Lexington has podium contenders for upcoming state swim and dive championships
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KHSAA state swim and dive meets set for Feb. 20-21 at UK’s Lancaster Aquatic Center.
- Top seeds include Dunbar’s Kennedy Brooks and Lafayette’s Lauren Wedeking.
- Diving competitions will be held in between swimming preliminaries and finals each day.
The stage is set for this year’s KHSAA State Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Kentucky’s Lancaster Aquatic Center on Feb. 20-21 after Saturday’s three State First Round competitions.
Lexington will have some top contenders at the girls and boys meets judging by the seed times and State First Round wins garnered Saturday at Scott High School in Taylor Mill, south of Covington, one of three satellite first round sites around the state.
And Lexington Catholic’s twin divers Graham and Sydney Leslie seem poised to defend their state crowns.
Paul Laurence Dunbar freshman Kennedy Brooks ranks as the top overall seed in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle after her first round wins. She broke a school record in the 50 with a time of 23.54, 0.01 seconds faster than the mark set in 2010 by Kristen Wilson.
Lafayette junior Lauren Wedeking broke her own school records in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races with times of 51.17 and 1:48.97, respectively. Wedeking is the 200’s top seed and is second to Brooks in the 100. Wedeking is also part of the Generals’ first-round winning 200-yard freestyle relay that ranks second behind Sacred Heart on seedings chart.
Lexington Catholic sophomore Mia Jones ranks second in the 200-yard individual medley and third in the 100-yard breaststroke after her first-round wins in those events.
Bryan Station sophomore Max Reynolds is the third seed in the 100-yard backstroke and the fifth seed in the 100-yard butterfly, both behind Sacred Heart senior Charlotte Crush, a multi-time state champ. Reynolds is also part of Station’s first-round winning 200-yard medley relay, which posted a time of 1:50.46, third statewide.
On the boys’ side, Lexington Catholic senior Wil Jones won his first round races in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyles and ranks fourth in the 50 and second in the 100 race.
While Tates Creek’s 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay teams finished second to Ryle in each first-round event, the Commodores have the third-fastest seed time in the 200 and the sixth-fastest in the 400.
Tates Creek junior John Kennedy won his first round 100-bakestroke race and is seeded fifth overall.
Since 2024, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association has split its state championship swimming events into two rounds of competition to further narrow the field due to overcrowding concerns at Lancaster Aquatic Center.
State qualifiers from each region championship competition advanced to one of three first-round sites — Bowling Green High School for Regions 1-3, the University of Louisville for Regions 4-6 and Scott for Regions 7-9, which includes Region 8 and Lexington’s schools.
The top three finishers in each event at each State First Round site automatically qualified for the State Final Round. The rest of the State Final Round fields were filled by the best 15 qualifying times statewide.
The state diving competition is not split into rounds. Diving’s boys and girls state championships will be held in between the boys and girls swimming preliminaries and finals on their respective days.
Graham Leslie, a Lexington Catholic junior, is the defending boys 1-meter diving champion and the top seed in this year’s competition. Sydney Leslie, Graham’s twin sister, is also the defending state champion and top seed in the girls 1-meter dive. She’s joined in the top 10 qualifiers by Lafayette senior Sophie Kroggel.
KHSAA State First Round Swimming
From Saturday’s results At Scott High School, Taylor Mill.
Listed: State Final Round qualifiers from Scott site of the KHSAA’s State First Round Swim Meet. (Top three, plus other Lexington qualifiers based on statewide times.) Complete results and final round qualifying lists are online at the KHSAA website.
BOYS EVENTS
200-yard medley relay: 1, Highlands (Luke Deegan, Chase Pawsat, Noah Gracey, Chanith Abeysinghe) 1:38.86; 2, Dunbar (Neihal Saini, Daniel Liew, Sammy Nunez, Colton Brewer) 91:40.77; 3, 3 Lexington Catholic (Jack Gardner, Wil Jones, Ben Henry, James Barnett) 1:40.86. Other qualifiers (Q): Tates Creek, 1:40.98; Lafayette, 1:42.71; Henry Clay 1:43.82.
