The local swimming world will focus on Topeka this weekend for the Kansas high school boys’ swimming and diving finals.
Friday saw preliminary action in all events from both 6A and 5-1A schools, the day also hosted the finals in the one meter diving event for both classes.
The headline attraction of the diving finals saw Olathe Northwest’s Clark Thomas capture his fourth state 6A diving title. Thomas simply put himself in a separate class with his final score of 545.45; that number easily surpassed Christopher Cusick of Blue Valley North who racked up a score of 462.45. Thomas’s teammate and close friend Drew Egan finished in third place with a score of 438.15.
Thomas has an exciting future ahead of him in the sport of diving. First, Thomas already has plans to compete in the Olympic trials in Seattle before the 2012 games in London take place this summer. Then the game plan is for Thomas to join the dive team at the University of Missouri.
“It just felt awesome to end my high school career in such a great way with such a great meet”, added Thomas.
“He finished very strong” says Olathe Northwest head diving coach Robert Ayers.
As for the 5-1A diving results, with a score of 335.50 Cory Luetjen of Stilwell-Blue Valley beat out Ben Forrester of Salina South for the 5-1A diving title. Forrester ended with a score of 309.65. Bishop Carroll’s Devin Bacha placed sixth with 284.45 points. Kyler Bell of Salina Central finished in eight place with a score of 268.55.
The attention will now shift to Saturday for the swimming finals, 6A will hit the pool in the afternoon and the 5-1A schools will take to the water in the morning session.
As far some of the local 6A teams are concerned, both Maize and Wichita East look to be strong contenders in several events. In preliminary action, the Maize team of Mitchell Wagner, Christopher Clemons, Gavin Olson and Lucas Popp finished first in the 200-yard medley relay and in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Popp also placed first as an individual swimmier in the preliminary round of 100-yard freestyle event. Wagner finished first in the preliminary round of the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 51.45 seconds.
Wichita East also looks to have a nice showing on Saturday in Topeka. Jake Spitz, a junior for East, placed first in the preliminary round of the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard butterfly.
Don’t overlook Wichita Heights either, the Falcons saw junior Kyle Cullinan finish first in the preliminaries of the 500-yard freestyle event.
The 5-1A should also draw some local interest, especially from the Bishop Carroll squad. Look for Joseph Bachman, Will Smith, Alexander Vulgamore and Alec Khoury to all deliver for the Bishop Carroll swim team in the final round.
The finals should be interesting especially from the team out of Collegiate. Jake Barrett, Trent Priner, Rhys Powell and Sam Horner JR finished seventh in preliminaries of the 200-yard medley relay event…they too can make some noise in the water when the 5-1A portion gets underway.
CatchItKansas.com will have continuous coverage of Saturday’s finals from the Hummer Sports Complex in Topeka.
