Swimming Tigers battle at State Meet

Justin Karpinos
Lots of hard fought best times; boys' 200 free relay breaks school record
The USN swimming team brought 14 swimmers to the TISCA state championship meet in Knoxville, TN last weekend, a meet that included 900 athletes from 130 different schools.  On the heels of a strong Region meet but with some questions about how these swims would translate the biggest stage of the season, we loaded up the bus after a beautiful sendoff from our LS students.
 
Friday morning started out a little shaky for us, but the session got better as it went on. Our boys’ medley relay (Sage Sasaki, Ian Brash, Pierce Adams, Josh Twillie) had a good shot of qualifying for the championship finals and swam a season best by two seconds, but fell about a second shy of qualifying, finishing 20th. Notably, though, Pierce Adams’ butterfly split (23.46) was the fastest in school history. The girls’ medley relay (Margaret Luffman, Abby Liff, Mia Pretorius, Izzy Lutes) was a little slower than their Regions swim; Mia’s lifetime best fly split (29.01) was the standout leg.
 
Our individual swims on Friday helped get the ball rolling. In the 200 IM, Margaret Luffman posted a lifetime best by over a second, finishing in 2:24.8. In the 50 freestyles, all three of our boys broke 23. Ian dropped a second to finish in 22.92, Pierce dropped .7 off his previous best and finished in 22.44, and Josh was just behind him in 22.46. Meanwhile, in the girls’ pool, Izzy Lutes had a stronger swim than on the relay (26.8), so things were beginning to look up. Abby Liff’s 100 butterfly also gave the team a lift – she dropped 2.5 seconds off her Regions swim to finish in 1:01.96, which moved her up to 6th on the USN all-time top 10 list. Margaret posted a season best time in this event as well (1:05.20).
 
Saturday morning was a more energetic session for the team, and a more successful one as a result.
 
Annie French and Graham Shockley both had hard fought 500 freestyles to kick off the second day; both were just shy of their best times from Regions but raced well and finished strong.
 
In the 200 freestyle relay, the boys’ “B” team kicked off with a strong swim to set the tone. Stefan Pretorius led off with a lifetime best (24.84), and Sage Sasaki, Elliott Clark, and Graham all posted 25’s as well.
 
Our boys’ “A” team was seeded in an outside lane in an early heat and attempted to get a jump on the circle seeded heats still to come. Pierce, Josh, Ian, and Henry Standard threw down a time of 1:30.31, which won their heat and held up through the rest of the event to qualify them 12th for finals. Their swim was just .08 off the school record, set in 2015.
 
The girls’ 200 free relay saw impressive splits from all four girls, and Lauren French posted a best time (27.5), but they were a little bit off their Regions swim. Still, with all four of those girls returning next year, we’re energized by where that relay can go in the future…
 
In the 100 backstroke, Stefan Pretorius came back to drop a full second, crack the 1:00 barrier, and earn his first spot on the USN all-time top 10 list.
 
Elliott Clark and Annie French had the standout swims of the 100 breaststrokers. He dropped nearly a full second to improve to 1:06.12, and Annie posted a lifetime best as well, just an hour after her 500.
 
In the 400 freestyle relay, the girls’ team of Lauren, Margaret, Annie, and Mia posted our team’s best swim of the season by two seconds. Notably, Mia cracked the 1:00 barrier for the first time anchoring the relay.
 
Right afterwards, in the boys’ pool, Ian, Pierce, Henry, and Josh returned to crush the season best (3:39.7 from Regions) with a 3:25.5. In probably one of the happiest surprises of the meet, This was good enough to sneak in to 16th place in finals. Ian’s lead off of 51.77 was a huge drop over his previous best split of 54.18 from Regions, and Pierce broke 50.0 for the first time ever, splitting 49.9.
 
In the finals session that night, both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays made significant improvement.
 
In the 200, Pierce led off in his best time (22.38, which put him third on the all time top 10 list for the 50 free). Ian (22.00), Henry (23.66), and Josh (21.54) also came up big. The resulting time (1:29.58) moved them up a place and beat the school record, which had been a big team goal since last February. Notably, Josh’s anchor split was his lifetime best. It was the FIFTH time he’s swum sub-22 on a relay for USN; no other swimmer has done it more than twice.
 
In the 400, Ian led off with another huge lifetime best (50.60, which earned him 7th on the all-time top 10 list for the 100 free). Henry’s split of 52.6 was a lifetime best by 1.5 seconds. Pierce (50.3) and Josh (49.4) closed out the relay. Their time of 3:23.00 was good enough for 4th on the USN all-time Top 10 list and a 2.5 second improvement over prelims.
 
That’s about all we could ask for in the last session of the state meet, to be setting school records and vying for points in finals. On that high note, the team loaded up the bus and returned to Nashville about midnight, exhausted and proud. Thank you to our Transportation crew, our Athletic Department, and our parents for their support throughout the season. This has been a highlight year in many ways, and we couldn’t have done it without your support.
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