Girls swim season closes at sectional
PHOTO COURTESY OF SOUTH RIPLEY HIGH SCHOOL & MILAN SWIMMING
South Ripley senior Elizabeth McKittrick broke the school’s 200 freestyle record on Thursday night in a time of 2:08.79 and went on to place third in the 50 freestyle on Saturday in the sectional finals.
Milan’s 200 freestyle relay team of Kaitlynn Hicks, Kayleigh McIntosh, Lainey Stock and Ashlyn DeWire broke the program’s school record for the event in a time of 1:51.11. It was the oldest record for girls swimming at Milan.
Coverage area girls watched their season come to an end in the pool on Saturday as part of the IHSAA Girls Swimming Sectional at Columbus North High School.
Sectional preliminaries were held last Thursday with top qualifiers advancing to the finals on Saturday. Winners of each race alongside those achieving state standard times or better have advanced to the IHSAA Girls Swimming State Finals set for this weekend in Indianapolis.
While the big schools dominated last week, it was an impressive showing from our four coverage area swim programs. Milan and Batesville placed back-to-back in eighth and ninth as part of a 14-team field with the Lady Indians scoring 96 points and the Lady Bulldogs were right behind at 94 points. Oldenburg Academy was 11th with 75 points and South Ripley placed 12th after scoring 28.5 points.
Bloomington South was the team champion, dominating the field with 503.5 points. The top five was rounded out by East Central, Bloomington North, Columbus North and Edgewood.
Among our coverage area sectional finalists, two finished in the top three of individual events. South Ripley’s Elizabeth McKittrick swam third in the 50 freestyle, finishing in a time of 25.68 seconds and Oldenburg Academy freshman Alejandra Schutte was third in the 100 breaststroke at 1:11.67. McKittrick was also sixth in the 200 freestyle in 2:11.99 and Schutte was eighth in the 200 individual medley at 2:25.74.
Two Milan relay teams swam sixth and seventh. Kaitlynn Hicks, Kayleigh McIntosh, Alaina Stock and Ashlyn DeWire were sixth in the 200 freestyle relay in a time of 1:51.11 and Stock, McIntosh, Molly Knecht and DeWire were seventh in the 200 medley relay in 2:06.96. The 400 freestyle relay team of Hicks, Knecht, Jayden Graham and Hannah Cooney placed eighth at 4:41.98.
Individual finishers for the Lady Indians included the following: Knecht, 11th, 100 backstroke, 1:11.45; Knecht, 13th, 100 butterfly, 1:11.24; DeWire, 12th, 100 freestyle, 1:01.72; Stock, 13th, 500 freestyle, 6:05.98; Hicks, 15th, 1:02.
Sarah Bedel racked up Batesville’s top finish, finishing fourth in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:13.80. She then raced with Cora Miller, Emma Miller and Isabel Raab in the 400 freestyle relay, finishing sixth in 4:15.63. That same group was also seventh in the 200 freestyle relay at 1:52.67. In individual events, Raab raced 10th in the 50 freestyle and 13th in the 100 freestyle in times of 27.01 seconds and 1:01.74 respectively, Bedel was 14th in the 200 individual medley at 2:30.03 and Cora Miller was 14th in the 100 butterfly at 1:12.91.
Schutte, Avery Austin, Caroline Niese and Isabella Maxwell gave Oldenburg an eighth place finish in the 200 medley relay in 2:07.27 and the quartet also finished 10th in the 200 freestyle relay in 2:00.31. Maxwell then branched off to finish 10th in the 100 freestyle at 1:00.93 and 13th in the 200 freestyle in 2:14.21. Niese swam 16th in the 100 butterfly at 1:15.62.
Swimming sectionals continue this week with boys action slated for the preliminary round this evening and sectional finals on Saturday. The IHSAA Boys Swimming Sectional is hosted by East Central and preliminaries begin tonight at 6 p.m.
