The Blue Springs boys swimming and diving team finished an up-and-down season on a high note at the state swimming meet Saturday at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.
Though the Wildcats failed to medal as a top-four team for the first time in seven years, they rallied for an 11th-place finish with 73 points. Rockhurst won its sixth consecutive state title with a record 400.5 points and was followed by Springfield Glendale (123.5), St. Louis Chaminade (121) and Parkway South (120) of Ballwin.
“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year if I thought we’d be here, I’d say we wouldn’t come close,” Blue Springs coach Robert Sturman said. “Overall, I thought we did a good job.”
Jameson Wright led the way, earning three medals. Wright finished eighth in the 100-yard butterfly (53.58 seconds) and was a part of Blue Springs’ sixth-place 200 freestyle relay (1 minute, 29.36 seconds) and eighth-place 400 free relay (3:19.63). Those relays also included Aaron Anderson, Nathan Mead and Justin Kelley.
Wright was especially happy with his butterfly performance.
“I hit all of my turns this year,” Wright said. “Last year, I probably should have been DQ’d.”
Blue Springs’ 200 medley relay – which includes Wright, Anderson, Mead and Marron Harris – finished 10th in 1:42.40.
Sturman is proud of his team, which had to work through illness and inexperience this season. He said at one point, half the team was out because of swine flu.
“It’s been a tough year for us,” Sturman said. “We’ll be back.”
Lee’s Summit North finished 26th overall with 28 points.
Bobby Faulkenberry earned North’s lone medal, finishing seventh in the 100 backstroke with a 54.06. Faulkenberry also finished 10th in the 200 individual medley with a 2:00.37.
North’s 200 medley relay finished 15th with a 1:44.22. Faulkenberry, Shawn Betz, Danny Hynes and Nathan Dent made up the relay.
North’s Drake Duckworth finished 12th in diving with 353.75 points.
Lee’s Summit West finished 29th with 24 points.
All of West’s points came in the consolation pool. Ryan Dake finished 10th in the 200 freestyle (1:47.32) and Alec Jackson finished 14th in the 100 butterfly (54.61), both times were school records. West’s 200 free relay took 13th (1:30.92) and the 400 free relay took 14th (3:21.18).
West coach Colleen Gibler said the Titans rebounded from a slow start the first day, something that has plagued the team this season.
“We discussed it and they actually acknowledged that they came into these big meets a little tense because everybody is talking about how good we are supposed to be,” Gibler said. “We’re going to work on some team exercises next year on perspective so we don’t come in with those jitters.”
