BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Union County High School senior Eva Whitehead swam her way to her second straight state championship, winning the 200-yard individual medley at the Nov. 8 Class 1A Florida High School Athletic Association Finals, which were held in Ocala.
“Very overwhelming,” Whitehead said when asked to describe her feelings. “I was coming into the meet expecting to hopefully be another state champion. I’m just happy I could defend my title.”
As was the case last year, Whitehead finished ahead of Bolles’ Ella Gotham. She trailed Gotham after four laps (the butterfly and backstroke), but held a 2-second lead after the breaststroke in the fifth and sixth laps. In the end, after the freestyle portion of the event, Whitehead had a total time of 2:00.11, while Gotham finished at 2:01.63.
Whitehead’s time in winning the 200 IM title last year was 2:00.01, so she admitted when she saw her time on the board, she was a little disappointed.
“Then I realized, ‘Oh, I won,’” she said. “(The disappointment) all went away.”
Prior to the race, Whitehead’s father, Brad, who is the UCHS swim coach, and John Hulvey, who is Whitehead’s Gator Swim Club coach, talked about how Whitehead seemed relaxed, without any hint of nerves.
“That would be incorrect,” Whitehead said. “I’m good at hiding it.”
She said she felt the pressure of defending her state title on the starting block, but that’s not to say she didn’t feel good about her chances of winning again.
“I came in confident, knowing I had done it before and that I could do it again,” Whitehead said.
Whitehead became the sixth individual UCHS student-athlete to successfully defend a state title and the first to do so since boys weightlifter Christian Simmons in 2023.
She almost became the fifth UCHS student-athlete to win two state titles in the same year as she was the runner-up in the 100 breaststroke, which took place approximately 2.5 hours after she swam the 200 IM. Whitehead finished with a time of 1:03.09, which left her trailing Naiyla Di Sarno (Fort Lauderdale NSU University School), who had a time of 1:02.68. She finished ahead of Addison Bitel (Windermere Prep), who had a time of 1:03.10.
“I was coming in (seeded) fourth,” Whitehead said. “I was just kind of hoping for the best, so I’m happy with it.”
She was also happy with improving her performance from last year’s state finals, when she placed fourth with a time of 1:03.25.
If Whitehead had won the race, she would’ve become the first UCHS student-athlete to win two state championships in one year since C.J. Spiller in track and field in 2006.
Whitehead, a University of Alabama commit, qualified for state all four years of high school. Besides her two state titles and one state runner-up finish, her career included two regional titles in the 200 IM and district titles in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke.
