By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
On Friday night Washburn Rural checked an enormous milestone off its list with its 20th straight girls' city swimming and diving title by a 162-point margin at the Capitol Federal Natatorium.
Washburn Rural freshman Audrey Appuhn won four gold medals Friday (two individual, two relay) as the Junior Blues ran their city win streak to 20 years. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Makenna Pritchard posted an individual win and was part of two winning relays as Washburn Rural rolled to its 20th straight city team title Friday at the Capitol Federal Natatorium. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
It's no secret that Washburn Rural has extraordinary depth in its swimming and diving team and for two decades the buy-in and hard work from the Junior Blues have paid off with city titles.
"We have a consistency with a lot of girls that just want to swim," Washburn Rural coach Bob Burdick said. "The program has always been solid because of the depth, and that's helped us with the city championships. It's a tribute to the kids that keep coming out to swim year after year.
"It'’s also a tribute to the coaches that have been around this program. Obviously, the past coaches have done a great job with this program and building it up. So, hopefully, we can keep rolling along."
Washburn Rural standout swimmers Audrey Appuhn, Makenna Pritchard and Mara Bare had big days in the pool, winning four out of the eight individual city championship events.
In addition, the trio helped the team win the 200-medley relay and the 400-freestyle relay.
Appuhn took convincing individual victories in both the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle. The freshman finished with a 1:57.72 in the 200 free, while she earned a 5:11.08 time in the 500 free.
"I'm really happy I was able to celebrate today with the team," Appuhn said. "It makes me happy I get to do this with all the people I grew up swimming with. I've been looking forward to this since I was a tiny tot and when I joined swim when I was eight years old. Recently, I discovered that I really enjoy distance events.
"I've been pushing myself in distance at club and high school practices. I'm just running with this and having fun. Next week at league, I'm hoping to go 5 minutes and 10 seconds in the five hundred and hoping to get top-three at state."
Pritchard won the 50-yard freestyle in 25.28 seconds, while Bare won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:01.07.
"They've meant the world to this program," Burdick said. "Makenna has just been a staple all the way through. Makenna likes to do freestyle events, and that's where home is. Mara can do just about anything she wants to do. I can pop her in any event, and she does well in all of them.
"Audrey has been the surprise for us. I knew she was coming, but she's been a surprise because she's an all-around good swimmer. She's been really great in distance, but high school is mostly sprints. So we've had to adjust her from distance to sprints, and she's rolled with it."
Besides Appuhn, Washburn Rural has had a handful of surprises all year. Kiersten Harris, Ruby Knutson, Sophie Heinen, Ella Bombardier, Madeline O'Brien, Naledi Mackenzie and Genevieve Miranda were mentioned by Burdick as extremely productive pieces to the program's successful 2023 campaign.
Seaman took a second-place finish in the city championships.
Like Washburn Rural, standout athletes have made the Viking program successful in the 2023 season.
On Friday, Seaman got individual wins from Joslynn Grace, Avery Walz and Tauren Walz.
Seaman's Avery Walz picked up three gold medals in Friday's city swimming championships at the Capitol Federal Natatorium. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
With her city championship races, Avery Walz earned two of the best times in Class 5A in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard freestyle. She jumped two spots in the 200-yard individual medley and three spots in the 100-yard freestyle to make her the No. 1-ranked swimmer in those events.
Avery Walz had a final time of 2:07.18, topping Andover's Mari Griffin's time of 2:09.85 in the 200-yard individual medley. In addition, she swam a 52.38 time in the 100-yard freestyle. That time gave her the best time in all classes.
"I think I had great swims today, and our relay teams did a great job as well," Avery Walz said. "We really put in a great effort today. It was fun to race with my teammates, and we have worked hard to be where we are now. As a team, we are starting to see everything pay off.
"Individually, I want to make a couple of technical improvements with my turns because they can be quicker. There are always things you can do to get faster. I want to keep having fun, and I'm super excited for the next meet."
Tauren Walz won the 100-yard butterfly with a 59.92 time, while Grace clocked in at 1:10.72, winning the 100-yard breaststroke. Grace, Avery Walz and Tauren Walz contributed to a winning 200-freestyle relay race that bumped them to second in Class 5A and a runner-up finish in the 200-medley relay.
"I think overall we had a really good meet," Seaman coach Daryl Halsey said. "Majority of our events were best times. And they weren't just best times; we had girls cutting five, six, or seven seconds off of their personal-best times, which is huge. I'm proud of everybody, and they all stepped up. The entire team meshes so well.
"Avery and Tauren did fantastic, and I was incredibly happy with Joslynn Grace's 100-yard breaststroke. I know that was a big deal for her since she's only a sophomore. On the 200-free relay, not only did they cut time off, but they got first place. This is just very exciting."
Halsey admits that next week's United Kansas Conference meet will be more complex with unfamiliar schools since this is the first year of Seaman being a part of the conference.
"That will be more of a challenge than this meet," Halsey said. We don't know what Lansing has to offer, and we've only seen Leavenworth once, so we aren't familiar with them. We've been swimming against Topeka teams all year long. So it's a bit of an unknown in that aspect, but we want to keep it going. We want to keep up the momentum, and we want to continue to drop times."
Topeka High's Brianna Devlin remained on top of Class 6A with a championship-clinching dive of 265.85. Devlin is the No. 1-ranked diver in the state, with a season-best score of 269.65. Devlin's efforts landed her in the first team All-City group.
Seaman, Shawnee Heights, Topeka West and other member schools will swim at the United Kansas Conference meet at Lansing High School next Tuesday.
Hayden, Topeka High and Washburn Rural will swim at the Centennial League meet back at Capitol Federal Natatorium next Thursday.
