Thanks to Corey Coon-Cassily, the head coach of the AquaKids Swim Team, for covering the Arkansas High School State Championship meet for us.
The Conway girl’s and Bentonville boy’s teams captured titles at the Arkansas High School championship at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock pool. The Bentonville boys won their 9th straight championship under Coach Steve Duwel. Conway girl’s team, under Coach Christina Rye, broke Bentonville’s streak of 4 girls wins in a row, and 9 of the last 10. This was Conway’s first championship since 1988.
Both schools set the tone for the meet by winning the opening medley relays. Conway girls, Corissa Calico, Jocelyn Woo, Annie Courtway, Amanda Crnic, led start to finish with a time of 1:52.11. Bentonville boys, Lane Bland, Gage Crosby, John Hedgecock, Brandon Haefner, also led the entire way to a winning time of 1:39.26.
The 200FR and 500FR had the same winners for both girls and boys. Claire Bristow of Little Rock Central and Minki Kang of Bryant had dominating performances in both races. Minki broke the state record with an All-American consideration time of 4:32.52. Jocelyn Woo, a senior from Conway, won the 200IM, again leading start to finish 2:09.32. Blair Bish from Little Rock Central also won the IM by leading start to finish 1:57.72.
After those races things got very close for a lot of races. Hope Earnheart from Benton won with a Junior National time of 24.26, edging out the top 4 who were all under 25. Tyler Crosson from Conway won the 50FR for boys with a state record and Automatic All-American time of 20.60.
The Diving, which went Friday night, had Erin Farrah from Fayetteville as the girls champion and Tyler Rousey from Bentonville as the boy’s champion.
Jocelyn Woo picked up her 3rd gold medal by winning the 100FL 57.89. The next three races all came down to tenths between the top three racers. Caleb Hathaway from Central Arkansas Christian held off late charges by both Gage Crosby and William Bryden to win the 100FL with a Junior National time of 51.82. Carly Arp of Mountain Home staved off 50FR champion Hope Earnheart and hard charging Eunsol Chon of Bentonville to win the 100FR (54.33-54.45-54.51). Boy’s 100FR champion, Alex Holyfield had a little easier time winning his event 47.60, but had three people trying to chase him down on the last 25.
The 200FR relay went by in a flash. The Conway girls, Jocelyn Woo, Annie Courtway, Casey Ragsdale, Corissa Calico, broke the state record with a time of 1:39.69. The Conway boys, Hayden Lemons, William Bryden, Isaac Powers, Tyler Crosson, were just off the state record with a winning time of 1:29.37 (with anchor Tyler going sub 20 for the first time 19.91).
After the relays came arguably the best race of the day with the girls 100BK. Lindsey Butler from Bryant, Corissa Calico from Conway and Carly Holland from Heritage all flipped at the last wall at the same time. The entire last 25 they all went stroke for stroke before Lindsey won with a state record and Junior National cut, 58.23. Tyler Crosson, who will swim at LSU next year, won his second individual race in a state record and consideration All-American time of 50.77.
Madison Edwards, of Alma, and Virginia Carr of Camden Fairview also went stroke for stroke before Maddie pulled ahead at the very end to win the 100BR 1:05.67-1:06.01. Gage Crosby, who will swim at Arizona next year, finished off the individual events with a dominating performance in the boys 100BR. His time of 56.70 was a state record and Automatic All-American swim.
The meet finished up with the 400FR relay and victories by Bentonville in both. The girl’s team of Alexa Tininenko, Katelyn Hedgecock, Jessica Kjellberg, Eunsol Chon, won with a time of 3:44.12. The boy’s team of Gage Crosby, Lane Bland, Jared Crosby, Brandon Haefner won with a time of 3:17.94.
Girl’s scores:
Conway 304
Bentonville 290
Cabot 161
Boy’s scores:
Bentonville 430
Little Rock Central 222.5
Catholic 217