Posted: Feb 05, 2015
Girls' Swim Head Into Sectional Finals
The Bulldog Girls Swimming & Diving Team put themselves in position to win their second consecutive IHSAA Sectional championship Thursday night, with an outstanding performance in the preliminary round at Decatur Central HS. The Dogs will carry 5 top seeds into finals and overall, all 27 swims from Thursday night - individual and relay - qualified for Saturday's championship final, which is composed of the fastest 8 performances from prelims.
"We had an impressive performance tonight in a lot of ways, most notably how we swam with a high degree of confidence," Head Coach Josh Saylor said. "A lot of girls just swam to qualify and did so successfully, but our girls who needed to step up came through in a big way and moved into the championship final. Our best is yet to come but tonight was a great start."
Senior Kierra Watson claimed the top qualifying spot in the 200 IM and 100 Backstroke, as did sophomore AJ Moll in the 500 Freestyle and freshman Bailey LaPaugh in the 100 Butterfly. The team of seniors Clarice Cross and Ashly Kraatz, sophomore Kaylee Propst and freshman Ava Davidson qualified first in the 200 Medley Relay.
The Dogs also take 6 second place seeds into Saturday's finals. Junior Madison Kehr swims from the second spot in the 200 & 100 Freestyle as does junior Piper Lovett in the 50 Freestyle and the 100 Backstroke (behind Watson). Bailey LaPaugh is second to Moll in the 500 Freestyle and a foursome of seniors - Kraatz joined by Brianna LaPaugh, Alyssa Smock and Megan Wolf - finished second in the 400 Freestyle Relay.
Smock had one of two highlight swims on the night, dropping 2 seconds from her lifetime best to move into the championship final in the 100 Freestyle. The other belonged to freshman Anna Santiago, who dropped 4 seconds in the 100 Breaststroke to move up 6 spots into the final. Santiago and Smock teamed with Wolf and sophomore Karsyn Hopper to qualify fifth in the 200 Freestyle Relay.
Cross (50 Freestyle), Davidson (100 Breaststroke), Hopper (200 & 100 Freestyle), Kraatz (500 Freestyle), Brianna LaPaugh (200 IM & 100 Butterfly), Moll (200 Freestyle), Propst (200 IM & 100 Backstroke) and Wolf (100 Butterfly) all qualified for additional championship final swims, as did freshman Annabelle Ketchem in the 50 Freestyle & 100 Breaststroke.
The girls will make their final run at the championship on Saturday, February 7. Divers Angelica Brinker, Kayla Cromer and Danielle LeClerc compete in diving preliminaries at 9am, with swimming and diving finals beginning at 1pm at Decatur Central
