‘Proud to represent our school.’ Dunbar swim and dive teams better together.
The oddest, most trying, most isolating high school swimming and diving season ever also became one of the most rewarding for the Paul Laurence Dunbar boys’ and girls’ teams last weekend.
In the final event of this long, COVID-19 pandemic-marred season, the Bulldogs at last secured its first boys’ and girls’ “combined” state championship since 2003 at the Union College state satellite site of the 2021 KHSAA State Swimming & Diving Championships in Barbourville.
“Bringing this title back to Dunbar in 2021, they were ecstatic,” Coach Cole Pleasants said. “It really was a team effort. It’s those breakout swims that really just need to get top 16s and to have all relays get top eight was what was really sealing the deal for us. Even though there were no fans, our kids were really excited to get up and race and just really proud to represent our school.”
The girls’ 400-yard freestyle medley relay team of Amelia Jones, Claire Ackerman, Nicole Nunez and Katie Bridwell, none of whom had been born the last time Dunbar won the combined title, swam home seventh overall in the event, helping Dunbar expand its team points total to 240, 13.5 points more than cross-town rival Henry Clay and enough for the Kentucky High School Swimming & Diving Coaches Association trophy.
Pleasants guided his boys’ team through the Saturday morning session and the girls’ team through the afternoon.
“Our boys led us off strong,” Pleasants said. “We knew after the boys standings that we could have a shot as long as our girls got up and raced. And that’s exactly what happened.”
Senior diver Alexis Radhakrishnan learned of her team’s win via text message as she tried to stay connected to the results.
“I was actually with my sister, and I got a text that we were state champions,” Radhakrishnan said. “It wasn’t on my radar, but I think the girls went out there and killed it and I was so proud of them for doing what they could this season.”
Solid results, strong start
Radhakrishnan played a large role in the title, as well.
Her fifth-place finish in the 1-meter dive on April 22 at Falling Springs in Versailles helped set the table for her swimming teammates two days later.
It was the best state meet result of the senior’s five-year varsity career.
“I was actually pretty nervous because I’ve had a little trouble competing this year, but it all worked out,” said Radhakrishnan, who said she’d been struggling to shrug off mistakes this year but got some good advice from first-year diving coach Naomi Clayton. “She was a college diver and she just told me what she went through and how she coped with it. I don’t know if I would have been able to do what I did at state without her.”
Next, it was the boys’ turn, and it could hardly have started any better.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Mark Dattilio, Jack Naehr, Nathan Zhu and Eli Merritt finished in 1:37.61, besting all the Region 7-9 competitors at the Union College site and finishing third behind the St. Xavier team (1:30.51) swimming in Louisville’s Blairwood complex for Regions 4-6 and Bowling Green (1:37.40), swimming at Russell County High School site for Regions 1-3.
“Leading off with that boys’ medley relay to begin the whole day was fantastic,” Pleasants said. “That set the tone for the day. … Coming into that last relay, we had so many solid swims throughout the meet, our girls were just excited to be there, excited to race and were ready.”
Naehr also got team points for his 12th-place finish in the 50 free and the seventh-place finish for the 200-yard free relay with teammates Brock Kaczmarek, Jared Brown and Seneca Oddo.
“All the boys had some great swims,” Naehr said. “It was a different vibe this year with no spectators and no parents there, but all the coaches and swimmers supporting each other really made it a fun day.
“It was the same pool as the region meet, and about as many people. But it was state. And we knew we had to swim our best.”
The ‘combined’ trophy
The Herald-Leader has been reporting about the “combined” state championship for years, and its lineage goes back decades, but it’s rarely explained.
The KHSAA does not award a combined team championship. But the state swimming and diving coaches’ association does and it’s recognized at both the region and state level.
“It’s something that every combined team looks forward to,” Pleasants said.
From at least 2001 until 2019, the KHSAA’s final standings reflected the combined totals even though it has been a coaches’ association award.
For the teams vying for it, the combined matters, whether the trophy is from the KHSAA or not. To them, it is a state championship.
“It makes it really interesting to have that combined title,” said Henry Clay Coach Daniel Porter, whose boys’ team took third place. The girls finished 12th. “St. X and Sacred Heart are going to win the men’s and women’s team events every year. There’s no one that comes close — maybe once every 20 years someone gets close to them — but for the most part, it’s one of those teams.
This year, because the state competitions were split into three sites, the Union College venue in effect became the combined title site. Highlands, last year’s combined winner, finished third and Lexington Catholic, the 2019 combined title holder, took fifth. Elizabethtown, which competed in Russell County, finished fourth.
“It gets the kids energized when they feel like they are swimming for something more than second place,” Porter said.
Celebrating back home
With COVID-19 protocols preventing the school from holding an assembly to help the team mark its accomplishments and the state meet trophy ceremonies also limited, the Bulldogs gathered outside at their high school last Sunday to pose for parent photographs with all the hardware they’ve earned.
“I just want to say, I can take very little credit for what these athletes do, but I will take credit for being their biggest fan,” Coach Pleasants said. “I think that is something I can always take credit for.”
Naehr noted that the photo session was really the first time the whole team had been together this season after having missed on the carb-loading spaghetti dinners the night before meets and really not getting to practice or compete together much during the pandemic.
“It was fun just celebrating with everyone,” Naehr said.
And as a senior, Naehr made sure to use the time to encourage the underclassmen to keep the party going.
“They are going to have to try to hold onto it for the next few years,” Naehr said. “I think they have it in them.”
