Kansas high school swim teams across all divisions hit the water Friday for the prelims session of the state swimming and diving championships. The 5A-1A swam first at 10 AM while the 6A division followed at 1:30 PM. Highlights of both sessions can be found below.
6A Division
Shawnee Mission-East high school had a great prelims swim in the 200 yard medley relay to start things off. The squad of Sarah Allegri, Annie Mann, Bonnie Longan, and Madeline Peters grabbed the top seed in a time of 1:48.89, three seconds ahead of the field. While the Kansas state record is a 1:45.8, anything can happen at these high school state meets where the energy is electric.
Hannah Musser, a Western Kentucky commit, showed of her prelim speed in the 100 fly by swimming her way to a new Kansas state record. Musser touched in a time of 54.89, shaving a tenth off the old record. The rest of the field fell behind by almost four seconds but hopefully Musser has it in her tomorrow to lower her record in finals. The senior will also find herself in lane four in the 200 IM tomorrow night, as well.
Another state record was on the brink of getting erased when Courtney Caldwell took off in the 100 free. The record sits at 50.43 and Caldwell was just off that touching in a 50.91. Caldwell also took the top spot in the splash and dash 50 free in a time of 23.37, just shy of the 23.05 record.
Finals for the 6A division will take place tomorrow starting at 3:30 PM. Live results can be found here.
5-1A Divisions
This prelim session featured two exciting swim offs to decide the final swimmer to get into the top 16 for tomorrow night’s finals. The teams from Topeka-Seamen and Independence battled it out in the 200 medley relay with the squad from Topeka-Seamen coming out victorious. Next up was the swim off between Hannah Chadd and Lauren Amrein in the 200 IM. It was almost as close as the prelim swim with Chadd getting to the wall first for the final spot in a time of 2:27.48.
Cailey Grunnhard, who is just a freshman, swam her way to the top seed in the 100 fly in a quick 56.61. If she can get another big time drop tomorrow afternoon, this freshman could swim her way into the record books if she can get under 55.50.
The 100 back is going to be a nail-biter tomorrow afternoon with the top two swimmers tied for first. Grunnhard finds herself at the top again, but this time she’s joined by Madison Hutchison. The two girls touched at 56.83, just about 1.3 seconds off the 55.58 state record.
Finals are timed to take off at 10:30 AM. Live results can be found here.