Saturday, Feb. 06, 2010

East edges ONW for runner-up at league swimming

The Sunflower League Boys Swimming and Diving Championships were something of a foregone conclusion Saturday afternoon at Prairie Trail Junior High in Olathe.

In a sense, the league meet always is a foregone conclusion considering Shawnee Mission East's dominance, which continued with the Lancers' seventh consecutive title and the 24th in program history.

That left Olathe East and Olathe Northwest to duke it out for second place.

“Shawnee Mission East just has so many swimmers,” Hawks coach Dave Youker said. “I knew it would come down to Northwest and us in a battle for second.”

SM East racked up 359 total points and breezed past runner-up East by 130 points. The race for second provided some team drama with the runner-up Hawks edging the Ravens by five points.

“This is the first year I can remember in 25 years that I had a kid in every single heat of the meet in both the championship heat and the consolation heat for all the swimming and diving events,” Lancers coach Wiley Wright said. “That speaks volumes about our depth.”

By the 500-yard freestyle championship final, the eighth of 12 events, the Lancers had the meet wrapped up, but there were still plenty of highlights for the Hawks and Ravens.

East's Ben Bravence set a new league record in the 500 free and also won the 200 free. He'll be gunning for former Hawk Austin Acheson's state 500 record at the Kansas 6A meet Feb. 18-20 in Topeka.

“Austin was kind of my mentor last year and we had a friendly rivalry when we raced each other,” Bravence said. “He helped train me and get me to the point I am.”

Hawks teammate Ben Scheffer also won two events, the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. He also nearly swam down SM East's Hunter Stevenson in the anchor leg of the 400 free relay.

“It was a fun race and we knew how it close it because we heard right before the relay,” Scheffer said. “I just swam my heart out.”

Youker credited his lesser-known swimmers for nipping the Ravens. Chuck Balkenbusch, for example, battled his way into the 100 breaststroke championship final, while swimmers like Jake Asnicar, Matt Larimer and Michael Emley also picked up critical points for the Hawks.

“Those things add up, because both teams have good swimmers that are going to win events, which both of us did,” Youker said. “Those guys kind of equal each other out, so it's those other kids in there that get consolation points and drop time who score that make the difference.”

For ONW, Jake Shain won the 200 individual medley and Zach Willis won the 100 breaststroke and helped the Ravens win the 200 medley relay.

ONW's Clark Thomas also repeated as the league diving champ, breaking the meet record with 530.60 points. But he had company above the 500-point plateau as his club diving partner, SM North's Luke Calkins, set a personal best at 500.60.

“Right before prelims started, I walked over to Luke and told him we were both going to break 500 today,” Thomas said. “He was excited to try, so we were both shooting for that and it's really cool that we did it.”

During his high school career, Clark has never lost a diving meet.

“Clark — what can I say about Clark? He's always great, but our other diver also stepped up, Drew Egan placing fifth was very good,” Ravens coach Hank Krusen said.

ONW also had plenty of other unsung performances.

“For us to compete with (East) is really good,” Krusen said. “Jake Shain stepped up in the 200 IM, and the medley did great to win that. Zach Willis stepped up in the 100 breaststroke. But the person who stepped up through the whole meet and dropped a lot of time was Mitch Frantz, and I was very happy to see that.”

2010 Sunflower League Boys Swimming and Diving Championships

Hosted by Olathe South at Prairie Trail Junior High

Team results

1. Shawnee Mission East, 359; 2. Olathe East, 229; 3. Olathe Northwest, 224; 4. SM Northwest, 129; 5. SM North, 116; 6. Free State, 88; 7. Lawrence, 74; 8. SM South, 73; 9. SM West, 55; 10. Olathe South, 30; 11. Olathe North, 10; 12. Leavenworth, 6.

Individual event winners

Distances in yards

200 medley relay — Olathe Northwest (Mitch Willis, Zach Willis, Jake Shain, Rayne Walton), 1:40.18. 200 freestyle — Ben Bravence, OE, 1:42.80. 200 individual medley — Jake Shain, ONW, 2:00.33. 50 freestyle — Clay Finley, SME, 22.05. 100 butterfly — Ben Scheffer, OE, 52.43. 100 freestyle — Clay Finley, SME, 49.12. One-meter diving — Clark Thomas, ONW, 532.60. 500 freestyle — Ben Bravence, OE, 4:35.00. 200 freestyle relay — SM East (Hunter Stevenson, Jack Walker, Branden Schoofs, Clay Finley), 1:29.38. 100 backstroke — Ben Scheffer, OE, 52.69. 100 breaststroke — Zach Willis, ONW, 1:02.52. 400 freestyle relay — SM East (Clay Finley, Jack Walker, Troy DeMoss, Hunter Stevenson), 3:17.53.

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