The 2024 Montana high school state swim meet was held at Great Falls High School on February 8th-10th. There were a number of records broken and victories won, including by both the Billings Central Rams boys and girls swim teams, who took the competition by storm and clinched the Class A-B swim title for a four-peat for the boys and five-peat for the girls.
Junior swimmer Daniel Apostol, who took first in both of his individual events for the Rams, said that the victory was well deserved and was drawn from each member of the team. “I had full confidence we could win, because I knew the strengths and the passion of our team,” said Apostol. “We all wanted the same goal, to win. I am very proud of my teammates.” To show just how many Championships the Rams have conquered, here is the 2024 state swim meet by the numbers.
- 452: Number of swimmers that competed in the 55th annual state swim meet at Great Falls High School.
- 122: Points that the Billings Central boys team amassed during the state swim meet. The second-place team was Polson, with 65 points, followed by Columbia Falls, who had 49 points.
- 106: Number of points that the Billings Central girls team earned in the swim meet. They were followed by Havre, who had 50 points, then Hardin, with 43 points.
- 34: Billings Central swimmers that attended the Great Falls High School State Meet. They had the largest team there, tied with Great Falls. The smallest number of swimmers representing a school was 4 from East Helena.
- 22: Schools from classes AA and A/B that had athletes take part in the 2024 state swim meet.
- 16: State Championships that the boys team has won total (2004, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024).
- 15: State Championships that the Billings Central girls team has won throughout the years. (1997, 1998, 1999, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024). They are now tied with Bozeman for the record for all-time girls championships.
- 6 (out of 6): relay events won by both the girls team and the boys team. Both teams won the 200-yard medley relay, the 200-yard freestyle relay, and the 400-yard freestyle relay, sweeping the podium in team events.
- 6: Combined events won by a Billings Central Ram. These events are the 200 freestyle (Dylan Shelton), the 200 IM (Teaghan Vaira), the 100 butterfly (Kelly Early and Daniel Apostol), the 500 freestyle (Kelly Early and Dylan Shelton), the 100 backstroke (Myah Kunz and Jonas Johnson), and the 100 breaststroke (Teaghan Vaira and Daniel Apostol).
- 5: The number of state championships that the Billings Central girls have won in a row.
- 4: Swimmers who won both of their individual events for the Rams. Junior Daniel Apostol won the 100 breaststroke and the 100 butterfly, sophomore Teaghan Vaira won the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke, junior Kelly Early won the 500-yard freestyle and the 100 butterfly, and junior Dylan Shelton won the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle.
