St. Xavier boys claim 28th straight swimming and diving title

For the better part of 30 years, the KHSAA boys’ state swimming and diving meet has been a race for second place. Saturday at the University of Louisville’s Ralph R. Wright Natatorium proved no different, as St. Xavier swimmers medaled in eight of 12 events to bring home the Tigers’ 28th consecutive title.

St. Xavier set the tone early, winning the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:32.34, breaking the state record it set last year by just over half a second.

Junior Keefer Barnum gave the Tigers some breathing room when he pushed the team to a sizeable lead over Covington Catholic during the second leg of the relay.

Barnum turned in a banner weekend. During Friday’s preliminaries, he set his own state record in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 54.69 seconds. He followed that up Saturday with a first-place finish in the finals.

“Keefer’s an amazing athlete,” Tigers Coach Todd Larkin said. “He was actually a soccer player and swimmer his first year and now he’s gone straight swimming and we’re lucky that he has. He’s a gamer, and the brighter the lights the bigger he steps up.”

Barnum said St. Xavier’s swimmers feel the weight of history when they compete at state.

“Of course we feel nervous about the streak, but you can turn that nervousness into a positive thing,” he said. “It’s having pride in that streak and trying to keep it going for as long as we can.”

Barnum was joined on the All-State first team by fellow Tigers Aldan Johnston and Michael Miller. Johnston placed second in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle relays. Miller won the one-meter diving championship.

“This program is so exciting to be a part of,” Larkin said. “Every year is different. But when this meet rolls around every year they come to play. And these guys want their own identity and we push that.”

Henry Clay (7th), Paul Dunbar (8th) and Lexington Catholic (10th) finished in the top 10 overall, but the Knights were the only Lexington school to field a finals winner Saturday. Freshman speedster Zach Hils went 2-for-2 in his individual races. He sniffed the state record in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:49.43, a half-second off the mark.

Hils made it a sweep about 30 minutes later, coming from behind to take the 100-yard freestyle by one-tenth of a second over North Oldham’s Will Tarvestad, who edged Hils in Friday’s preliminary round.

“It felt great to get that one,” said Hils of his two-man battle with Tarvestad. “I swim against him a lot so I just had a conversation in my head about what I needed to do to beat him this time, and it worked. He barely breathes and I breathe a lot. So I just tried to tell myself not to breathe at all.”

Hils insists he won’t shy from the expectations that are sure to be heaped on his shoulders after a dominant freshman campaign that culminated in region and state titles in both of his individual events.

“Since I’m a freshman and I won both events, I’m hoping to never lose a state final in my high school career. I’m shooting to go undefeated,” he said.

First-year Knights coach Dave Little has coached Hils since he was a seventh-grader and sees no reason to temper the expectations of the talented freshman.

“I love it,” Little said. “When you go ahead and take two titles as a freshman that should be your goal. He was right on top of those two state records. If I was him I’d go ahead and add that to my goals too, to get my name in the record books.”

Hils was named to the All-State team and was voted the meet’s co-“Outstanding Competitor” along with Louisville Christian’s Nicholas Albiero.

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 4:37 PM with the headline "St. Xavier boys claim 28th straight swimming and diving title."