The moment where all the hard work is put on a pedestal is close. The Nebraska State Swim Championships are here. This Friday and Saturday the team will see if they can pull off the schools first State Championship win in over 20+ years. While it seems one of their main competitors this year will be Creighton Prep who in their most recent matchup at Metros, hosted at Westside, where they were sadly put into second behind Prep who won by 1.5 points.
In the pool the boys are led by Juniors Pearson Kratky and Spencer Thom. At Metros Kratky won gold in the 100 M backstroke and finished second in the 100 M Fly. Thom who specialises in freestyle finished second in the 100 M and third in the 50 M freestyle at Metros as well. Additional state competitors who will be competing this year include Ben Boerner, Pushpahas Murari Sunnam, Jake Jepson, and Aiden Olsen who have all accomplished placing top three in two or more events both individual and relay. The medal count for boys swim at Metros was 5 gold, 9 silver, and 5 bronze.
Along with those mentioned above, they have great depth which has helped them place in the hunt for the majority of the relay events when looking ahead at this weekend. One of the relays to keep an eye on would be the 400 M Freestyle Relay. At Metros the team of Olsen, Jepson, Thom, Kratky were able to take gold in that event. Their time at Metro was 3:09.18 which has been the best time for the relay in the state of Nebraska this winter.
On the boys side the previous state champ who is most likely looking to win back to back is Lincoln East whose top swimmer was Eje Kim of the 100 M Backstroke and 100 M Fly. However, they seem to be a little behind at the moment as in the Heartland Conference Finals they tied with Norfolk for second place behind Lincoln Southwest.
Switching over to the girls side, they placed second at Metros behind Omaha Marian by only 8 points for a total score of 418. The Senior leader this year has been Sadie Rogers who took home gold in the individual 100 M Breaststroke, silver in the 200 M Individual Medley, along with a bronze in the 200 Medley Relay. Freshman Whitney Leach placed first in the individual 500 M Free at Metro. Berkley Gemar took second in the 100 M Backstroke, bronze in the 100 M Fly and 200 Medley Relay. Another notable swimmer during metros was Lily Gentry who placed third in the 200 M Free and 200 Medley Relay. The total for the girls from Metros weekend was 2 gold, 3 silver, and 3 bronze for a total of 8 medals and a great performance.
Unlike the boys’ team, the girls won state back in 2023 ending their 11-year drought and last year landed second behind Omaha Marian in a close one by 15 points; compared to the state title spread of 137 points. Marian’s returning champion from last year is Meredith Peyton in the individual 200 M Freestyle and the 100 M Fly, of which she holds the current state record for at 54.27.
State will be held on the last weekend of February at the Bob Devaney Center in Lincoln where we’ll hope to see the Warriors walk in and exit with a state title.
