The ‘trickle-down’ effect: Bishop Carroll girls swimming wins Kansas 5-1A title again
There was no tradition of success at the state meet for the Bishop Carroll girls swimming and diving team before the program narrowly missed bringing home a team trophy in 2017.
But that experience has propelled Carroll in the years since: a third-place trophy in 2018, the program’s first state championship in 2019, then a second straight Class 5-1A championship secured this past weekend at the Capitol Federal Natatorium in Topeka.
In a race between City League rivals, Carroll finished with 282 team points — 45 more than runner-up Kapaun Mt. Carmel — on the strength of its relays for back-to-back state titles.
“We had a group of really strong seniors (in 2017) and that’s what got the ball rolling I think,” Carroll coach Spencer Shellhammer said. “The girls got a taste of what it was like and they liked that. We just have a lot of girls who are willing to put in the work, in and out of the season. That just started trickling down.”
After the 200-yard medley relay team of seniors Rachel Bailey, Natalee Clark and Lexie Biby and junior Zoe Winter finished runner-up to start the meet, Carroll’s other two relays would not be denied.
Carroll’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Biby, Clark, junior Cadence Means and sophomore Karis Reynaga won in dominant fashion in a time of 1:40.93, as did the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Reynaga, Bailey, Winter and junior Alex Bailey to close out the meet in a time of 3:39.79.
“The girls were just happy to have a season and be able to come back and have a state meet,” Shellhammer said. “We were looking strong after that win (in 2019), then our season was taken away and we were devastated for our 2020 seniors. We knew it was going to be really tough with the loss of those girls, but we knew these girls would give it their best shot.”
Winter was the only individual champion for Carroll, as she was dominant in the 100 butterfly with a winning time of 57.23, followed by her teammate Clark in second place in 59.77. Winter also finished runner-up in the 200 individual medley, while Reynaga (200 free) and Rachel Bailey (500 free) also notched silver medals in their events.
Other medalists for Carroll included Reynaga in the 100 free (third), Rachel Bailey in the 200 free (fourth), Clark in the 200 IM (sixth), Alex Bailey in the 500 free (sixth) and Biby in the 50 free (eighth).
Kapaun’s Conover, Andover’s Neugent both win two titles
A pair of local swimmers became first-time champions by sweeping both of their individual events in Kapaun senior Claire Conover and Andover junior Natalie Neugent.
After coming close to winning in the 2019 state meet, Conover finally earned her gold medals by winning the 200 individual medley in a time of 2:04.76 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.79. Conover also won another gold medal as a leg on Kapaun’s winning 200 medley relay team, which also included junior Sydney Le, senior Lily Valentas and freshman Sydney Turner. She picked up a silver medal on Kapaun’s 400 free relay team along with Turner, Le and junior Olivia Orth.
While Neugent finished runner-up in the 50 free and 100 free as a freshman, she proved herself to be the fastest swimmer in the 5-1A field with a winning time of 23.87 in the 50 free and 52.55 in the 100 free. Neugent also helped two of Andover’s relays score, as the 200 free relay team finished runner-up along with Reagan Bayliff, Kallisti Mandanis and Sami McClellan and the 200 medley relay team of Jill Dean, Mandanis, Neugent and Bayliff took sixth.
Kapaun finished second in the team race, thanks to individual medalists in Orth (fourth in 500 free and fifth in 200 free), Le (fifth in 100 back and sixth in 100 fly), Mikaela Meyer (fifth in diving) and sophomore Makenzie Amphone (eighth in 100 back).
Here are other standouts from the meet:
- McPherson freshman Danica Brunk took runner-up in the 50 free (24.00 and 100 back (58.77).
- Independent junior Grace Martin was third in the 100 back (1:00.39) and fifth in the 100 fly (1:00.56).
- Maize senior Brooklyn Blasdel notched fifth-place finishes in the 50 free (24.55) and the 100 free (54.69). Teammate Emily Sprowls, a sophomore, also took seventh in the 500 free.
- Newton sophomore Madison Horton took seventh in the 200 IM (2:19.69) and eighth in the 100 free (55.67).
- The Winfield freshmen duo of Reese Isom (fifth in 500 free) and Emma Moore (sixth in 200 free) both collected their first state medals.
- Other area medalists included Collegiate sophomore Katherine Grace (sixth in 50 free), Trinity junior Megan Walls (sixth in 100 free) and Valley Center freshman Kayla Milligan (seventh in 100 fly).
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 2:33 PM.
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