Swimming & Diving Fayetteville girls claim 6A-7A state title

Bentonville boys streak comes to an end

NWA Democrat-Gazette/CHARLIE KAIJO Fayetteville's Olivia Keith competes in the 200-yard individual medley Saturday during the Class 6A-7A state swimming and diving meet at the Bentonville Community Center in Bentonville.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/CHARLIE KAIJO Fayetteville's Olivia Keith competes in the 200-yard individual medley Saturday during the Class 6A-7A state swimming and diving meet at the Bentonville Community Center in Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE -- Fayetteville stopped another Bentonville High streak Saturday afternoon at the Bentonville Community Center.

The Lady Purple Bulldogs claimed the Class 6A-7A state swimming and diving title, knocking off the Lady Tigers for the second time in a two weeks.

At A Glance

Class 6A-7A State Swim Results

Boys

Team Scores: 1, Little Rock Central 440. 2, Conway 419. 3, Bentonville High 323.5. 4, Bentonville West 197. 5, Cabot 193.

One meter diving: 1, Martin Keown, Bentonville High, 416.3. 2, Brayden Martin, Bentonville West, 377.8. 3, Johnathon Hopkins, Conway, 376.7. 4, Will Adams, Fayetteville, 371. 5, Caivon Crospby, Bryant, 363.15.

200 yard medley relay: 1, Conway 1:37.22. 2, Little Rock Central 1:40.54. 3, Caobt 1:41.22. 4, Bentonville High 144.08. 5, Bentonville West 1:44.8.

200 yard freestyle: 1, Ryan Husband, Bentonville High, 1:41.19. 2, Vincent Jaworksi, Little Rock Central, 1:43.44. 3, Joseph Potts, North Little Rock, 1:48.75. 4, Carson Traylor, Little Rock Central, 1:48.95. 5, Nathan Bright, Litle Rock Central, 1:49.02.

200 yard individual medley: 1, Aaron Rieth, Conway, 1:55.77. 2, Tristen Bowen, Cabot, 1:57.11. 3, Levi Lewis, Little Rock Central, 2:00.36. 4, Simon Mooney, Bentonville High, 2:01.89. 5, Noah Smith, Lake Hamilton, 2:02.84.

50 yard freestyle: 1, Ty Wingfield, Conway, 21.18. 2, Gavin Vann, Bentonville West, 21.29. 3, Zane Sutton, Bentonville High, 21.45. 4, Andre Chiu, Little Rock Central, 22.62. 5, David Reynolds, Little Rock Central, 22.64.

100 yard butterfly: 1, AJ Mainord, Conway, 51.46. 2, Ethan Marotte, Conway, 52.23. 3, Carson Traylor, Little Rock Central, 52.89. 4, John Peyton, Little Rock Central, 54.12. 5, Simon Mooney, Bentonville, 55.08.

100 yard freestyle: 1, Ryan Husband, Bentonville High, 46.49. 2, Vincent Jaworski, Little Rock Central, 47.33. 3, Ty Wingfield, Conway, 47.38. 4, Nathan Bright, Little Rock Central, 50.20. 5, Ryan Reeddell, Bentonville West, 50.49.

500 yard freestyle: 1, Joseph Potts, North Little Rock, 4:50.95. 2, David Reynolds, Little Rock Central, 4:53.34. 3, Nicholas Heye, Little Rock Central, 4:55.78. 4, Austin Mondello, Bentonville High, 5:02.78. 5, Noah Smith, Lake Hamilton, 5:05.15.

200 yard freestyle relay: 1, Conway 1:26.24*. 2, Bentonville High 1:26.28. 3, Little Rock Central 1:29.70. 4, North Little Rock 1:34.58. 5, Bentonville West 1:34.83.

100 yard backstroke: 1, Gavin Vann, Bentonville West, 51.56. 2, Aaron Rieth, Conway, 52.25. 3, Tristen Bowen, Cabot, 52.28. 4, Ian Heye, Little Rock Central, 56.88. 5, Logan Jennings, Little Rock Central, 57.53.

100 yard breaststroke: 1, A.J. Mainord, Conway, 58.46. 2, Zane Sutton, Bentonville, 58.94. 3, Ethan Marotte, Conway, 1:00.66. 4, Jason Bongfeldt, Cabot, 1:00.75. 5, Barrett Troup, Little Rock Central, 1:01.61.

400 yard freestyle relay: 1, Bentonville High 3:11.09. 2, Little Rock Central 3:17.12. 3, Conway 3:23.01. 4, North Little Rock 3:27.59. 5, Cabot 3:28.28.

Girls

Team Scores: 1, Fayetteville 387.5. 2, Little Rock Central 361. 3, Bentonville High 288.5. 4, Cabot 196.5. 5, Conway 172.

One meter diving: 1, Hailey Rissinger, Fayetteville, 409.9. 2, Anna Harris, Conway, 375.45. 3, Lauren Fink, Springdale High, 365.65. 4, Addison Trunick, Springdale High, 363.55. 5, Taylor Hiroyasu, Bentonville High, 351.05.

200 yard medley relay: 1, Fayetteville 1:49.23. 2, Little Rock Central 1:49.62. 3, Cabot 1:54.55. 4, Jonesboro 1:56.12. 5, Conway 1:59.53.

200 yard freestyle: 1, Olivia Johnson, Little Rock Central, 1:55.44. 2, Lizzie Stevens, Fayetteville, 1:57.18. 3, Loren Hedgecock, Bentonville High, 2:00.05. 4, Katherine Erbach, Little Rock Central, 2:02.24. 5, Aisling Allen, Fayetteville, 2:02.51.

