Ryle boys swimming coach Jeff Floyd said it was “another layer of challenge.”
Notre Dame’s Jamie Kelly called it “a big unknown.”
Floyd and Kelly – and maybe the rest of the Northern Kentucky swimmers – are thinking about the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s new championship format, which calls for a first round the week before the state meet at the University of Kentucky’s Lancaster Aquatic Center.
“We’ll focus on what we need to do to get through that,” Floyd said.
Kentucky high school swimming is divided into nine regions. Under the new format, Regions 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9 would compete in the first round.
Northern Kentucky’s Region 7 would be grouped with Region 8, which includes Lexington schools, and Region 9’s Eastern Kentucky teams. The meet would be held at the Kenton County Aquatic Center at Scott High School in Taylor Mill.
“We’re a pretty strong set of regions,” Kelly said.
The top three first-round finishers and 15 at-large entries in each event qualify for state. Divers, meanwhile, continue to go from the regional meets directly to state.
Floyd said having 24 swimmers per event at state instead of the current 40 would cut the crowds on the pool deck and mean more seating for spectators. He said neither UK nor the University of Louisville’s Ralph Wright Natatorium is big enough to comfortably host a state championship.
“You compound the fact that it’s a winter sport, and you’ve got people standing out in the potential snow and the cold,” Floyd said.
‘Not deep enough’
At the very least, the new setup could make it harder for the Ryle boys and Notre Dame to reprise last year’s third-place team finishes. Especially the Pandas – Notre Dame is coping without North Carolina freshman Lainy Kruger, who won two state titles last season.
“It’s going to be awful tough this year,” Kelly said. “I have a pretty good freshman class coming in. The problem is, we’re really not deep enough to cover the three relays (200-yard medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle); that’s where you score a lot of points.”
Juniors Sadie Hartig and Claire Monohan return. Hartig was second in the 500 freestyle last year and was part of the 200 medley and freestyle relay teams that finished fourth. Monohan was fifth in the 500 and was on the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.
One of the freshmen, Villa Madonna transfer Savannah Bien, was seventh in 1-meter diving a season ago.
Northern Kentucky is strongest in girls diving. Cooper senior (and New Mexico State signee) Peytton Moore finished two-tenths of a point behind state champion Reagan Patterson of Madison Southern, Campbell County junior Grace Hedger was fifth, and Highlands sophomore Addison Tinkler was eighth.
Cooper assistant coach Kristina Jenny said Moore doesn’t think about last February.
“She’s very calm and collected, so I really think she was just focused on moving on to her club diving and diving (10-meter) platform this summer,” Jenny said.
‘A huge deal’
Floyd said St. Xavier and Sacred Heart are the overwhelming favorites to win the boys and girls team titles, respectively. His goal is the combined title, in which boys and girls scores are added.
“That is a huge deal for us,” Ryle senior Mackenzie Denigan said. “I’m really excited to see what we can do combined this year. We didn’t lose any girls last year, but we did lose a few boys, but we did gain some really good boys, so I’m excited.”
Denigan, who is headed for Indiana Wesleyan next fall, knows one of the “really good boys” well – her younger brother, junior Chase Denigan, is coming back from St. Xavier.
“It was more of a family decision,” Chase Denigan said. “We were missing family; it was just time to move back, get back to the way things were and be back with our family.”
The younger Denigan swims the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle. He likes the shorter race because all four strokes are involved: backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and freestyle.
“It’s a 50 of each stroke; you can never count yourself out,” Chase Denigan said.
Four returning Raiders – senior diver Landon Isler, juniors Andy Pleiman, Garrett Dennis and sophomore Chase Knopf – played major roles last year. Isler was second to Lexington Catholic’s Michael Buchart III (Covington Catholic senior Jake Larkin was third), and Pleiman, Dennis and Knopf were part of the relay teams that finished fourth.
Knopf also finished sixth in the 200 freestyle.
Floyd said Ryle is one of a group of four schools (Lexington Catholic, Highlands and Henry Clay are the others) that could dethrone defending Combined champion Paul Laurence Dunbar.
“We’re very young,” Floyd said. “There (were) a lot of graduations throughout the state, which has opened up a big opportunity to make a run at the state combined title, which is our biggest goal this year.”