By Delaney Jackson

Reporter

The boys swim and dive team had a great end to the regular season with the JV team winning conference, and the varsity team placing second at conference. At the State competition, the team got 16^th out of 67 teams.

This year, South hosted the JV conference at the YMCA next to Blue Springs South. One of the most improved times of the season was by junior Greg Fessler in the 500-yard freestyle. Fessler dropped 45 seconds in the event, and ended up winning the event. In the diving event, South went one and two. Freshman Drew Childs won the event, and junior Trey Lawlor got second. Overall, the team came together to pull off the win.

The varsity conference meet was held at Lee’s Summit Aquatics Center. All four of the South divers placed in the top eight, and junior Kevin Schlenger won the meet.

“I didn’t expect to win the meet. I thought Daniel Valmassei, the Lee’s Summit North diver, was going to. Him and I have been super close in places this entire season, and he’s a great diver,” Schlenger said.

Freshman Alex Burt broke the freshman 11 dive record at the conference meet. Burt had already broken the freshman six dive record earlier in the season. Burt now holds both of the freshman diving records at South. Schlenger broke the school six dive record earlier in the season. The divers broke three out of the four diving records this season.

At the conference meet, freshman swimmer Chase Graham also broke another freshman record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:48.59. Earlier in the season, Graham broke the freshman boys 100-yard butterfly with a time of 56.10 seconds.

On the swimming side of things, junior Ben Morgan placed first in the 100 backstroke, fellow junior teammate Nick Keller placed second.

“Nick swam awesomely; he did great in the relay and the backstroke. As a team, all around we had a pretty amazing meet,” said Morgan.

Morgan’s time in the 100-yard backstroke was 54.22, the school record in the event is 54.17. He did not get the record this season, but will continue to try next year.

Junior Jake Workman won the 50-yard freestyle, and fellow junior Kyle Hepting placed second.

The boys swim and dive varsity team came together to pull off second place, behind Lee’s Summit North.

November 5^th-7^th, the boys swim and dive team were at the State competition in St. Louis. It is the final meet of the season, as well as the biggest meet of the season. There is a qualification that swimmers and divers must meet in order to go to the competition.

On Friday, the swimmers had prelims, and if athletes placed in the top 16, competed on Saturday in finals. The divers had practice on Friday, so that they can get used to the boards.

On Saturday, the divers had their event. This year, there were 37 divers at the competition.  After five dives, they cut down to 20 divers. They then do three more dives, and then they make another cut, this time to 16 divers. By this point, there are 16 divers, and they are the finalists. The top 16 divers are considered All State, and they finish up with their last three dives, which makes 11 dives in all.

At state, sophomore Cole Greashaber and freshman Alex Burt both got All State in diving. Greashaber got 14^th with a score of 360.50, while Burt got 15^th with a score of 338.85. Junior Jake Workman also got All State in the 50yard freestyle with a time of 22.28 seconds.  The 200 free relay also made finals, and got fourth overall with a time of 1:28.97 seconds.