HS Swimming Tigers Shine at Region Meet

Justin Karpinos
Brash breaks two school records; Mauries, French, Cochran, Cramer, Pretorius, Schumann earn new State cuts
The USN swimming team brought 21 qualifiers to the MTHSSA Region Championship meet last Friday at Centennial Sportsplex. This meet served as the culminating championship meet for many of our athletes, while others are continuing on to the TISCA State meet in February. Several were still hunting for qualifying times, so there was a lot at stake for our team.
 
The day’s individual events kicked off with the 200 freestyle, which set the tone for the whole day. Daniel Stark won heat 1 in the boys’ pool going away, dropping 8 seconds off his previous best time. Junior Wyatt Washko followed in nearly the same fashion, winning his heat by a mile and dropping over 8 seconds off his lifetime best. In the girls’ pool, juniors Sheeline Yu and Gracie Li had tremendous 200 freestyles as well, with Sheeline winning the heat and dropping 5 seconds off her best, and Gracie improving her lifetime best by over 8 seconds and finishing just behind. Abby Liff dropped two seconds off her HS season best to finish in the top 8.
 
Sheeline returned just minutes later to post another best time and a heat winner in the 200 IM, cutting 3.5 seconds off her seed, while fellow junior Sage Sasaki swam a season best in the same race in the boys’ pool, dropping nine places to finish 9th.
 
The 50 freestyles were 100% season best times as well for USN swimmers. Notably, juniors Lauren French, Lucy Mauries, and Stefan Pretorius earned their individual state cuts, as did freshman Milo Schumann (DCA). Kursten Griffin improved from her 17th place seed to finish 5th, and Ian Brash put an exclamation mark on the event for us by finishing second in a new school record (21.49).
 
In the 100 butterfly, Gracie Li, Eleanor Shepard, and Arnav Reddy all swam best times. Arnav returned a few minutes later in the 100 freestyle, where he swam another best time, successfully completing a quick “double.”
 
Ian finished fifth in the 100 freestyle and broke both the 49 second barrier and the school record along the way, while Kursten earned 8th in the girls’ event.. Lucy, Caroline Cramer, Ivy Cochran, and Daniel also added best times, with Lucy earning another State cut and Caroline and Ivy just hundredths of a second shy of qualifying.
 
Lauren, Wyatt, and Jacob Rothman all had big 500 freestyles; Wyatt’s 12 second drop was the biggest improvement on the event, while Lauren earned her first individual USN all-time top 10 swim in the race. Jacob, in only his third 500 ever, dropped 8 seconds and is now knocking at the door of the state qualifying time.
 
We had put a lot of focus on the 200 freestyle relay, and both the girls’ and boys’ teams responded well, with each team finishing fourth. Ivy, Abby, Lucy, and Kursten earned a USN all-time top 10 time in the process, and the boys’ team (Stefan, William Grobmyer, Sage, Ian) finished as the fourth fastest relay in USN history, dropping 2.5 seconds off their previous season best.
 
The highlights of the 100 breaststroke was Abby’s HS season best; she broke the 1:10 barrier for the first time in HS competition and finished 11th in a very competitive event. We also saw major improvements from Harper Johnston, Jacob, and Eleanor.
The boys’ “A” and “B” 400 freestyle relays both finished the boys’ meet on a strong note, with Wyatt Washko leading off the “B” relay in a lifetime best and Arnav, Jacob, and Daniel contributing strong swims as well. The “A” team of William, Stefan, Sage, and Ian won their heat and jumped from 9th to 6th, finishing in 3:27.5 and looking very promising heading towards the State meet in two weeks.
 
Closing out the meet, there were still two potential state qualifying times we were still aiming for, so we gambled by splitting our relays to give Caroline and Ivy an opportunity to lead off and punch their tickets. Both athletes took advantage of the moment – Ivy led off the “B” relay with Eleanor, Sheeline, and Lucy in 1:00.36, squeaking under the qualifying time by .03 seconds; Caroline led off the “A” relay in 1:00.29, energizing the relay and helping propel her, Lauren, Abby, and Kursten to a 7th place finish.
 
The Tigers ended the day with 36 best times in 40 swims, and 22 heat winners on the day, finishing 8th out of 75 teams. At least to the coaching staff, this measure of improvement and performance was manifestation of the effort, passion, and focus this crew has brought to the table.
 
The Tigers will bring 11 qualifiers to the State meet in Knoxville in two weeks.
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