The Warriors beat Cypress Bay by just 5.5 points at the Class 4A state meet in Ocala, sealed by an all-senior 400 free relay, and four days later star Charles "Buddy" Howard signed with Michigan.
Jupiter High's boys swimming and diving team is a state champion for the first time in school history.
The Warriors won the FHSAA Class 4A state championship on Saturday, Nov. 7 at the Florida Aquatics Swimming and Training Center in Ocala, finishing with 206.5 points to edge runner-up Cypress Bay's 201. Winter Park was third with 186.5, followed by Nease (153) and Riverview Sarasota (143).
It came down to the last event
The team title was still up for grabs heading into the final race of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Jupiter's all-senior relay of Charles Howard, Chase Young, Asher Smith and Julian Granison won it in 3:01.30, an automatic All-American time, beating Cypress Bay's relay (3:05.01) and locking up the 5.5-point margin.
Head coach Kiril Zahariev called it an incredible, historical moment for Jupiter High, the boys program's first championship. The Warriors' roster carried six seniors this season, and they closed out their high school careers on top.
Two stars led the way
Zahariev singled out Granison and Howard as his co-most valuable swimmers, and the results back it up:
- Julian Granison, a Wellington transfer and Florida commit, won both the 50-yard freestyle (19.50, a personal best) and the 100-yard freestyle, also a personal best.
- Charles "Buddy" Howard, a Michigan commit, won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:36.70 (a personal best) and the 100-yard butterfly in 48.15.
- Jupiter also won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:20.86, with Howard, Slater Woodard, Young and Granison.
The Jupiter girls had a strong meet too, finishing fourth as a team, highlighted by NC State commit Veronica Metz winning the 200 freestyle in 1:45.68.
From state champs to Signing Day
The celebration rolled straight into the college early signing period, which opened Wednesday, Nov. 11. Howard made his Michigan commitment official, listed among Jupiter's signees in the Palm Beach Post's Signing Day roundup. Granison is headed to Florida. For a senior class that just delivered the program's first state title, it was quite a five-day stretch.
