Memories Priceless for Local State Swimmers at the State Championships

The girls state swim meet, without fail provides emotional moments and memories for a lifetime. Sometimes, there are just as many tears rolling down the faces of the competitors are there are water drops in the pool.

In particular, it had to be emotional for senior Trey Ross (Patch MVP of the Week) who swam her very last race for the MICDS Rams.

That thought crossed her mind as she sprinted home in the 12th and final event, the 400 yard relay of the 38th state swim championships.

“I never swam harder in my entire life. I gave it everything I had,” said Ross, who will study journalism in college but has not decided on which school yet. “That was the fastest I’ve ever gone and by three seconds, and that felt good,” said Ross.

She had a whale of a meet. MICDS piled up 125 points; good enough for fifth place overall. With Annie Goessling and cast, they took third last year. That’s quite an achievement for a relatively small school.

“Our team came together like a family. We were really close and now that it's over, I’m going to be really sad,” said Ross.

Ross was third in the 100 yard back stroke in 57.65. She took 7th in the 100 yard butterfly in 58.08 and was on relays which captured 4th and 5th respectively.

Geneva Lee, freshman; Masha Podokshik, senior; Lily Reisinger, junior; and Ross swam 1:51.32 in the 200 yard medley.

The same four captured 5th in the 400 yard free relay in 3:36.79.

“This meet was fun. This is really what we work for and I think it showed,” said the Rams coach Kristen Kaiser.

“We had 100 percent best times, and some were by four and seven seconds,” said Kaiser.

Kat Friese, sophomore from MICDS won 1-meter diving with 419.75 points.

St. Joe Angels Captured 10th place

This was an especially good meet for the Angels, a team without a pool.

There’s none better than junior Grace Stiegemeyer. Stiegemeyer was third in the 200 yard freestyle (1:53.67) and fifth in the 500 free (5:04.90). Her qualifying time was 5:09.88

Defending champs in the 200 yard freestyle relay, the Angels quartet of Charlotte Cordova, junior; Joanie Garlich, senior; Grayson Ram, sophomore and Stiegemeyer finished second to Springfield Glendale in a time of 1:39.09.

Cordova captured 10th in the 50 free (24.74).

Ladue’s Christine Yan, sophomore swam 1:10.85, good enough for 12th place in the 100 yard breaststroke.

Maddie Wessell of John Burroughs captured two second place medals (see related article).