The Maroon Tide and Blue Devil swim teams faced off against 20 other teams on Oct. 1 in the final swim meet before the South State Championship.

Out of the 450 swimmers at the Demoruelle Invitational, Picayune Memorial High School’s girls team ranked first and the boys ranked eighth out of the 15 teams competing. Pearl River Central High School’s girls tied for ninth place along with Petal and Biloxi high schools while the boys placed fifth.

The Maroon Tide girls swept the relays during the meet with Delora Denney, Kamryn Clymer, Donisha Williams and Amber Bounds winning the 200-yard medley relay. Sophie Griffith, Kylie Burnette, Madison Mckenzie and Clymer won the 200-yard freestyle relay and the undefeated Griffith, Bounds, Williams and Denney won the 400-yard freestyle relay.

“This win was special,” Picayune Swim Coach Ray Lossett said. “I have never seen so much focus on a goal like these girls have and it is becoming contagious for the boys team.”

Some of the first place finishes throughout the meet included Clymer, in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard breaststroke, Bounds in the 200-yard individual medley and Denney in the 500-yard freestyle.

Other top competitors include Williams, placing fourth in the girls 200-yard freestyle and fifth in the 100-yard butterfly, Griffith’s third place finish in the girls 50-yard freestyle and Denney earned second place in the girls 100-yard backstroke. Picayune’s Bates finished eighth place in the boys 200-yard and 100-yard freestyles and Whitfield came in sixth in the 100-yard freestyle.

In the previous swim meet, it was the Blue Devils who had the edge in the boys 200-yard freestyle relay. However, in a tight race, the Maroon Tide’s Edgar Barajas, Justin Whitfield, Andrew Bates and Austin Samples beat the PRC Blue Devils’ Lane Young, Garrett McMahon, Anthony Werner and Luke Jarvis by just a ripple, reaching the wall .11 seconds before the rival team.

Also, Pearl River Central’s Lane Young, McMahon, Werner and Jarvis finished fifth in the 200-yard medley relay.

The drama didn’t stop in the relays between the rivals as they were separated by mere seconds in some of the individual races.

In the boys 200-yard freestyle it was Blue Devils’ Werner who out swam Maroon Tide’s Bates by 3.3 seconds to finish seventh in the heat.

The boys 50-yard freestyle was another nail-bitter between the rivals. However, the Blue Devils came on top as Jarvis squeaked in .38 seconds ahead of Maroon Tide’s Samples for fourth place.

Jarvis kept his momentum going as he edged out the Maroon Tide yet again in the boys 100-yard freestyle, earning fifth by one second ahead of Picayune’s Whitfield.

The South State Championship begins on Oct. 15.