MICDS Swimmer Is a State Champion

MICDS junior Annie Goessling had a tough choice to make when deciding on which two individual events to swim at the MSHSAA Meet Saturday at the St. Peters Rec Plex.

It turned out that she made the right choice after winning the 200-yard IM and finishing second in the 100-yard breaststroke to highlight the state meet for local swimmers.

"We toyed a lot with her events and I was really pushing her for the 100-yard freestyle in which I am sure she would have done well," MICDS Coach Kristen Kaiser said. "But she told me she could win the 200-IM and she went out there and had an awesome swim."

The 2oo-yard IM tests the overall skills of a swimmer.

"The IM is far and away the hardest race to swim," Kaiser said. "You have four sprint 50's in four different strokes."

Goessling took the lead in the third leg, the breaststroke. She was able to keep the advantage in the freestyle, winning with a time of 2:05.13. Springfield Glendale's Gretchen Stein was second in 2:07.66.

"The IM is one of the harder races," Goessling said. "I definitely felt that I had to work my hardest to win. The breaststroke is my best but I had to really work hard on the backstroke as well. I seemed to have a lot of energy today and it felt great to be on the top of the podium."

It was the second first place medal for Goessling, who ran a leg in the 200-yard medley relay team which won the state meet last season.

Goessling had another outstanding individual effort in the 100-yard breaststroke as she finished with a time of 1:04.83. Senior Abby Hempen of Francis Howell defended her title in the event, winning with a time of 1:04.72.

It was a good news-bad news day for the two relays in which Goessling swam at state.

MICDS was disqualified in the 200-yard freestyle relay after touching second.

But the Rams closed out the meet with an impressive second place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Goessling teamed with sophomores Trey Ross and Masha Podokshik and junior Christine Jackson to swim a 3:36.84.

Parkway West's Morgan Chaney, Taylor Maurer, Kate Gately and Mary Beth Howard won with a time of 3:36.25.

The win in that event was the difference in the Longhorns' team championship. They needed to win to capture their record 12th state title outright. A second place finish would have meant a co-championship with Hannibal, which led the team race for most of the meet.

Ladue's Madeline Wall and Etinosa Ogbevoen each came home with a pair of individual state medals.

Wall finished third in both the 200-yard IM (2:07.87) and the 100-yard butterfly (57.17). Ogbevoen also had a third place finish in the 50-yard freestyle (24.15). She was  fifth in the 100-yard freestyle (52.95).

Villa Duchesne's Morgan Mullenix and St. Joseph's Academy's Julia Herbig also were all-state in two events.

Mullenix was second in the 50-yard freestyle (24.08) and third in the 100-yard freestyle (52.26).

Herbig had a sixth place finish in the 100-yard freestyle (52.28) and was eighth in the 50-yard freestyle (24.61).

MICDS' Nealey Wallis was fifth in the diving.

And the meet ended with half of the field (MICDS, Villa, St. Joe's and Ladue) from the Ladue-Frontenac Patch area competing in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

MICDS was second. Villa's Meghan Riegel, Bentley Boldt, Sarah Sutherlin and Mullenix was third. Ladue's Ogbevoen, Helen You, Riley Merdinian and Wall was fifth while Herbig, Jenna Osterholt, Katja Miller and Grace Stiegemeyer of St. Joe's was eighth.

Three area schools finished in the top 10 in the team standings. Ladue was fifth, St. Joe's was eighth and Villa was ninth. MICDS, which finished 13th, would have been in the top 10 if not for the relay disqualification.

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