By Brian Savard
FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas, March 8. MOUNT Saint Mary dethroned the most storied dynasty in the history of Arkansas women's swimming at the Arkansas State Championships.
Team Scores
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Mount Saint Mary ended up in front of a three-team race for first, and for the first time since 2002, Bentonville placed outside of the top spot. The Mount Saint Mary women compiled 268 points en route to the state championship. Conway surprised Bentonville in the final relay event of the women's meet and ended up edging the five-time defending champions by a score of 256-254.
A much less exciting team race ensued on the men's side, as Bentonville walloped the field with a 345 point total. Conway was a distant second with 248 points while North Little Rock tallied 197 points and placed third.
Women's Individual Results
Chelsea Burnside from Conway put up two first-place performances, taking the 500 freestyle and 200 IM in times of 5:24.49 and 2:15.85, respectively.
Sydney Haldeman of Conway also nabbed two gold medals. Haldeman placed first in the 100 butterfly (1:01.54) and the 100 backstroke (1:00.86).
Lexi Rasnic from Lake Hamilton stood alone on the top of the podium twice, as the sophomore picked up wins in the 50 freestyle (24.47) and the 100 breaststroke (1:08.16).
Conway finished first in two of the three relay events. The Conway 200 freestyle relay clocked a 1:44.63 while the 400 freestyle relay team turned in a 3:48.18 performance.
Men's Individual Results
Ellis Miller was the only swimmer in the meet to break an individual state record. Miller's 51.60 thrashing of the 100 backstroke field led to the fall of Neil Bradley of Little Rock Parkview's 1987 record of 52.24. Miller also came out first in the 200 freestyle, clocking a 1:42.91.
Bentonville won two relay events and disqualified in its third relay. The Bentonville 200 medley relay was the first Arkansas high school relay ever to break the 1:40 barrier, as the foursome combined stroke talents to clock a 1:39.01 time. Bentonville set the former state mark of 1:40.11 in 1997. Bentonville destroyed the 200 freestyle relay record with a 1:28.82 effort in the sprint relay event. Fort Smith Southside set the former standard of 1:31.60 in 1998.
Diving Results
Sarah Chewning of Springdale bettered Hillary Keeton of Little Rock Parkview's 1998 record of 426.05 in the women's diving event, scoring a 460.60. Jessica Wilde from Mount Saint Mary placed second with a 343.35 score while Courtney Atherton from Springdale Har-Ber took third (321.50).
Dusty Welch of Arkadelphia snared the men's diving title with a 321.15 score. Tyler Ostrander from Siloam Springs finished up in second (311.45) while Mason Rutherford, also from Siloam Springs, placed third (295.20).
Results: Arkansas State Championships
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