200-yard freestyle: 1, Cono Presti, Beechwood 1:41.55; 2, Nash Parsons, Ryle 1:42.23; 3, Chase Knopf, Ryle 1:43.29. Q: Charlie Kidder, Henry Clay, 1:45.31; Sammy Nunez, Dunbar, 1:45.34; Henry Gish, Henry Clay, 1:48.45.
200-yard IM: 1, Charlie Herfel, Highlands 1:56.83; 2, Andrew Boh, Covington Catholic 1:57.12; 3, Luke Deegan, Highlands 1:57.25. Q: Daniel Liew, Dunbar 2:03.65; Kyle Rodgers, Henry Clay 2:04.77.
50-yard freestyle: 1, Wil Jones, Lexington Catholic 21.21; 2, Ethan Hatfield, George Rogers Clark 21.56; 3, Parker Davis, Simon Kenton 21.89. Q: Drew Harris, Tates Creek, 21.97.
100-yard butterfly: 1, Sammy Nunez, Dunbar 52.24; 2, Noah Gracey, Highlands, 53.68; 3, Will Dusing, Covington Catholic 53.73. Q: Griffin Dicken, Tates Creek 53.96
100-yard freestyle: 1, Wil Jones, Lexington Catholic 45.93; 2, Nash Parsons, Ryle 47.25; 3, Chanith Abeysinghe, Highlands 47.92. Q: Drew Harris, Tates Creek 48.36; Andrew Rathbun, Frederick Douglass 49.16.
500-yard freestyle: 1, Cono Presti, Beechwood 4:30.98; 2, Chase Knopf, Ryle 4:43.21; 3, Charlie Herfel, Highlands 4:44.36. Q:Charlie Kidder, Henry Clay 4:47.76; Henry Gish, Henry Clay 4:47.86.
200-yard freestyle relay: 1, Ryle (Chase Knopf, Tyler Rice, Addison Coughenour, Nash Parsons); 2, Tates Creek (John Kennedy, Drew Harris, Landon Bates, Griffin Dicken) 1:27.21; 3, Highlands (Chanith Abeysinghe, Ryan Schaber, Charlie Golden, Charlie Herfel) 1:28.90. Q: Dunbar, 1:31.17; Lexington Catholic, 1:32.42.
100-yard backstroke: 1, John Kennedy, Tates Creek 51.36; 2, Ethan Hatifeld, George Rogers Clark, 51.80 3, Luke Deegan, Highlands 52.61. Q: Colton Brewer, Dunbar, 55.87.
100-yard breaststroke: 1, Tyler Rice, Ryle 58.61; 2, Andrew Boh, Covington Catholic, 58.74; 3, Will Dusing, Covington Catholic 59.69. Q: Daniel Liew, Dunbar 1:00.99; Colby Hobson, Dunbar, 1:01.60.
400-yard freestyle relay: 1, Ryle (Chase Knopf, Tanner Lovins, Gavin Koenigsknecht, Nash Parsons) 3:14.88; 2, Tates Creek (Griffin Dicken, Drew Harris, Landon Bates, John Kennedy) 3:16.25; 3, Lexington Catholic (Samuel Grimm, James Barnett, Bryce Vinton, Wil Jones) 3:20.26. Q: Dunbar, 3:22.61; Lafayette, 3:30.84.
GIRLS EVENTS
200-yard medley relay: 1, Bryan Station (Max Reynolds, Jolene Wong, Jameelah El-Amin, Maya Wedeking) 1:50.46; 2, Notre Dame (Abby Carnes 11, Reaghan Connelly, McKenna Bien, Caroline Gollar) 1:51.16; 3, Highlands (Margaret Meyers, Taryn Ripley, Keira Kobida, Vivian Winkler) 1:52.42. Q: Lafayette, 1:52.85; Henry Clay, 1:55.85; Lexington Catholic, 1:55.91; Frederick Douglass, 1:57.96; Lexington Christian, 1:58.27.
