Katherine Berkoff Makes Freshman Debut at Montana High School State Championship

Agon is the proud sponsor of all high school coverage (recruiting, results, state championships, etc.) on SwimmingWorld.com. For more information about Agon, visit their website AgonSwim.com.

By Emma Foster, Swimming World College Intern

The preliminary day of the Montana High School Swimming State Championship saw several fast swims as the athletes set themselves up for an exciting day of finals. The men’s and women’s teams of Missoula Hellgate come into the meet as defending champions looking to repeat their titles. With the school taking the top seed in all of the relay events on the men’s side, and just being beat out by Bozeman on the women’s side they look to be setting themselves up for an exciting day.

Freshman Katherine Berkoff of Hellgate will look to make her mark on the high school scene, going into finals with top seeds in the 100 free (53.11) and 100 backstroke (57.07). She is followed by Kate Murphy of Helena in the 100 backstroke (1:00.74), and Hannah Stevens of Billings Senior (54.06) in the 100 free. Katherine’s brother Cale Berkoff will look to defend his title from last year in the 100 back, going in seeded first ahead of Ethan Harder of Billings Senior with a 51.84 to Harder’s 52.44. Cale is also seeded first in the 100 butterfly (53.70) ahead of Patrick Brennan (55.23).

Mari Aoki of Hellgate is seeded first in the 200 IM (2:09.38) over teammate Gabby Smart (2:13.72). Aoki will also go in as the top seed in the 500 free, posting a 5:16.49. Jesse Ecklund of Helena will go in second with a 5:24.55 prelim swim.

On the men’s side, Adam Zimmer will attempt to make a run at his state records in the 200 IM and 100 breastroke. Zimmer enters the IM seeded first (1:57.17) over Patrick Brennan of CMR (2:03.62) and first in the 100 breastroke (58.78) over Conrad Smith of Billings West (1:05.13)

In the women’s 100 breast, Avery Vernon of Hellgate will be seeded first (1:09.97) over Amilla Dlakic of Bozeman (1:10.15).

Other top seeds include Hailey Hamlin (200 free: 2:00.23) Jake Bentley (200 free: 1:48.36) Hannah Stevens (50 free: 24.94) Colton Babock (50 free: 21.72, 100 free: 47.77) Jadyn Stroh (100 fly: 59.76) and Jake Bentley (500 free: 4:54.06).

Finals will take off tomorrow in Great Falls, MT.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use