Boys’ swim wins state for fifth time in six years

The Shawnee Mission East Swim and Dive team capped off an undefeated season with a victory in the state championship at the Hummer Sports Complex Natatorium in Topeka this past Saturday. The Lancers came in as a 12 point underdog to the Blue Valley North Mustangs who finished second at last year’s meet. East ended up claiming the title by a margin of 8.5 points winning 292 to 283.5. This is the team’s fifth state championship in the past six years.

The Lancers, who finished third last year, performed especially well in the preliminaries. Success in their early swimming performances allowed for a victory on the final day.

“At the end of the first day we scored the meet going into finals,” senior Clay Finley said. “We were ahead by 28 points and had made up 40 points total from the original seeds. We just carried that unbelievable momentum into Finals and ended up fending off a great Blue Valley North team.”

The Lancer divers set up the swimmers up for the victory by tying with Blue Valley Northwest and Olathe Northwest for first place with 20 points each. Junior Peter Frazell had an especially impressive performance finishing fourth in the diving competitions. Peter was the highest placing Junior diver at the meet.

While the team won no individual championships at the meet, its 200-yard freestyle relay did claim the top spot in the state. Individual standouts included Clay Finley’s second place 50 freestyle and third place 100 freestyle, Junior Andrew Watkins’s second place 100 breaststroke and Freshman Troy DeMoss’s two sixth place finishes in 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley. Finley and DeMoss were also named to the first and second All-State teams, respectively.