Ryle swimming coach Jeff Floyd felt great Tuesday.
So did Notre Dame’s Jamie Kelly and Highlands’ Kevin Kampschmidt.
Notre Dame, Highlands and Ryle dominated last Saturday’s Region 7 meet at Scott. The Pandas defeated the Bluebirds for the girls team title, 438-344 with Ryle finishing third with 271. The Raider boys beat Highlands, 507-487; Covington Catholic was third with 295.
With St. Xavier and Sacred Heart the overwhelming favorites to win the state boys and girls team at the state meet Feb. 20-22 at the University of Kentucky’s Lancaster Aquatic Center, Kampschmidt said the Combined title is the best chance for team glory.
Kelly said there is no animus between the Pandas, Raiders and Bluebirds.
“I think it’s a friendly rivalry,” Kelly said. “I have good friends with pretty much everyone on the Highlands team. But it’s good to have some rivalry – rivalry breeds competition.”
Highlands finished ahead of Ryle, the defending state Combined champion (in which boys and girls scores are added together), 831-778.
“We’re really prepared, right where we want to be,” Floyd said. “We have not rested, we have not done anything out of the ordinary, and the kids are swimming really fast, close to their best times or best times.
“… (I) just really could not be happier with the way where we are. The plan is going along as well as it could have.”
Of the 24 events, Ryle won nine and Highlands won eight. Notre Dame won four, but the Pandas placed more in the top eight.
Notre Dame freshman Clare Herfel, Highlands senior Sarah Jones and Ryle senior Reece Yauger each won two girls events last week.
Herfel won the 200-yard freestyle by nearly a second over teammate Sadie Hartig and the 500 freestyle by five seconds.
“I’m confident that they’re both gonna go down to the state meet, and they’re gonna fight it out for the state title,” Kelly said. “ … Regardless of the results, they’re gonna be happy for one or another.”
Kelly is happy junior Liv Wallace is back.
“She had some illness that lasted for a while and she just wasn’t capable of swimming 500 freestyle last year, so she sat out, and now she’s back.” And then the other person I would call out is a sophomore Makayla Kleman.
Jones claimed the 50 freestyle in 24.94 seconds and the 100 backstroke in 57.58. Kampschmidt, meanwhile, praised sophomore Keira Kobida, who won the 100 freestyle in 53.00.
“We didn’t know that was going to be a thing,” Kampschmidt said.
Yauger claimed the 200 individual medley 2:06.98 and 100 butterfly in 57.28.
“I’m swimming a lot better than I thought, actually,” said Yauger, who’s headed for the University of Cincinnati next fall. “I didn’t rest too much for regionals or anything, so I was very happy with the times I put up and my placement.
Ryle’s boys won all four freestyle swims – Andy Pleiman in the 50 and 100 and Chase Knopf in the 200 and 500.
“I’m less than three-tenths off my 50 free and 100 free best times, which is great in a meet like this considering I haven’t really rested much going into regionals,” Pleiman said. “We turned down the yardage a little bit in practice.”
Cooper’s Chris Nowak and Simon Kenton’s Isaiah Reinhart won the girls and boys 1-meter diving, respectively, and Villa Madonna’s Ty Dropic placed first in the 100-yard butterfly.
Simon Kenton junior Isaiah Reinhart won the boys regional 1-meter, and he’s seeded third in the first round. Dixie Heights eighth-grader Austin Maley is seeded seventh, St. Henry senior Sam Baker is eighth, and Covington Catholic seventh-grader John O’Conner is 10th.
The girls first round begins at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, followed by the boys at 4 p.m.
“There’s no scores this weekend for the first round, so it’s kind of a weird meet,” Kampschmidt said. “Our main goal’s really just to make sure we hit all six relays advancing to the state round in Lexington.”
Yauger said a second state title Combined title “would be huge.”
“I would love to win the Combined my senior year,” Yauger said, “But our girls really have to step it up a lot this year because we lost a ton of good swimmers last year, but I definitely think it’s still very doable.”
Visit bit.ly/4jG3ODI for complete Region 7 results.