"The tricky thing with the league is some of the girls that swam in events at city won't be in the events they swim at state, so we will be mixing some things up next week," Burdick said. "Next week will help us keep building the depth for the future. When I started here, I had seventeen swimmers, and now I have twenty-six. So hopefully, we can keep rolling and getting better."
TOPEKA CITY CHAMPIONSHIP
At Capitol Federal Natatorium
Team scores
Washburn Rural 623, Seaman 461, Shawnee Heights 342, Topeka High 328, Hayden 231, Topeka West 98.
One meter diving -- 1. Devlin, Topeka High, 265.85, 2. Gregg, Hayden, 243.35, 3. Grauberger, Washburn Rural, 204.00, 4. Soto, Washburn Rural, 148.35, 5. Phillips, Topeka High, 132.95.
200 medley relay -- 1. Washburn Rural (A) (Appuhn, Harris, Bare, Pritchard), 1:54.84, 2. Seaman (A. Walz, Grace, T. Walz, Samuelson), 1:56.65, 3. Shawnee Heights (Gomez, Fernandez, Cole, Landry), 2:07.50, 4. Washburn Rural (B) (Mackenzie, Eilert, Bombardier, Didde), 2:11.25, 5. Topeka High (Del Castillo, Toland, Welcher, Powell), 2:14.77.
200 freestyle -- 1. Appuhn, Washburn Rural, 1:57.72, 2. Grace, Seaman, 2:03.59, 3. Landry, Shawnee Heights, 2:08.03, 4. Von Lintel, Washburn Rural, 2:16.32, 5. O’Brien, Washburn Rural, 2:24.32.
200 individual medley – 1. A. Walz, Seaman, 2:07.18, 2. Del Castillo, Topeka High, 2:25.04, 3. Knutson, Washburn Rural, 2:30.15, 4. Heinen, Washburn Rural, 2:39.73, 5. Ostazewsha, Shawnee Heights, 2:40.01.
50 freestyle -- 1. Pritchard, Washburn Rural, 25.28, 2. Harris, Washburn Rural, 27.72, 3. Bombardier, Washburn Rural, 28.02, 4. Lexi Herrera, Hayden, 28.56, 5. Samuelson, Seaman, 29.93.
100 butterfly -- 1. T. Walz, Seaman, 59.92, 2. Bare, Washburn Rural, 1:01.81, 3. Knutson, Washburn Rural, 1:08.26, 4. Mackenzie, Washburn Rural, 1:21.38, 5. Cole, Shawnee Heights, 1:22.86.
100 freestyle -- 1. A. Walz, Seaman, 52.38, 2. Pritchard, Washburn Rural, 54.66, 3. Landry, Shawnee Heights, 57.32, 4. Miranda, Washburn Rural, 57.74, 5. Heinen, Washburn Rural, 1:01.43.
500 freestyle – 1. Appuhn, Washburn Rural, 5:11.08, 2. Herrera, Hayden, 6:16.50, 3. O’Brien, Washburn Rural, 6:25.92, 4. Bombardier, Washburn Rural, 6:28.74, 5. Fernandez, Shawnee Heights, 6:50.00.
200 freestyle relay -- 1. Seaman (T. Walz, Samuelson, Grace, A. Walz), 1:45.57, 2. Washburn Rural (A) (Harris, Von Lintel, Heinen, Miranda), 1:50.54, 3. Washburn Rural (B) (Knutson, Reed, Eilert, Didde), 1:56.31, 4. Shawnee Heights (Cole, Taylor, Ostazewsha, Landry), 1:56.76, 5. Hayden (Lowman, Dernovish, Gregg, Herrera), 1:59.56).
100 backstroke -- 1. Bare, Washburn Rural, 1:01.07, 2. T. Walz, Seaman, 1:01.70, 3. Del Castillo, Topeka High, 1:05.18, 4. Miranda, Washburn Rural, 1:09.17, 5. Gomez, Shawnee Heights, 1:14.63.
100 breaststroke -- 1. Grace, Seaman, 1:10.72, 2. Harris, Washburn Rural, 1:13.66, 3. Toland, Topeka High, 1:16.22, 4. Didde, Washburn Rural, 1:20.79, 5. Gould, Seaman, 1:21.28.
400 freestyle relay -- 1. Washburn Rural (A) (Miranda, Bare, Appuhn, Pritchard), 3:40.49, 2. Washburn Rural (B) (Von Lintel, Knutson, Bombardier, Heinen), 4:09.37, 3. Washburn Rural (C) (O’Brien, Reed, Hamilton, Mackenzie), 4:24.83, 4. Topeka High (Toland, Foster, Bunten, Del Castillo), 4:29.21, 5. Shawnee Heights (Gomez, Fernandez, Durbin, Ostazewsha), 4:31.44.
All-City
First team
A. Walz, Seaman, 40, Appuhn, Washburn Rural, 40, Pritchard, Washburn Rural, 37, T. Walz, Seaman, 37, Bare, Washburn Rural, 37, Grace, Seaman, 37, Harris, Washburn Rural, 34, Del Castillo, Topeka High, 33, Knutson, Washburn Rural, 32, Landry, Shawnee Heights, 32, Herrera, Hayden, 32. Diver: Devlin, Topeka High.
Second team
Bombardier, Washburn Rural, 31, O’Brien, Washburn Rural, 30, Miranda, Washburn Rural, 30, Heinen, Washburn Rural, 29, Mackenzie, Washburn Rural, 28, Ostazewsha, Shawnee Heights, 27, Gould, Seaman, 27, Gomez, Shawnee Heights, 26, Cole, Shawnee Heights, 26, Dernovish, Hayden, 25, Samuelson, Seaman, 25. Diver: Gregg, Hayden.
