PREVIEW: No. 26 Girls' Swimming & Diving preps for State Finals

By Drew Sandifer

The No. 26 Brownsburg Girls' Swimming & Diving team will culminate their season this weekend at the IHSAA Girls' Swimming & Diving State Finals at the IU Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI on Feb. 12 and 13. The Bulldogs are sending nine individuals and relay teams to the State Final this season after the Bulldogs' eighth-consecutive Sectional Championship.

Brownsburg will kick off the event with a team in the 200 Medley Relay race. The Bulldogs' relay squad of Gutzweiler, Kingery, Schaekel and Miller broke school and pool records in Sectional play just a week ago. 

Senior Rory Smith won last week's Sectional Championship in the 200 Free and will represent the Bulldogs in the State meet in that event. Fellow team captain Maria Gutzweiler broke a school record in the 50 Free en reoute to a Sectional championship.

While Emma Wolf was not able to punch her ticket to the State Final until Tuesday, she did just that, winning the Regional championship by 10 points over the next closest competitor. Wolf will compete in the 1M Dive.

Next, a few Bulldogs will compete as individuals in various events after the break. Annika Schaekel returned to form after a long-awaited debut, but she finds her way back to the State Finals, winning the 100 Fly Sectional championship. Schaekel will be followed by Margie Miller, who blazed her way through the Sectional competition in the 100 Free. Finally for the individuals, Erin Haycox will represent Brownsburg in the 500 Freestyle competition after taking first place in last week's Sectional Championship.

Finally, Brownsburg was able to capture both Sectional Championships in the Free relays last week. Miller, Schakel, Smith, Gutzweiler will compete in the 200 Free Relay after setting a school record last week, while Miller, Schaekel and Smith will stick around for the 400 Free Relay along with Haycox to finish out the prelims.

Brownsburg is scheduled for group A in the State preliminaries, which is scheduled to start at noon on Friday, Feb. 12 with the start of the 200 Medley Relay race. All State Finals action will be broadcasted live on the IHSAA Champions Network at IHSAAtv.org.