200 yard individual medley: 1, Erin McGuirt, Searcy, 2:06.88. 2, Olivia Keith, Fayetteville, 2:08.53. 3, Izzy Jones, Jonesboro, 2:15.97. 4, Lainey Quandt, Bentonville High, 2:16.13. 5, Rachel Montanaro, Cabot, 2:19.63.

50 yard freestyle: 1, Bella Cothern, Jonesboro, 23.39*. 2, Rachel Zhang, Little Rock Central, 24.58. 3, Gaby Jenkins, Little Rock Central, 24.86. 4, Lindsey Haman, Little Rock Central, 25.26. 5, Kexin Meng, Fayetteville, 25.32.

100 yard butterfly: 1, Eric McGuirt, Searcy, 56.57. 2, Audrey McKinnon, Fayetteville, 58.71. 3, Madeline Marks, Bentonville High, 58.73. 4, Brianna Hanley, Little Rock Central, 59.18. 5, Lydia Hutchmaker, Benton, 59.31.

100 yard freestyle: 1, Olivia Keith, Fayetteville, 52.93. 2, Gaby Jenkins, Little Rock Central, 53.18. 3, Anna Jaworski, Little Rock Central, 54.27. 4, Rachel Zhang, Little Rock Central, 54.29. 5, LorenHedgecock, Bentonville High, 54.78

500 yard freestyle: 1, Madeline Marks, Bentonville, 5.05.45. 2, Olivia Johnson, Little Rock Central, 5:05.82. 3, Lizzie Stevens, Fayetteville, 5:15.94. 4, Brianna Hanley, Little Rock Central, 5:19.07. 5, Katherine Erbach, Little Rock Central, 5:22.43.

200 yard freestyle relay: 1, Little Rock Central, 1:39.65. 2, Jonesboro 1:43.53. 3, Bentonville High 1:43.63. 4, Fayetteville 1:46.41. 5, Bryant 1:47.19.

100 yard backstroke: 1, Anna Jaworksi, Little Rock Central, 1:00.33. 2, Jessica Bongfeldt, Cabot, 1:01.66. 3, Kristen Stalder, Rogers High, 1:02.00. 4, Betsy Ponder, North Little Rock, 1:02.56. 5, Emily Holman, Conway, 1:03. 76.

100 yard breaststroke: 1, Bella Corthern, Jonesboro, 1:03.85*. 2, Audrey McKinnon, Fayetteville, 1:05.22. 3, Rachel Montanaro, Cabot, 1:07.10. 4, Jessica Bongfeldt, Cabot, 10:09.68. 5, Caroline Stelte, Fayetteville, 1:10.93.

400 yard freestyle relay: 1, Little Rock Central 3:37.51. 2, Fayetteville 3:38.64. 3, Bentonville High 3:46.94. 4, Conway 3:51.50. 5, Cabot 3:53.26.

  • denotes state record time.

Fayetteville wrestled the North District title away from Bentonville two weeks ago, ending a streak of six consecutive titles by the Lady Tigers. It was more of the same at the state meet as Bentonville's streak of three state titles came to an end.

The Lady Purple'Dogs outdistanced Little Rock Central 387.5-361 to win its first state swimming and diving title since 2001. Bentonville finished third.

Fayetteville coach Michael Kaminski leaped into the pool, despite wearing a purple polo and khakis, to celebrate the victory with his team.

"This year it just all kinda came together," said Kaminski with his clothes still dripping. "Everyone's healthy. Everyone's been training hard. We've got a great dynamic with our group. Everybody cares about each other and I just couldn't be prouder.

"We felt like we had a good shot. We also knew that Little Rock Central and Bentonville are very, very strong."

Kaminiski pointed to three divers, who were new to the team, as keys in the victory.

"We would not have won the meet without them," said Kaminski, whose team finished third last year just behind Little Rock Central. "I like to look at the data as a science teacher, and without our eighth-, ninth- and 10th-place girls diving we would have lost to Central by half a point."

Olivia Keith and Hailey Rissinger were Fayetteville's only state champions, with Keith claiming the 100-yard freestyle and Rissinger winning the one-meter diving competition.

Keith also joined with Audrey McKinnon, Caroline Stelte and Kexin Meng to win the 200 medley relay.

McKinnon, who also finished second in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke, said the win at district gave the team momentum to take the state title.

"After districts we just really had a fire in us," said McKinnon, who moved to Fayetteville from Memphis this year. "It was big for us to win this thing. We swim all the time against these people all the time at club. Just to win for our high school is really important to us."

Being a senior, it was particularly important for Keith, who also finished second 200 individual medley.

"It was so special to come together as one, especially for coach Mike," said Keith, who will swim collegiately at Nebraska next year. "Being a senior it was the last time to swim here with my teammates. It was such a good time. We enjoyed it."

McKinnon competed in the state meet in Tennessee last year, but she had only four other teammates with her. This year was different.

"Coming from not as big a school, it's really special to share this with my friends," McKinnon said. "We only had five girls make it to state and sharing it with 20 girls is really special."

Little Rock Central ended another Bentonville streak by winning the boys' team title. Central edged Conway 440-419 stopping an incredible run of 13 straight championships by Bentonville.

Bentonville sophomore Ryan Husband enjoyed a big day winning both the 100 and 200 freestyle. He also helped the Tigers win the 400 freestyle relay. Bentonville West's Gavin Vann also won the 100 backstroke for the second consecutive year.

Jonesboro's Bella Cothern won two events and set two state records. She won the 100 breaststroke and the 50 freestyle both in record time. Her time of 23.39 topped the old record of 23.65 set in 1999 by Benton's Hope Earnhart. She beat the old record in the 100 breaststroke by more than a second with a time of 1:03.85.

Conway's boys also set a record in the 200 freestyle relay. The Wampus Cats' time of 1:26.24 beat the mark of 1:27.00 set by Bentonville High in 2016.

Sports on 02/25/2018

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