RBHS placed second out of the two teams, but it was still a productive day as many swimmers improved their times in an attempt to qualify for the state championship competition in two weeks.
Rockhurst, usually a powerhouse athletic program the team said, was a tough opponent. Even though the swimming and diving team did not finish in first place it was still a positive day as they competed very closely and ended up giving Rockhurst a narrow win.
“We did very well against Rockhurst despite their reputation,” said Ben Baker, senior swimmer. “I really like to see improvement in the team that I saw today.”
Improvement was the key for the RBHS boys in today’s competition as many swimmers posted personal best times; Baker dropped an impressive three seconds from his 100 yard Butterfly, freshman Collin Pounds improved to 5:10 in the 500 yard Freestyle event, and senior Matt Hefner improved to 52 seconds in the 100 Freestyle event. Pounds and Hefner will look to continue improvement next week in an attempt to qualify for state, with Hefner needing to cut 1.31 seconds to reach the qualifying mark of 50.69 seconds, and Pounds needing to cut only three seconds to reach the 500 Freestyle qualifying time of 5:07. Freshman Alex Tschopp also continued on his impressive streak of competitions, achieving a 4:59 in the 500 meter Freestyle.
Today’s competition was one of two meets left to go until the state competition. Next weeks ‘Last Chance’ meet against Hannibal will provide the RBHS swimmers and divers one final opportunity to qualify for the state championship that they have been working for all season.
Next week’s competition is of such importance that the team will ‘taper’ (cut down on practice time) this week, to ensure all competitors are well rested and ready to give it their all in their attempt to reach state.
“Considering we have tapering this week,” Baker said, “I’m really stoked to see how well we do at Last Chance.”
By Sam Mitchell