200-yard freestyle: 1, Lauren Wedeking, Lafayette 1:48.97; 2, Clare Herfel, Notre Dame 1:49.23; 3, Marlee Cooksey, Madison Central, 1:49.80. Q: Avery Hutchison, Lafayette 1:57.46; Maya Wedeking, Bryan Station 1:57.88.
200-yard IM: 1, Mia Jones, Lexington Catholic, 2:03.61; 2, Abby Carnes, Notre Dame 2:07.65; 3, Gabriella Stephens, Ryle 2:08.12. Q: 15 Lila Kidder, Henry Clay 2:12.99.
50-yard freestyle: 1, Kennedy Brooks, Dunbar, 23.54; 2, Myla Phelps, Lafayette, 24.61; 3, Ragan Moore, Highlands, 24.99. Q: Myla Phelps, Lafayette, 24.61; Kate O’Brien, Frederick Douglass, 25.17; Emmalyn Morrison, Tates Creek 25.46
100-yard butterfly: 1, Angelena Brown, Madison Central, 56.37; 2, Max Reynolds, Bryan Station, 56.74; 3, Maddie Staley, Beechwood, 57.05. Q: Jameelah El-Amin, Bryan Station, 59.72; Collyns Dixon, Lexington Christian, 1:01.04; Katherine McCormick, Lafayette, 1:01.18.
100-yard freestyle: 1, Kennedy Brooks, Dunbar, 51.15; 2, Lauren Wedeking, Lafayette, 51.17; 3, Maya Wedeking, Bryan Station, 53.90. Q: 15 Myla Phelps, Lafayette, 54.57; Emmalyn Morrison, Tates Creek, 54.71.
500-yard freestyle: 1, Clare Herfel, Notre Dame, 4:50.20; 2, Marlee Cooksey, Madison Central, 4:57.45; 3, Danaka Tucker, Notre Dame, 5:02.05. Q: Jaylee Hearne, Henry Clay, 5:20.45.
200-yard freestyle relay: 1 Lafayette (Myla Phelps 11, Lauren Wedeking, Kaylee Wylie, Lucie McCaffrey) 1:39.82; 2, Notre Dame (McKenna Bien, Liv Wallace, Peyton Quinn, Clare Herfel) 1:40.22; 3, Highlands (Ella Kate Reynolds, Addie Tinkler, Ellie Niese, Ragan Moore) 1:40.93. Q: Bryan Station, 1:42.35; Dunbar, 1:42.85; Lexington Christian, 1:47.03.
100-yard backstroke: 1, Max Reynolds, Bryan Station, 55.67; 2, Angelena Brown, Madison Central, 55.78; 3, Abby Carnes, Notre Dame, 57.66. Q: Kate O’Brien, Frederick Douglass, 1:00.55; Anderson Brennan, Lexington Christian, 1:01.62; Lila Kidder, Henry Clay, 1:01.70.
100-yard breaststroke: 1, Mia Jones, Lexington Catholic, 1:04.49; 2, Gabrielle Lee, Beechwood, 1:07.29; 3, Freya Reil, Dixie Heights, 1:07.61. Q: 6 Ava Greinke, Henry Clay 1:08.64; Carson Ballard, Henry Clay 1:09.95.
400-yard freestyle relay: 1, Notre Dame (Clare Herfel, Liv Wallace, Danaka Tucker, Abby Carnes) 3:35.52; 2, Highlands (Keira Kobida 11, Ella Kate Reynolds, Taryn Ripley, Ragan Moore) 3:40.93; 3, Dunbar (Mallory Jones, Charlie Boyd, Emery Hourigan, Kennedy Brooks) 3:45.05. Q: Lafayette, 3:46.41; Lexington Catholic 3:49.43; Henry Clay 3:50.49; Tates Creek 3:58.43.
KHSAA State Swimming and Diving Championships
When: Feb. 20-21.
Where: University of Kentucky’s Lancaster Aquatic Center.
Boys swim preliminaries: 10:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 20.
Boys diving: 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20.
Boys swim finals: 6:40 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20.
Girls swim preliminaries: 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 21.
Girls diving: 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21.
Girls swim finals: 6:40 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21.
