Driven by the state championship he won a year ago as a sophomore, Westlake junior Talen Garrard is riding a wave of confidence heading into the Louisiana High School Athletic Association swimming championships begin today at the Sulphur Parks and Recreation Aquatic Center.

He looks to defend his Division III 100-yard butterfly state title.

“I feel more confident this year going in,” Garrard said. “I trained a lot harder for the fly and tweaked a couple of things.

“I feel more ready this year. I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited.”

As part of his increased training regimen, Garrard has taken up running to prepare for the quick turnaround he will have to make from the 50 freestyle to the 100 butterfly. He said he expects to have about 10 minutes to recover from the 50.

“(I have been doing) a lot more running, cardio, eating right and just a lot of conditioning and just getting ready for that,” Garrard said. “Last year I didn’t. I never ran, but this year I picked up running.”

Even a bout of pneumonia in October didn’t stop his training.

“I’m kind of getting back into it,” Garrard said. “I’m feeling pretty good though. I’m feeling ready. I just thought I took three days off and got right back at it. I knew I couldn’t take time off because I was sick.”

He is the top seed 100 butterfly at 54.45-second seed time and his main challenger will be E.D. White’s Cooper Bilello (55.06), who placed third behind Garrard in 2023.

“My 100 fly, I’m ready,” Garrard said. “I’ve been training for it all year.”

While last year he was the runner-up in the 200 individual medley, he swapped it this year for the 50 freestyle, his favorite event. Garrard was fourth at state 50 freestyle in 2022. He is the two seed at 22.96 seconds and chasing top seed Luke Husbands (21.78) of E.D. White, who is the younger brother of last year’s champ Thomas Husbands.

“I love it (50 freestyle),” Garrard said. “It’s fun. You can’t mess up. Everything has to be perfect about it — your dives, your underwaters, your turns — just everything has to be perfect. There’s no room for mess up in your 50 free, and that’s what I love about it.”

The state meet starts today with the Division III and IV preliminaries followed by the finals for those divisions on Thursday. Friday and Saturday will be the preliminaries and finals for Division I and II.

There are two other Southwest Louisiana medal contenders in Division IV in Bell City’s Noah and Grant Granger.

Grant Granger, a senior, will look to improve on his third-place finish in the 100 butterfly as the second seed this year at 57.68. The favorite in the event is defending champion Wyatt Combs (52.57) of Pope John Paul II. Granger is also ranked fourth in the 50 freestyle (23.83).

Junior Noah Granger is the second seed in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.15) and looks to unseat defending champion Camdyn Napper (1:01.57) of Cedar Creek.

In Division II, Sam Houston has three swimmers seeded in the top five in Chase Colt, Andrew Buta and Keira Berryhill. Buta is seeded third in 50 freestyle (23.12), while Chase Colt is ranked fifth in the 100 freestyle (51.97). Keira Berryhill is ranked fifth in the 50 free (26.88).

State Meet

Wednesday-Saturday

At Sulphur Parks

and Recreation

Aquatic Center

Wednesday

Division IV Prelims – 9 a.m.

Division III Prelims – 4 p.m.

Thursday

Division IV Finals – 9 a.m.

Division III Finals – 4 p.m.

Friday

Division II Prelims – 9 a.m.

Division I Prelims – 4 p.m.

Saturday

Division II Finals – 9 a.m.

Division I Finals – 4 p.m.