After a historic week of conference championships, area swimmers and divers will put all of their attention to the season's biggest test -- the state championships.
The Missouri high school girls swimming and diving championships are set for Friday and Saturday at the Rec Plex in St. Peters. The competition will begin with preliminaries at 3 p.m. Friday. The finals will start at 3 p.m. Saturday. The schedule and seed times were posted Monday on mshsaa.org
Parkway West is the defending state champ, but the odds are against a St. Louis-area school bringing home a state title. Rock Bridge, Blue Springs and Glendale are among the favorites.
"Rock Bridge is really strong," Parkway South coach Sara Gerth said. "My money's on them."
Parkway North won its first Suburban South Conference championship last week and could have the best overall finish of any area school. Heather Lundstrom is a threat to win two individual titles this weekend. She is slated to compete in the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly.
"She's one of the best swimmers in the state," Parkway North coach Bart Prosser said of the senior. "She doesn't like to lose. That's her mentality."
Lundstrom is also a member of the 200 medley relay team. That team, which also includes Taylor Voelker, Dyana Schneider and Amanda Stadermann, has the fastest seed time (1:51.77). The 400 freestyle relay team also could finish in the top five.
Parkway South stopped Lafayette's string of 26 straight Suburban West Conference titles last Friday.
"We are hoping that we didn't leave it all at the conference meet," Gerth said. "But it's been an awesome year, regardless."
Parkway South's Samm Crocker has put together a banner season for the Patriots. The sophomore is in two, tightly-packed events, the 50 and 100 freestyle.
"Samm is a big-time racer," Gerth said. "She does the best when pressure is on her. State will be good for her."
Kate Gately of Parkway West, will defend her title in the 100 freestyle. She also finished fourth in the 50 freestyle last year.
"I'm looking to repeat in the 100, and, in the 50, who knows," Gately said. "We're going to go in confident as a team and hopefully get some good swims and hopefully finish in the top five."
Gately and Warrensburg's Lauren Shaw have the top two seed times in the 100 freestyle.
Ladue's Madeleine Wall has the top seed time (1:53.82) in the 200 freestyle. Lafayette's Mae Riordan is another contender in that race. Riordan will challenge Summit's Megan Popp in the 500 freestyle. They come in with the top two seed times, 5:05.37 and 5:05.65, respectively.
Parkway Central's Ally Neumann enters the meet with a top seed time of 1:07.16 in the 100 breaststroke. Kirkwood's Rachel Kokenyesi is a contender in the 100 backstroke, while the Villa Duchesne's 400 freestyle relay team of Meghan Riegel, Sarah Sutherlin, Bently Boldt, and Morgan Mullenix have the top seed time at 3:39.25.
The Gateway Athletic Conference is also filled with state-level contenders. Several of the conference's swimmers have posted top-10 state qualifying times.
Among the GAC's state hopefuls are Howell Central's Alison Strickler (24.73 seconds in the 50 freestyle); Zumwalt West's Evyn Spencer (53.88 in the 100 free); Zumwalt West's Courtney Coe and Howell's Maria Schroeder (56.75 and 58.19, respectively, in the 100 butterfly); Spencer and Strickler in the 100 backstroke (59.14 and 59.94, respectively) and Marissa Green (No. 1 seed in diving).
"I know we're very deep, and I would love to have a podium spot at state," said Zumwalt West coach Jeri Labrot, whose team finished third last season. "If we keep cutting times and we keep swimming like we did here (at the GAC championships), I would have to like our chances."
Zumwalt West and Howell also are strong in the relays. Zumwalt West is the No. 2 seed in the 200 free and medley relays.
While there are no guarantees Labrot likes her team's chances. "The girls, for some reason, are mentally tough this year," she said.
