22 Feb 2012 CHS swim teams earn district honors, prepare for state tournament

by Mark Oliver

The Conway High School boys and girls swim teams recently participated in the central district meet in Little Rock, taking home many more honors to add to an already successful year for each program.

The girls’ team continued its dominance, placing first overall and winning the district championship with a whopping 608 team points, while runner-up Mount Saint Mary only accumulated 335.3. The boys’ team placed second with 374 total points, falling short to North Little Rock’s 453.

“I was very excited,” said Conway swimming and diving coach Christie Rye. “Both [of our teams] did a great job. I have good swimmers and swimmers that swim well. It takes swimmers that can pull points in all places.”

Conway placed first in the boys’ and girls’ 200-yard medley relays with times of 1:42.94 and 1:58.76, respectively. The girls’ team also placed first in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:47.56 and placed first in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 4:00.78. The boys’ team also won the 200-yard freestyle relay, clocking in at 1:32.91.

In the 1-meter diving competitions, junior Ben Martin finished second with a score of 251.30, while junior Tanner Bezet finished third with a score of 213.23. Sophomore SondraClaire Sellers placed third for the girls’ team with a score of 212.80 points.

Individually for the boys’ team, junior Tyler Crosson placed first in the boys’ 100-yard freestyle, as well as the boys’ 100-yard backstroke, with times of 47.24 seconds and 53.29 seconds, respectively. Senior Landen Ward finished in fourth place with a time of 52.02 seconds, while also taking second in the boys’ 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.44 seconds. Senior Luke Sanders placed second in the boys’ 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:09.56. Sophomore William Bryden placed first in the boys’ 100-yard butterfly with a time of 54.81 seconds and finished third in the boys’ 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:07.92.

Individually for the girls’ team, junior Jocelyn Woo placed first in the girls’ 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:14.38, senior Danielle Burnside placed second with a time of 1:18.33 and sophomore Shelby King placed fifth with a time of 1:31.30. Freshman Sierra Kinworthy placed first in the girls’ 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:04.05. Junior Annie Courtway finished closely behind in second place, clocking in at 1:04.06. Senior Jenny Courtway finished in fourth place with a time of 1:09.69. Kinworthy also placed first in the girls’ 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:31.51. Freshman Laura Bloomfield came in third place with a time of 5:53.73.

Woo and Annie Courtway took the top two spots in the girls’ 100-yard butterfly, with times of 1:01.32 and 1:04.28, respectively, while freshman Carly Ebinger finished fourth with a time of 1:11.34. Junior Corissa Calico and freshman Casey Ragsdale took the top two spots in the girls’ 50-yard freestyle with times of 25.09 seconds and 26.56 seconds, respectively, while Ebinger finished in fifth place with a time of 30.08 seconds. Ragsdale placed first in the girls’ 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:05.02, and freshman Amanda Crnic and senior Sarah Spellmann finished second and fourth with times of 2:09.18 and 2:30.49, respectively. Burnside took second place in the girls’ 100-yard freestyle with a time of 58.47 seconds. Crnic finished third with a time of 58.93 seconds, and junior Taylorr Routt finished fourth with a time of 1:08.42. Calico, Bloomfield, Jenny Courtway and junior Gabriela Zambrano took the top four spots in the girls’ 200-yard individual medley with times of 2:17.12, 2:25.79, 2:38.79 and 2:48.38, respectively.

Many students from both teams were named to the All-District team, including Martin, Crosson, Bryden, Sanders, Ward and sophomore Isaac Powers for the boys’ team and Annie Courtway, Jenny Courtway, Woo, Calico, Kinworthy, Ragsdale, Burnside, Crnic and Bloomfield for the girls’ team. 

Up next for the boys’ and girls’ swim teams is the state swim meet, beginning with the dive competition at 5 p.m. Friday. The remaining events will begin at noon Saturday at UALR in Little Rock.

“It’s a mind game now,” Rye said. “We are swimming great right now. We just have to focus on our race and think about the little things like starts, turns and breathing. We are where we should be. We just have to keep each other upbeat and work together.”