Sometimes in sports, experience doesn’t trump talent.

Rockdale County’ Davis Foster proved that sometimes, plain talent wins out, as he blew by his competition this past week at the Bulldogs’ swim meet against rival Heritage to qualify for the state meet in the 100-meter butterfly.

Davis, who never swam in the event before last Thursday, out-paced his competition by more than 17 seconds, qualifying for the state event in a time of 56.60. Foster also captured title in the 200-meter freestyle in a time of 1:56.88, and joined four other individual competitors at the top of the podium, as the Bulldogs finished first overall at the four-team event.

The Bulldogs’ 496 points were good enough to top second-place Heritage. The Patriots finished more than 100 points back with 326 total points.

Dax Willitte captured individual titles in the 200-meter individual medley (2:27.56) and the 100-meter backstroke (1:09.09), while Matthew Bennett placed first in the 50-meter freestyle (23.98).

KeMaya Tucker won the 100-meter butterfly (1:10.63) and the 100-meter freestyle (1:01.39) and Trey Hull rounded out the Bulldogs’ top individual finishers with a title in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:23.25).

Rockdale also secured first-place finishes in the boys’ 200-meter medley (1:59.95), 200-meter freestyle (1:37.40) and the 400-meter freestyle (3:50.23), while garnering titles in the girls’ 200-meter freestyle (1:53.75) and 200-meter medley (2:08.99).

The Patriots had a pair of individual championships earned by Adam North in the 500-meter freestyle (7:09.05) and Abby Swindle in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:22.66).

Salem, which finished fourth overall, was led by Annaliese Vojnich with a fourth-place finish in the 50-meter freestyle (29.64) and the 100-meter freestyle (1:07.11).