Kansas high school girls swimming: Wichita East’s Dirkzwager wins three state titles
Wichita East junior Ariana Dirkzwager was the star of Friday’s Kansas high school girls swimming Class 6A championship meet at Topeka’s Capitol Federal Natatorium.
Not only did Dirkzwager become a state champion for the first time by winning the gold medal in both of her individual events, the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle, she also anchored East’s championship-winning 200-meter freestyle relay team and East’s 400-meter freestyle relay team that finished in second place.
All of the points earned by Dirkzwager, a Georgia Tech commit, helped the Blue Aces to a fifth-place finish in the team standings with 164 team points.
East also had individual medalists in senior Baylor McPherson, who placed third in the 50 free (24.45) and seventh in the 100 butterfly (59.77), and freshman Abby Jones, who took fifth in the 200 free (2:01.47).
But Dirkzwager stole the show, as she swam her best races of the season in both of her individual events. Her time of 23.72 in the 50 free won the title by more than four-tenths of a second and broke the East school record, while her season-best time of 51.52 in the 100 free edged the field by more than two full seconds.
Dirkzwager and Jones also helped East’s 200 free relay team to a come-from-behind victory for the gold medal, as the Blue Aces were in third place in the race after the first two legs from McPherson and junior Sophia Randle. Jones gave East the lead in the third leg, then Dirkzwager brought home the gold.
The relay members of East’s silver-medal 400 free relay team were Jones, junior Andrea Nguyen, McPherson and Dirkzwager.
The only other dual individual medalist from the area was Heights senior Cindy Broadrick, who took fourth in the 100 fly (59.24) and seventh in the 100 backstroke (1:00.65). Other local medalists were Heights senior Ivie Kierl, who took fifth in diving, Northwest sophomore Trinity McDowell, who took sixth in the 50 free, and Campus sophomore Sayler Roberts, who took sixth in the 200 free.
The Class 5-1A state meet is being held on Saturday.
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 6:05 AM.
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