FLEMING ISLAND - With a third straight 50 freestyle swim state title and a 100 free included to finish her senior season, Fleming Island swim sprint specialist Maryn McDade is the Clay Today high school sports performer of the year.

McDade, a commit to Florida State University next fall and the Class 3A swimmer of the year accomplished the third 50 free titles with little fanfare and dominating performances throughout her regular season and even more during the postseason with lightning-fast finishes at districts and regions.
McDade's 100 free gold medal resulted from a two-year chase of the event with back-to-back top-five finishes in her sophomore and junior seasons.
"The 100 this year was like 20 minutes after the 50 final," said McDade. "I had it in my mental preparation to put that out of my head and just swim hard."
McDade recollected that at her final turn of the 100, she had two competitors on both sides just slightly ahead of her.
"I just put my head down and did not breathe to the finish," said McDade. "That's the one I wanted."
For the boys, Fleming Island sophomore golfer Tyler Mawhinney, had a bit of team controversy before the Class 3A state tournament; mainly him not knowing if he was going solo or if the Golden Eagles team that finished a near-disastrous third at regions with a possible no-show at the state.
"When the team got the at-large bid, I was relieved because the team was coming with me and we would be together," said Mawhinney, who would have competed as an individual if the team was not awarded the ticket. "Having them there made it even better."
"Even better" turned out to be an astounding first-round score with a hole-in-one shot, a spectacular finish in the second round and the bonus of having his team win the team title as well.
For Mawhinney, the golf title was the first individual title for Fleming Island and the first team title in Clay County.
Cody Carroll of Middleburg won the Class 2A title in 2016.
For the team's best performances, it would be hard to not choose, the girls, the Middleburg High volleyball team that rampaged their season, behind Florida Class 5A Player of Year Connor Rahn, en route to the Class 5A title under first-year coach Meredith Forkum.
For the boys, the Fleming Island boys golf team overcame a possible no-show at the Class 3A tournament with their aforementioned near-disastrous region third-place finish, but the Golden Eagles got the bid, took the reigns and torched a stellar field to bring Clay County a first-time golf state team title.
For the girls, others considered were Clay High superweightlifter Emma Heck who blasted records en route to her second consecutive title, Fleming Island weightlifter Autumn Leviston for her state title and a record-setting bench press and Middleburg 190-pound wrestler Cheyenne Cruce who finished unbeaten for the first-ever girls wrestling state title for Clay County.
For the boys, the Keystone Heights and Fleming Island boys weightlifting teams both overcame odds to take state titles in their fields; Indians with a third title in a row with a steal over 2A power, now 1A, Suwannee for the Traditional state title while Suwannee edged Keystone Heights (South Sumter, tied for second) for the Olympic title.
For Keystone Heights coach Lantz Lowery, it was his third consecutive state title with the Indians.
"We graduated a very talented class the prior season and the men coming in worked their tails off to repeat," said Lowery. "There are a lot of young men on that team that could repeat titles in 2023."
Fleming Island got a stupendous finish to notch a tie for first in the Traditional Class 2A team title, then got a somewhat bigger surprise state title from Kevin Reyes; with titles to Tyler Beverly and Jered Rhodes, in Olympic lifts to snag a tie with Leesburg in that discipline in the team title count.
Fleming Island also had a state champion wrestler in Jayce Paridon, who now wrestles at Lake Highland Prep.