With one day left in the high school girls swimming season, Glendale appears poised to win a third consecutive state championship.
The swimming Falcons put 10 swimmers or relay teams in the finals of the 12 events that make up the Missouri State High School Activities Association Girls State Swimming Championship in St. Peters. The top 16 finishers in each events score points toward a cumulative team score used to determine an overall best team. Swimmers may also earn individual state championships for their particular event or events.
Macie Beairsto set the fastest time in the 200-yard freestyle race with 1:50.80. She was more than half a second faster than top qualifier Kelley Tackett of Rock Bridge. Freshmen Gillian Hoogstraet and Audrey Mace are also likely to score team points for Glendale in the 200 free, as both were in the top 16 in the prelims.
Beairsto also set the fastest preliminary time in the 100-yard butterfly.
Drury University signee Madeline Nelson swam 1.63 seconds faster than her qualifying time in the 100-yard freestyle, earning the top seed with a time of 52.01. Nelson was third in the 100-yard breaststroke on the first day of the state championships, but only eight hundredths of a second slower than top seed Madison Strathman of Kearney.
Glendale’s Kaylee Sisson will be the No. 1 seed in swimming’s fastest race. She swam the 50-yard freestyle in 23.99. The 50 free will be close, as freshman Molly Miller of Springfield’s Summit Prep qualified second with a time of 24.08, just nine hundredths of a second slower than Sisson. Elle Moon of Nixa will also swim in the final, having placed sixth in the prelims.
Krystal Calor of Kickapoo will swim in the championship final of the 200-yard individual medley. She was the sixth-fastest qualifier in the Friday preliminaries with a time of 2:10.61, five seconds faster than her qualifying time. Caylor also placed eighth in the 500-yard freestyle prelims and will swim in Saturday’s final.
Glendale logged the third-fastest time in the 200-yard medley relay but will need to shed 1.81 seconds to catch a Rock Bridge team of two sophomores and two freshmen. The Falcons’ 400-yard freestyle relay team was fastest in the preliminaries, and its 200-yard freestyle relay team was second behind Rock Bridge by less than a tenth of a second. Relay races are worth double the points of a single swimmer race at the state championship meet.
The state finals begin at 3 p.m. Saturday.