Dusing’s 200 Freestyle State Record Falls in Kentucky State Meet

By Brian Savard

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky, February 19. IT's not every day where an Olympian's high school records are broken, but that is what happened at the 2007 Kentucky High School State Championships. Tyler Reed, a Butler junior, clocked a 1:38.72 in the preliminary heats en route to breaking former Covington Catholic swimmer Nate Dusing's record, which he set back in 1996.

Reed ended up taking both the 200 freestyle (1:39.11) and the 100 freestyle (45.22). Dusing's state mark of 44.93 in the 100 freestyle will stand another year.

Keeping up with the continuing trend of broken records, Colin Faris, a senior from St. Patrick, slid under the 1998 mark (20.82) set by Josh Hettich of St. Xavier. The 20.77 time Faris posted easily placed him among the elite 50 freestylers in the country, as his time is well under the 21.29 All-American automatic qualifying time.

Senior Cory Chitwood of Ryle took first in both the 100 backstroke (48.60) and the 200 IM (1:53.99). His 100 backstroke mark, while fast, fell more than .5 seconds short of Dusing's 48.07 mark set in 1997.

St. Xavier clinched the sweep of all three relays. The quartet of junior Ethan Arave, junior Andrew Taylor, junior Baron Miller and senior Will Tafel annihilated the 200 medley field by over three seconds with a time of 1:37.86. Tafel, junior Michael Embry, junior David Johnson and senior Hal Graft captured the 200 freestyle relay gold in a similar fashion with a 1:26.80 time. Tafel, Arave, Embry and Graft teamed up to close out the last relay with a 3:12.33 time.

DuPont Manual sophomore Kasey Allen bested the diving field with a score of 431.20. Trinity fielded the second and third place finishers, freshman Andrew Galvagni (421.70) and junior Jacob Sims (413.05).

Freshman Kristen Wilson of Paul Laurence Dunbar made her first impact on the Kentucky state meet with a gold medal in both the 50 (24.26) and the 100 (52.15) freestyle events. Wilson's 52.15 time earned her an All-American consideration qualifying time.

DuPont Manual equaled St. Xavier's domination of the relays, monopolizing all three first-place spots. The DuPont foursome of senior Jenna Montgomery, senior Amanda Faulkner, sophomore Leah Reinhardt and junior Heidi Hatteberg cruised to a gold medal in the 200 medley relay with a 1:46.76 time. Montgomery, senior Caroline Stephens, senior Samantha Vignolo and junior Abbie Fish teamed up to claim the 200 freestyle relay victory (1:38.80) and the quartet of Faulkner, sophomore Meredith King, Hatteberg and Fish commandeered the 400 freestyle relay title in 3:33.83.

Christina Gailey, a Tates Creek junior, narrowly edged the diving field with a 450.25 score. Highlands sophomore Hannah Gadd (446.25) and Campbell County sophomore Amanda Maschinot (414.05) took the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

St. Xavier and DuPont Manual won both the men's and women's title, respectively. Trinity (206) and DuPont Manual (156) took second and third place for the men. Sacred Heart Academy (194) and Paul Laurence Dunbar (160) placed second and third among women competitors.

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