Girls' Swim/Dive Advances 24 to Finals

The Bulldog Girls Swimming & Diving Team opened up their run through the state tournament in strong fashion Thursday, hosting the IHSAA Sectional Preliminaries at the Bulldog Aquatic Center. All 24 individual swims - including four first place qualifiers - and all three relay teams advanced to Saturday's final session.

 

"Today was moving day, meaning all of our girls were focused on moving up in their respective seeding and most importantly, moving on to the next day of the meet," Head Coach Josh Saylor said. "We did everything we needed to do to win our first Sectional championship in 23 years. The girls have had that as their main goal all season and now we're right on the doorstep."

Senior Grace Fulwider led all qualifiers in the 200 Individual Medley and 100 Breaststroke, as did junior Kierra Watson in the 100 Butterfly and freshman AJ Moll in the 500 Freestyle. Moll will be the second seed in the 200 Freestyle for Saturday's finals session, and Watson will swim from the third position in the 100 Backstroke.

Senior Tia Scoggan (100 Backstroke), sophomore Madison Kehr (100 Freestyle, 100 Breaststroke) and freshman Kaylee Propst (200 Individual Medley) all hold second place seeds for finals. The quartet of Propst, senior Delaney Krug and juniors Ashly Kraatz and Alyssa Smock qualified second in the 200 Medley Relay. In additional relay action, Kraatz, Moll and juniors Clarice Cross and Megan Wolf qualified third in the 400 Freestyle Relay, while Cross, Smock, Wolf and junior Brianna LaPaugh qualified sixth in the 200 Freestyle Relay.

Also qualifying for the championship final (top eight) on Saturday are senior Chloe Wittig (200 Freestyle, 100 Butterfly), Kraatz (500 Freestyle), Krug (100 Breaststroke), LaPaugh (500 Freestyle, 200 Individual Medley), Propst (100 Backstroke), Scoggan (50 Freestyle) and Wolf (200 Freestyle, 100 Butterfly).

Cross (50 Freestyle) and Smock (50 & 100 Freestyle) qualified for the consolation finals on Saturday.

"Our girls have been a model of teamwork and togetherness all season," Saylor said. "If we win this championship on Saturday, it will truly be a team effort and that means more to me than any individual accolade."

Bulldog freshman Danielle LeClerc will compete in diving preliminaries at 9 a.m. on Saturday, February 8 at the Bulldog Aquatic Center. Swimming and diving finals will begin at 1 p.m.