Monday, February 3, 2014
Eunsol Chon picked up victories in a pair of individual events and Bentonville’s girls rolled to an easy victory Thursday in the Siloam Springs Make-Up Meet at the John Brown University pool.
Chon had winning times of 2 minutes, 1.97 seconds in the 200-yard freestyle and 1:02.14 in the 100 butterfly. Other Lady Tigers with wins included Emiley Horton 100 freestyle (56.38); Allison Kash in the 500 freestyle (6:02.79) and Katelynn Hagenburger in 1-meter diving, (190.70 points); as well as the 200 medley relay (1:58.62), the 400 freestyle relay (4:10.91) and the 200 freestyle relay (1:43.47).
Bentonville finished with 647 points in the team totals, while Siloam Springs was a distant second with 383.
“Eunsol is getting back into the swing of things, and everybody did well,” assistant coach Nick Nersesian said. “We’re starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together and getting more people qualified for the state meet.
“The more people that we get qualified for state, it gives us some leeway in putting everybody in the right spots.”
Bentonville also had five more swimmers qualify for the state meet, which will be held Feb. 28 and March 1 in Little Rock. Three girls and two guys are on the cusp of turning in qualifying times for the state meet, as well.
PUSEY, HOLLAND GET QUALIFYING TIMES
Sophomore Ian Pusey just missed getting the state qualifying time in the 200-yard individual medley on Saturday, but he took care of business in the Siloam Springs Invitational at John Brown University on Thursday.
“He missed it by half a second at Hendrix,” Heritage swimming coach Julie Sakalares said. “But he got it this time. We were all really excited. All his teammates were cheering for him. Now he has his cut for the 100 breast stroke and the 200 IM.”
In addition, freshman Blake Holland beat the qualifying standard in the 100 backstroke. Sakalares said it was big for Holland since he’s been ill and missed a couple of meets.
“I told him we needed to get him qualified in a couple more events, so we can pick what he competes in,” Sakalares said.
Heritage finished sixth out of 11 teams, but was missing senior Samuel Schaefer, who enjoyed a good meet in Conway, but was sidelined by illness on Thursday.
Sophomore Carly Holland won the 100 backstroke and was second in the 50 freestyle. Tina Nguyen was second to Holland in the 100 backstroke.
Nguyen and Holland were also part of the Lady War Eagles’ 200 medley relay team, which finished third. They were joined by Bethany Craft and freshman Taylor Umbarger. The Lady War Eagles finished fourth out of 12 in the team standings.
— PAUL BOYD @NWAPAULB
MOUNTIES RELAY TEAM ADVANCES TO STATE
The Mounties 400 relay team of Evan Campbell, Brandon Lithalancy, Jacob Carroll and Paul Hescott recently qualified for the state meet.
“That’s the only boys that have qualified for state so far,” Rogers coach Rob Bray said.
The Lady Mounties relay team of Lisa Lauschke, Kimi Davis, Shelby Hendricks and Sarah Blanchard is also close to qualifying in several relays, Bray said.
— PAUL NIELSEN W@NWAPAUL
REED PLACES SECOND IN DIVING
Inviting Ryan Reed to join the swimming and diving team at Springdale Har-Ber continues to pay off.
Reed, the only diver for the Wildcats, was one of the top finishers at the Hendrix College Swim Meet at Conway.
“This was Ryan’s first big meet and he played second overall,” Har-Ber coach Samantha Couch said. “It was a good meet for us and this was Ryan’s first meet away from his home practice pool, the HPER. He’s looking forward to the next big meet, Saturday, Feb. 8, at the HPER.”
Couch asked Reed, a junior, to join the team after seeing him performance flips during a routine with the Har-Ber cheerleaders.
Senior Ben Parmer, who also joined the team this year, finished second in the 500-yard free style event at the meet in Conway.
Sophomore John Parmer reached a state qualifying time in the 200 freestyle event and freshman Clare Hamilton achieved state qualifying times in the 200 intermediate and 100-yard breaststroke.
— RICK FIRES @ NWARICK