Regional swimming and diving championships sees one team sweep toward state
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s boys’ and girls’ teams swept the KHSAA Region 8 Swimming and Diving Championships this weekend at the University of Kentucky’s Lancaster Aquatic Center.
The competition included two meet records: Lafayette’s Lili Elayi swam the 50-yard freestyle in 23.85 seconds and Henry Clay’s Zoe Schaeffer broke the 100-yard backstroke mark with a time of 57.49.
It marked the 13th straight year Dunbar has claimed the combined region title and 10th straight year it has won the girls’ team crown.
Dunbars’ girls racked up 448 points to Henry Clay’s second place 294. The Dunbar boys accumulated 504.5 points to best second place Henry Clay’s 358.5. Both schools will have a good chance at the state’s combined title in two weeks, according to Henry Clay Coach Daniel Porter.
“I think we have great senior leadership and we have a lot of new faces on our team this year, and I think the seniors led them to believe, ‘Hey, we’re not just swimming for your team, but swim for the past 12 teams that have started this tradition of us being region champs,’” Dunbar Coach Cole Pleasants said.
Dunbar’ girls team showed its quality depth bolstered by a win in the 500-yard freestyle by senior Makayla Young and second place finishes in the 200 IM, 100 freestyle, and the 400 freestyle relay.
“That was super exciting for her,” Pleasants said. “Hopefully that will set her up for a good state seeding.”
Dunbar’s boys got wins from its 200-yard medley relay, its 200 and 400 freestyle relays and freshman Alex Ochsenbein in the 100 breaststroke.
“That bodes well not only for the state meet, but for the next three years for us,” added Pleasants.
Both diving champions achieved automatic All-American qualifying scores. Henry Clay’s Van McKinley earned a 449.40 in the girls’ competition and will be looking for her second-straight state diving title. Lexington Catholic’s Reid Noonan topped the boys’ marks with a 407.15.
The top two finishers in each regional event automatically qualify for the Kentucky High School Athletics Associations’s Pannell Swim Shop Swimming & Diving State Championships to be held Feb. 20-22 at the Lancaster Aquatic Center. At-large qualifiers are based on the next best 22 region times/scores statewide.
GIRLS’ RESULTS
Team scores: 1. Paul Laurence Dunbar 448; 2. Henry Clay 294; 3. Lafayette 291; 4. Lexington Catholic 273; 5. Montgomery County 169; 6. Sayre 168; 7. Tates Creek 165; 8. Scott County 139; 9. Frederick Douglass 83; 10. Lexington Christian 74.
200-Yard Medley Relay: 1. Lex. Catholic (Kat Woodall, Morgan Bender, Christina Aouad, Lillian Hosinski) 1:47.83; 2. Henry Clay (Zoe Schaeffer, Olivia Greinke, Katherine Anne Rukavina, Van McKinley) 1:49.54.
200-Yard Freestyle: 1. Emma Lykins, Lafayette, 1:54.53; 2. Riette Bloomfield, Scott County, 1:55.76.
Girls 200 Yard IM: 1. Christina Aouad, Lex Catholic, 2:10.71; 2. Sarah Ming, Dunbar, 2:11.72.
50-Yard Freestyle: 1. Lili Elayi, Lafayette, 23.85*; 2. Lillian Hosinski, Lexington Catholic, 24.75.
1-meter Diving: 1 Van McKinley, Henry Clay, 449.40#; 2. Mackie Redford, Lex Catholic, 398.25.
100-Yard Butterfly: 1 Lili Elayi, Lafayette, 55.24; 2 Zoe Schaeffer, Henry Clay, 57.11.
100-Yard Freestyle: 1 Emma Lykins, Lafayette, 53.23; 2. Katie Bridwell, Dunbar, 54.96.
500-Yard Freestyle: 1. Makayla Young, Dunbar, 5:17.49; 2. Samantha Coffey, Montgomery County, 5:22.30.
200-Yard Freestyle Relay: 1 Lex. Catholic (Lillian Hosinski, Zoe Florence, Morgan Bender, Kat Woodall) 1:39.60; 2. Lafayette (Lili Elayi, Lou Elayi, Katherine Cherry, Emma Lykins) 1:40.00.
100-Yard Backstroke: 1. Zoe Schaeffer, Henry Clay 57.49*; 2. Megan Wedeking, Bryan Station, 58.12.
100-Yard Breaststroke: 1 Morgan Bender, Lex. Catholic, 1:05.32; 2 Meher Saini, Tates Creek, 1:08.05.
400-Yard Freestyle Relay: 1. Lex. Catholic (Christina Aouad, Kat Woodall, Lillian Hosinski, Morgan Bender) 3:37.93; 2. Dunbar (Taylor Albrecht, Sophie Hildebrandt, Makayla Young, Katie Bridwell) 3:39.77.
BOYS’ RESULTS
Team scores: 1. Paul Laurence Dunbar 504.5; 2. Henry Clay 358.5; 3. Lexington Catholic 306; 4. Lafayette 220; 5. Scott County 163; 6. Montgomery County 151; 7. Lexington Christian 124; 8. Tates Creek 120; 9. Frederick Douglass 89; 10. Bryan Station High School 74.
200-Yard Medley Relay: 1. Dunbar (Eli Merritt, Alex Ochsenbein, Robby Neal, Nate Rich) 1:38.18; 2. Lex. Catholic (Andrew Menke, Duncan Strother, Clark Kraeszig, Hunter Cioci) 1:39.64.
200-Yard Freestyle: 1. Kole Brannock, Scott Co. 1:46.48; 2. Jared Brown, Dunbar, 1:46.70.
200-Yard IM: 1. Jackson Millard, Henry Clay, 1:52.91; 2. Alex Ochsenbein, Dunbar, 1:58.15.
50-Yard Freestyle: 1. Cameron Coffey, Montgomery Co., 22.17; 2. Nate Rich, Dunbar, 22.37.
1-meter Diving: 1. Reid Noonan, Lex. Catholic, 407.15#; 2. Garrett Craycraft, Montgomery Co. 386.35.
100-Yard Butterfly: 1. Kaleb Brannock, Scott Co. 49.98; 2. Jack Johnson, Henry Clay, 52.74.
100-Yard Freestyle: 1. Cameron Coffey, Montgomery Co., 48.70; 2. Eli Merritt, Dunbar, 49.19.
500-Yard Freestyle: 1.Jack Johnson, Henry Clay, 4:47.30; 2. Jacob Greenlee, Bourbon Co., 4:50.65.
200-Yard Freestyle Relay: 1. Dunbar (Nate Rich, Nathan Zhu, Jack Naehr, Robby Neal) 1:30.03; 2. Henry Clay (Benjamin Hightower, Jackson Millard, Max Montgomery, Landon Jennings) 1:30.20.
100-Yard Backstroke: 1. Kaleb Brannock, Scott Co., 49.12; 2. Jackson Millard, Henry Clay, 51.57.
100-Yard Breaststroke: 1. Alex Ochsenbein, Dunbar, 59.36; 2. Carter Boggess, Lafayette, 59.87.
400-Yard Freestyle Relay: 1. Dunbar (Eli Merritt, Alex Ochsenbein, Nathan Zhu, Jared Brown) 3:17.71; 2. Henry Clay (Jack Johnson, Nick Johnson, Cole Bray, Landon Jennings) 3:22.61.
*Region meet record; #Auto-All-American qualifying score (National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association)
Complete results online: https://khsaa.org/swimming/2020/20regioneightresults.pdf
State meet schedule: https://khsaa.org/2020-state-swimming-and-diving-schedule/
This story was originally published February 9, 2020 at 4:32 PM.
