BENTONVILLE -- Lienfang Yu watched the Arkansas High School Swimming and Diving Championships from the stands a year ago with anticipation.
As an eighth-grader, she was excited to compete for Bentonville High as a freshman.
Arkansas High School Swimming and Diving Championships
Class 6A
Girls
ONE-METER DIVING 1, Addison Trunick, Springdale High, 377.70. 2, Taylor Nigemann, Bentonville High, 317.30. 3, RJ Brennan, Fayetteville, 311.40 4, Erin Dalton, Bentonville High., 308.60. 5, Alyssa Alberson, Fayetteville, 304.60.
200 YARD MEDLEY RELAY 1, Little Rock Central, 1:50.39. 2, Bentonville High 1:53.37. 3, Conway 1:53.69. 4, Bentonville West 1:55.04. 5, Cabot 1:56.96.
200 YARD FREESTYLE 1, Chloe Thompson, Bentonville West, 1:52.99. 2, Ainsley Jenkins, Little Rock Central, 1:55.20. 3, Katherine Thomas, Bentonville High. 4, Taylor Horan, Fayetteville, 2:01.18. 5, Grace Robbins, Bentonville High, 2:01.27.
200 YARD INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY 1, Lienfang Yu, Bentonville High, 2:06.31. 2, Brooklyn Anderson, Conway, 2:08.03. 3, Aisling Allen, Fayetteville, 2:13.86. 4, Olivia Chambers, Mt. Saint Mary, 2:14.57. 5, Brooke Holley, Bentonville High, 2:16.68.
50-YARD FREESTYLE 1, Lindsey Haman, Little Rock Central, 24.35. 2, Hope Euler, Bentonville West, 24.37. 3, Rach Zhang, Little Rock Central, 24.49. 4, Allison Lind, Springdale High, 26.04. 5,Emily Holman, Conway, 26.16.
100 YARD BUTTERFLY 1, Gabrielle Jenkins, Little Rock Central, 58.69. 2, Jessica Bongfeldt, Cabot, 59.21. 3, Avery Spencer, Bentonville High, 1:00.43. 4, Mia Patella, Little Rock Central, 1:02.19. 5, Adrienne Robinson, Conway, 1:02.75.
100 YARD FREESTYLE1, Rachel Zhang, Little Rock Central, 53.37. 2, Hope Euler, Bentonville West, 53.89. 3, Katherine Thomas, Bentonville High, 54.99. 4, Taylor Horan, Fayetteville, 55.85. 5, Allison Lind, Springdale High, 56.74.
500 YARD FREESTYLE 1, Ainsley Jenkins, Little Rock Central, 5:01.62. 2, Chloe Thompson, Bentonville West, 5:02.00. 3, Avery Spencer, Bentonville High, 5:07.62. 4, Aisling Allen, Fayetteville, 5:15.15. 5, Josie Harlow, Bentonville West, 5:22.53.
200 YARD FREESTYLE RELAY 1, Little Rock Central 1:41.86. 2, Conway 1:43.05. 3, Bentonville High 1:43.20. 4, Cabot 1:46.95. 5, Fayetteville 1:47.46.
100 YARD BACKSTROKE’ 1, Brooklyn Anderson, Conway, 56.69. 2, Gabrielle Jenkins, Little Rock Central, 58.65. 3, Valeria Mazariegos, Bentonville High, 1:02.12. 4, Betsy Ponder, North Little Rock, 1:02.56. 5, Jameson Tankersley, Conway, 1:03.38.
100 YARD BREASTSTROKE 1, Lienfang Yu, Bentonville High, 1:06.26. 2, Jessica Bongfeldt, Cabot, 1:06.34. 3, Grace Robbins, Bentonville High, 1:07.15. 4, Lindsey Haman, Little Rock Central, 1:07.30. 5, Rachel Mantanaro, Cabot, 1:09.33.
400 YARD FREESTYLE RELAY 1, Bentonville High 3:38.51. 2, Little Rock Central 3:38.49. 3,Bentonville West 3:40.76. 4, Fayetteville 3:51.33. 5, Springdale High 4:05.04.
