Swimmers & Divers Qualify for Final Round of State this weekend in Russell Springs
By Perry Swack
Across the commonwealth, the KHSAA has begun implementing an added layer to their state tournaments. In team sports like volleyball, the first round is now played at host sites (as of 2020) before moving to a centralized location for the quarterfinals and beyond. This setup is similar to what boys’ and girls’ soccer has utilized for years. As for individual sports such as golf and swimming/diving, the KHSAA has slowly rolled out the semi-state model with golf adopting it in 2022-23 and now swimming/diving in 2023-24. This season, the teams in the Greater Bowling Green Area are traveling to Russell Springs to participate in the semi-state round of the swimming & diving state championships.
After winning their nineteenth-consecutive region team title, the Bowling Green Purples enter the pool looking to send a host of swimmers and divers to the final rounds of the state tournament in Lexington. On the boys’ side, the Purples outlasted a strong push from the Spartans of South Warren to win the regional title. The two schools will meet again many times on Saturday at Russell County High. Of the eleven events that boys will be swimming or diving in, the Purples or Spartans are seeded first or second in six of the events. In three of these events, the two schools are seeded 1-2. In the 200-yard IM, South is seeded #1 with a time of 1:40.68, while BG comes in a half-second later at 1:41.04. The 100-yard backstroke may be the most exciting event of the day as South’s Brian Bosse and Bowling Green’s Warren Woodall are seeded 1-2 after their epic race at regionals – Bosse (53.62) nipped Woodall (53.64) by two-hundreths of a second. The final event of the day will feature Bowling Green (3:20.13 at region) facing off with South Warren (3:26.62) in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
On the girls’ side, Bowling Green cruised past South Warren and Greenwood to win the region title. Now the three schools set their sights on the semi-state round. Greenwood holds the top seed time in two events – 50-yard free (Amelia Matzke, 25.09 seconds) and the 200-yard free relay (1:46.47). Bowling Green is favored in the 500-yard free as sophomore Riley Crowe (5:26.29) holds the fastest time. Elizabethtown will hold the top seed in seven of the events on Saturday.
The Lady Gators are seeded second in the 200-yard medley relay and the 100-yard butterfly with Matzke’s region time of 1:00.52. BG’s Crowe is seeded second in the 200 freestyle, while South Warren is second in the 100-yard backstroke (Sarah McGuinness) and 500-yard freestyle (Hannah Andrews).
The top three competitors of every event will automatically qualify for the final round of the state meet. Then, the next best fifteen times statewide per event will also qualify for the finals. The finals will be held at the Lancaster Aquatic Center on the campus of the University of Kentucky in Lexington over three days between February 22-24.
