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St. Joe, MICDS, Burroughs Poised to Do Some Damage at State Swim Finals

Local teams have strong relays going into the championship finals later today.

The best thing the state swimmers could do following the meet was rush home, get some dinner, listen to some music and get to bed right away.

After a grueling three plus hours of semifinal qualifying in 11 events, the local Patch teams are poised to do some serious damage on the totals board of the 38th state championships at the Rec-Plex in St. Peters.

Take the St. Joe Angels for instance. Last year, the Angels surprised everyone, capturing the 200 yard free style relay.

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This time, in the semifinals, the Angels swam a collective time of 1:40.81, tying Parkway South for second place in the semifinals of the 200 free relay. The Angels shaved nearly four seconds off their qualifying time. Swimming the championships will be Charlotte Cordova, junior; Joanie Garlich, senior; Grayson Ram, sophomore and Grace Stiegemeyer, junior.

Stiegemeyer has miles to go before she rests.

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This talented junior was third in the 200 yard freestyle (1:54.17), more than three seconds better than her qualifying time. She qualified 7th in the long-distance 500 yard freestyle (5:09.88). Her qualifying time was 5:14.17.

Angels coach Khannie Dastag was under the weather, and turned the interview over to her assistant Michele Tischer. Coach Dastag was giving high fives to her relay team.

“Our final relay (400 free); our seniors had their best time ever and we were really happy," said Tischer.

That relay team (Garlich, Cordova, Ram and Stiegemeyer)  swam 3:41.68, taking almost a full seven seconds off their qualifier.

“Grace will do very well in the finals. She has put herself in a position to improve even tomorrow," said the substitute spokewoman.

MICDS Rams

“Relays are big,” said Rams coach Kristen Kaiser. “We had significant drops in times and place. I”m really pleased how we swam today. Trey (Ross) swam great, third in the backstroke. We’ll be ready to tackle this,” said Kaiser.

Last year, MICDS mustered 160 points, good enough for third-place overall.

Ross, a senior was third in the 100 yard backstroke in 57.58. She took third in last year’s championships with a time of 58.28. She took sixth in the 100 yard butterfly in 58.19.

MICDS was fifth best in the 400 yard free style relay (3:38.88) almost 10 seconds faster than their qualifier. That relay is composed of Lily Reisinger, Junior; Ross; Geneva Lee, freshman and Masha Podokshik, senior.

The same four make up the 200 yard medley relay, a sixth place qualifier.

John Burroughs Bombers

The future stars are now for Leslie Kehr. That is her talented duo of Maddie Wessell and Barrett Carlson, both freshmen.

Wessell finished fourth in two events: the 200 yard individual medley (2:07.81) and the 100 yard freestyle (52.76).

The Burroughs 200 yard freestyle relay will swim consolation. They finished 13th in 1:42.20. That is Wessell, Jessica Ryan, freshman; Morgan Rinder, sophomore; and Carlson.

Ladue Rams

Sophomore Christine Yan still has work to do. She took 16th in the 100 yard backstroke in 1:11.18.

Villa Duchesne Saints

Corrine Murphy, Villa coach said senior Sarah Sutherlin would finish at her peak. She swam the 100 yard backstroke in 1:03.61, a second faster than her qualifying time, but out of the money in 31st place. Still, it was her best time ever.

The championships of the 38th meet will begin at 3 p.m. today. Diving starts at 9 in the morning.

More state swim photos on the Ladue-Frontenac and Olivette Facebook pages.


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