TEAM SCORES 1, Bentonville High 232.5. 2, Little Rock Central 193. 3, Fayetteville 161. 4, Bentonville West 132. 5, Conway 109. 6, Springdale High 106. 7, Cabot 71.5. 8, Springdale Har-Ber 69. 9, Bryant 48. 10, North Little Rock 38. 11, Rogers High 30. 12, Mount St. Mary 17. 13, Fort Smith Southside 3.
Boys
ONE-METER DIVING 1, Gaviun Jernigan, Bentonville High, 400.85. 2, 2, Kaden Chase, Bentonville West, 385.15. 3, Jaason Huckaby, Bentonville West, 363.00. 4, Chris Nicholson, Bentonville West, 362.30. 5, Grayson Forsbach, Fayetteville, 357.25.
200 YARD MEDLEY RELAY 1, Conway 1:34.36. 2, Little Rock Central 1:36.09. 3, Bentonville High 1:36.11. 4, Cabot 1:41.44. 5, Little Rock Catholic 1:43.60.
200 YARD FREESTYLE 1, Ryan Husband, Bentonville High, 1:39.94. 2, Youssef Bahgat, Little Rock Central, 1:42.31. 3, Jack Forrest, Little Rock Central, 1:43.09. 4, Austin Mondello, Bentonville High, 1:48.83. 5, Duncan Troup, Conway, 1:46.77.
200 YARD INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY 1, Ethan Marotte, Conway, 1:53.45. 2, Nathan Bright, Little Rock Central, 1:53.64. 3, Phillip Stanley, North Little Rock, 1:54.44. 4, Kevin Brumfield, Springdale High, 1:56.87. 5, Gavin Husband, Bentonville High, 1:58.57.
50 YARD FREESTYLE 1, Ty Wingfield, Conway, 20.36 (STATE RECORD old record 20.60). 2, David Reynolds, Little Rock Central, 21.20. 3, Brigham Hill, Bentonville High, 22.22. 4, Gavin Teague, Conway, 22.37. 5, Jordan Mosby, Conway, 22.41.
100 YARD BUTTERFLY 1, Ryan Husband, Bentonville High, 49.59. 2, Andrew Rogers, Conway, 51.47. 3, David Reynolds, Little Rock Central, 52.11. 4, Ethan Marotte, Conway, 52.27. 5, Ellio LaBeau, Little Rock Central, 53.37.
100 YARD FREESTYLE 1, Ty Wingfield, Conway, 45.82. 2, Youssef Bahgat, Little Rock Central, 46.73. 3, Brigham Hill, Bentonville High, 49.56. 4, Gavin Teague, Conway, 49.71. 5, Caleb Tong, Bentonville High, 49.74.
500 YARD FREESTYLE 1, Jack Forrest, Little Rock Central, 4:39.13. 2, Nicholas Heye, Little Rock Central, 4:39.30. 3, Austin Mondello, Bentonville High, 4:44.51. 4, Aaron Wicklund, Rogers High, 4:51.49. 5, Cole Groom, Bentonville West, 4:52.20.
200 YARD FREESTYLE RELAY 1, Conway 1:24.70 (STATE RECORD, old record 1:26.24). 2, Little Rock Central 1:25.52. 3, Bentonville High 1:30.71. 4, Cabot 1:31.08. 5, North Little Rock 1:34.10.
100 YARD BACKSTROKE 1, Andrew Rogers, Conway, 52.81. 2, Jack Dean, Bentonville High, 52.53. 3, Jake Noble, Bentonville, High, 54.33. 4, Nicholas Heye, Little Rock Central, 54.40. 5, Brock Gobee, Cabot, 54.55.
100 YARD BREASTSTROKE 1, Duncan Troup, Conway, 56.80. 2, Nathan Bright, Little Rock Central, 57.70. 3, Phillip Stanley, North Little Rock, 59.94. 4, Elliot LaBeau, Little Rock Central, 1:00.00. 5, Gavin Husband, Bentonville High, 1:00.09.
