 50.86, just .25 seconds away from breaking another state record; and placed first in the 500 freestyle as well with a 51.84, breaking a personal record by 2.5 seconds.
Placing first in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke automatically qualified Hinson as a High School All-American.
Brannon placed second in the 100 backstroke with a 57:97, and in the 100 freestyle with a 50.55.
He also placed third in the 200 freestyle, swimming a 1:50.20; and placed seventh in the 50 freestyle with a 28.82.
With the hope of adding a few more swimmers next year, Hinson said he doesn’t plan on this being the school’s last trip to the state championship.
“We’re going to have Emmaline Brannon (Jackson Brannon’s younger sister) swimming on junior varsity next year and she is very fast,” he said. “Jackson and I are hoping that if she dominates junior varsity and we continue to place in the top three (in varsity), we could up our chances of winning it all next year.”