Purples win overall region title, Spartans take home girls’ title
By Perry Swack
It was a region championship like none other: the event took place over three days, the stands were empty, and for a minute, it looked like the Bowling Green Purples’ streak of fifteen-straight region championships would come to an end. With the girls’ swim event taking place two days before the boys’ event (with diving in between), South Warren held a narrow lead over the Purples heading into the boys’ meet. However, the Purples cruised in the meet’s final day and clinched their sixteenth-straight region championship.
South Warren won the girls’ title behind a total score of 503, a 171-point increase from last season when the Lady Spartans finished second. Bowling Green took second with 459 points, which was actually 9.5 points better than their winning score in 2020. Greenwood finished third on the girls’ side with 291 points. Bowling Green racked up 525 points to win the boys’ title by 166 points over South Warren who tallied 359 points. Greenwood checked in at third place with 319 points. These three schools won 22 out of a possible 24 events, as South won 11, Greenwood 6, and Bowling Green 5.
Bowling Green won five total events over the course of the three-day meet. Phillip Khenner breezed to the 200-yard freestyle title with a time of 1:42.80, nearly eight seconds faster than Allen County-Scottsville’s Tad Koltin Taylor (1:50.26) and South’s Ethan Luis (1:50.36), who finished second and third. Purple senior Mei Fukushima won the 200-yard IM at 1:58.03, three seconds faster than South junior Logan Hughes (2:01.74). BG junior Aidan Shy led from start to finish in the 1-meter diving, scoring a total of 346.75 points. Greenwood’s Turner Allen (255.55) and Bowling Green’s Jack Tyler (253.75) finished second and third respectively. The Purples also took home the title in the girls and boys 200-yard freestyle relay, as Maggie Morris, Sophie Morris, Paige Wierson, and Carlie Bowen (1:41.59) beat Greenwood (Sarah Zoellner, Anne Elizabeth Zoellner, Amelia Matzke, Leah Witcher) by .21 seconds (1:41.80). For the boys’ 200-yard freestyle relay, BG’s Khenner, Grady Sine, Fukushima, and Ethan Taylor (1:26.90) won the relay by 1.35 seconds over South’s Hughes, Cody Ell, Peyton Black, and Drew Wolfram (1:27.25).
South won eleven events, while Greenwood took home six races. South Warren’s girls’ 200 yard-medley relay team of Maddi Barbee, Hannah Gardner, Selynna Metcalfe, and Maddie Osmun edged Greenwood’s relay team by nearly two seconds. Their official time of 1:49.92 was only .09 seconds off of the Region 2 record set by Owensboro in 2019. Barbee would later also win the 100-yard backstroke at 1:00.93, as Gardner later took home the title in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:07.17. Spartan senior Madison Bush won the 200-yard freestyle event with a time of 1:59.88, before cruising to a five-second victory in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:15.63. Sophomore Maddie Osmun won the 50-yard freestyle at 24.27 seconds, as well as the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 54.83 seconds.
Drew Wolfram beat teammate Peyton Black in the boys’ 100-yard butterfly with a time of 50.40, as the Spartans teammates went 1-2 in the event. Wolfram followed up that victory with another in the 100-yard backstroke, edging Owensboro Catholic’s Cort Hobelmann by .39 seconds with a time of 52.33. South Warren won the final two events of the swim meets, as the girls’ 400-yard freestyle relay squad of Barbee, Bush, Metcalfe, and Osmun edged Bowling Green with a time of 3:41.58. The Spartan boys’ also took first place in the same event, as Hughes, Ell, Luis, and Wolfram broke a region record set in 2020 by the Spartans with a time of 3:13.64.
Greenwood’s boys’ 200-yard medley relay team of Landon Badstibner, Luke Shourds, Canaan Timberlake, and Sam Humble knocked off Bowling Green by 2.5 seconds to win the relay at 1:37.54. Shourds also won the boys’ 100-yard freestyle, setting a new region record with a time of 45.15, knocking off Owensboro’s Tyler Reed’s 45.74 set in 2007. He later set a region record with a time of 55.04 seconds in the 100-yard breaststroke, breaking his record of 56.51 from 2020. Badstibner also won an individual event, swimming the 500-yard freestyle in 5:00.35. Sarah Zoellner breezed by the competition in the girls’ 200-yard IM with a time of 2:09.69 and won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.68 seconds.
Region 3 Swimming and Diving Results
Russell County is the only school within the Greater Bowling Green Area (the 17 schools that mostly compete in the 4th Region) to compete outside of the 2nd Region in swimming. The Lakers compete in the 3rd Region with the likes of Elizabethtown, Central Hardin, Bardstown, Pulaski County, etc. The Lakers fared well at the region meet, finishing second in the girls’ meet and fifth in the boys’ meet. Max Lawson won the 100-yard butterfly on the boys’ side, finishing with a time of 54.91 seconds. He also won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.80 seconds. EmmaRae Phillips finished second in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:25.03, as well as second in the 200-yard IM (2:15.93. Phillips, Alexa Stephens, Caitlin Higdon, and Allie Mann finished second in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:00.90.
Those qualifying for the state championship meet will now turn their attention and focus to the events coming up this week. On Thursday, all divers qualifying for the state meet will compete at Falling Springs in Versailles. On Saturday, Regions 1-3 will travel to Russell Springs for the boys’ meet in the morning and the girls’ in the afternoon.
Region 2 Final Team Results
Overall
- Bowling Green 918
- South Warren 862
- Greenwood 610
- Daviess County 276
- Owensboro 219
Boys
- Bowling Green 525
- South Warren 359
- Greenwood 319
- Allen County-Scottsville 113
10. Barren County 59
10. Logan County 59
12. Franklin-Simpson 52
14. Monroe County 30
15. Glasgow 20
Girls
- South Warren 503
- Bowling Green 459
- Greenwood 291
7. Barren County 94
9. Allen County-Scottsville 78
10. Glasgow 71
13. Franklin-Simpson 50
14. Monroe County 25
15. Logan County 14
Region 3 Final Team Results
Overall
- Elizabethtown 953
- Central Hardin 458
- Meade County 453
- Russell County 431
Boys
5. Russell County 143
Girls
2. Russell County 288