400 YARD FREESTYLE RELAY 1, Bentonville High 3:12.60. 2, Little Rock Central 3:15.16. 3, Conway 3:21.05. 4, Cabot 3:23.73. 5, Bentonville West 3:29.31.
TEAM SCORES 1, Conway 434. 2, Little Rock Central 415. 3, Bentonville High 374. 4, Cabot 219. 5, Bentonville West 181. 6, Fayetteville 136.5. 7, Little Rock Catholic 111. 8, North Little Rock 105. 9, Springdale High 103.5. 10, Springdale Har-Ber 60. 11, Rogers High 45. 12, Fort Smith Northside/Bryant (tie) 43. 14, Rogers Heritage 24.
Yu made the most of her chance, winning two individual titles, swimming a leg on the winning 400-yard relay team and helping the Lady Tigers claim the Class 6A team title on Saturday at the Bentonville Community Center.
She admitted to feeling some pressure in her first high school state championships.
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"I was really excited all season building up to this," Yu said. "It was really fun. I had extra motivation to help out my team and have a lot of fun.
"The entire meet was stressful, but it was like a fun stressful."
She claimed the 200 individual medley in a time of 2 minutes, 6.31 seconds, edging the second-place finisher by almost two seconds. However, the 100-yard breatstroke was much closer. Yu won that event in 1:06.26, nipping Cabot's Jessica Bongfeldt by less than one-tenth of a second.
Yu helped the Lady Tigers finish off the team victory by swimming a leg on the championship 400 relay team. The Lady Tigers claimed the team title with 232.5 points, easily besting second-place Little Rock Central's 193.
Bentonville coach Liz Braun said every team member did their part to help the team win a state title. But the divers were a key part to the Lady Tigers winning the team title, along with Yu, who was Bentonville's lone individual champion.
"Erin Dalton was especially big," said Braun, who is in her first season at Bentonville. "We didn't think she would be top six, and she ended up getting fourth for us. That brought a lot of energy and a lot of points.
"Lienfang Yu, our freshman, she really came up big. We knew it would be like that with her. She's a big asset to her team."
As Yu is just beginning her high school swimming career, Bentonville teammate Ryan Husband went out on a high note as well. He won the 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle and helped the Tigers to victory in 400 freestyle relay -- the final event of the meet.
The Auburn signee already owns the state records in the 100 and 200 freestyle. He didn't set any records in his final high school meet, but he left no doubt about his dominance in his two individual events. Husband won the 200 freestyle by more than two seconds and took the 100 butterfly by just under two seconds.
He just wanted to do all he could to help his team.
"I want to make it a good experience for everyone else on this team," Husband said. "I'm happy with my individual performance. I'm happy how I ended my high school career. I just wanted to come out and see what we could do as a team."
The Tigers finished third with 374 points behind champion Conway, which won its first state title in 32 years with 434 points. Little Rock Central was second with 415.
But Husband finished off his high school career with a flair in the relay.
"My whole high school career I've, personally, never lost a 4x100 relay," Husband said. "To be able end like that, not just me, but with the other three guys and to be able to go and win that with them is big."
Braun said Husband has been a fine example for his teammates.
"He's an exceptional swimmer, and he's given a lot to this program this last four years," Braun said. "We've constantly said he's constantly set the expectation and the standard in the pool for all future Tigers. He's going to be a hard one to replace next year.
"Everyone's looking at Ryan Husband all the time in and out of the pool. Everyone's always looking up to him, watching what he's doing. I'm excited to see our young boys slowly fill his shoes and kind of step up to that."
There were two state records set in the meet. Conway's Ty Wingfield set a record in the 50 freestyle, winning in a time of 20.36. The previous mark was 20.60. Wingfield was also part of the Wampus Cats' 200 freestyle relay team, which set the start mark of 1:24.7. The old mark was 1:26.24.
Preps Sports on 03/01/2020