Highbridge swimmers training hard this summer, more meets ahead

July 20, 2006|Abigail Laub

Highbridge Aquatics swimmers are not taking a break this summer, they are blowing away personal bests in the pool.

"Our Indianapolis weekend was everything I had hoped for," said Chris Fugmann, Highbridge Aquatics coach, about the team's recent trip to Indiana for the city's Summer Sizzler where the local swimmers placed fifth. "Our performances really made the weekend complete. Every single swimmer, except for one, had at least one personal best time, and several swimmers had a handful."

Fugmann said Lauren Fowler was the swimmer of the meet, finishing with personal best times in all eight of her events, dropping a total of 37.37 seconds.

"This was definitely one of those weekends where practice attendance and effort in those practices, was extremely noticeable," he said.

Fugmann listed the team's highlights:

â?¢Kelsey McLaughlin — 100 Fly. Dropped 5.22 seconds to a 1:15.68, which "blows away the Kentucky A cut and even beats the national A cut by more than two seconds," Fugmann said.

â?¢ Faith Kempf — 400 Individual Medley. Kempf dropped eight seconds off her time, finish in 5:24.14. The national AAA is 5:32.09. Kempf was Highbridge's higest scorer.

â?¢ Riley Martin — 400 Freestyle. Martin dropped from 4:24.21 to 4:22.39. Fugmann said his third place finishes in the difficult meet were impressive.

â?¢ Erin Conner — 400 Freestyle. "This race was a lot of fun to watch," said Fugmann.

"It was probably the first time I've ever seen Erin take out a race the way I knew she could, and the results were worth it. Erin dropped 14.69 seconds and beat the A cut by over 13 seconds."

â?¢ Nick Landers — 200 Freestyle. "This had to be one of the most impressive swims of the weekend, due to the fact that Nick is still only 15, and the 15-18 Boys state cuts have to be more difficult than in any other age group," he said.

In the 200 Free, Landers finished with a 2:09.60, beating the national AA cut.

â?¢ Chris Lipka — 200 Freestyle. Dropped five seconds in the event, down to a 2:10.28.

â?¢ Ben Nichols — 400 Individual Medley, 400 Freestyle. Nichols dropped 12.80 seconds in the 400 IM and 11.34 seconds in his 400 Free.

"What makes Ben stand out has to be his positive approach," said Fugmann. "All weekend long, Ben would look at my heat sheet to find his heat and lane, then he'd point to his best time and say, 'That's going down.'"

â?¢ Jenna Ballinger — 400 Individual Medley.

"She beat last summer's amazing time of a 4:55 with a 4:50.20 in the 400 Free," said Fugmann.

She also beat her time in the 100 Freestyle, with a 1:02.86.

â?¢ Kendall Walker — 200 Individual Medley.

"It wasn't that long ago that she hated anything longer than a 50, and now this 200 IM is a very well rounded event for her," said Fugmann.

She dropped two seconds off her 50 Backstroke.

â?¢ Lauren Fowler — 200 Breaststroke. Fowler cut her time from a 3:26.18 to a 3:18.40.

"All of Lauren's strokes seemed to come around this weekend, but this 200 Breaststroke was beautiful," he said.

Overall Fugmann said he thought the best meets came from those swimmers who have hardly missed a practice all summer and hopes for continued progress.

The team will compete in the Kentucky State Long Course Championship meet July 27-30. Highbridge will send about 22 swimmers, who qualify based on times.

Also, they had seven swimmers (Riley Martin, Nick Landers, Hannah Amstutz, Ben Nichols, Larissa Martin, Jenna Ballinger, Faith Kempf) qualify for the Southern Zone Championship meet, to be held in Atlanta in August.

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