Southwest DeKalb High student brings home Gold, first ever in school’s history

By Mark Brock

DEKALB COUNTY, GA– Pilar King accomplished a first for Southwest DeKalb High School by becoming the first swimmer in the school’s history to bring home a gold medal from the GHSA Class 4A State Swimming and Diving Championships. on Thursday afternoon.

King stepped onto the starting block at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center on Feb. 6 knowing she was 100 yards from completing her trek into the school record books as she waited for the start of her 100-yard backstroke state finals.

“My coaches told me I had the opportunity to win the school’s first gold medal, but I still had to perform,” said King, a junior. “I’m always kind of hyped up before a race but seem to swim my best when the lights come on.”

The Southwest DeKalb swimmer had captured a silver medal in the 50-yard freestyle earlier with a time of 23.25, just one second off the state record, and had to rest and recover in preparation for her big moment.

A qualifying time of 1:00.47 got her into the state meet and in the preliminaries on she cut her time to 56.23, an improvement of 4.24 to win her heat.

“We were very confident and hoping she was at her best,” said Coach Ayesha Epps who works with Head Coach Maria Beal-Parker. “She had worked hard all season, but we knew she had her typical pre-race jitters.”

Epps and Beal-Parker need not have worried as King powered through again cutting another 1.43 seconds off her time to finish with the gold at 54.80 just 1.45 off the state record.

“We are extremely proud of Pilar for this accomplishment,” said Epps. “She has worked hard all season to improve her qualifying time.”

King’s dad, Jabari King, was a former Southwest DeKalb swimmer during the late 1980’s and his daughter continues the lineage of swimmers in the family by putting her name in the record book.

“It feels good to have accomplished something no one at Southwest DeKalb had done before,” said King.

King had words of encouragement for anyone who sees what she was able to do, “If you like something, keep doing it because you never know where it might take you.”

Kings efforts scored 45 points for her team which was good for 16^th in a field of 23 teams that scored in the state meet.

The Tucker Lady Tigers finished just out of the Top 10 in team scoring at 11^th led by Katelyn Nawyn’s fourth place finish in the breaststroke (1:06.35) and an eighth place finish by the 200-yard medley relay squad of Nawyn, Roxy Mast, Ariella Woodard and Chloe Girton.

Druid Hills came in just behind Southwest DeKalb in 17th led by Ansley Rollins. Rollins finished fifth in the 100-yard butterfly (57.84) and sixth in the 100-yard freestyle (54.74).

On the young men’s side in Class 4A the Druid Hills Red Devils tied for ninth overall with 162 points led by seniors Mason Horner and Gabriel Corkran.

The pair teamed up with Phidias Brann and Jacob Verlander for a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay (1:37.80) and then the same four swam to a sixth place finish in the 400-yard freestyle (3:19.33).

Corkran swam to a fourth-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly (51.74) and Horner finished fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke (59.34).

Mark Brock is DCSD’s athletics specialist.