BLYTHEWOOD – On Sunday, Sept. 25the Blythewood High School’s swim teams competed in the Dreher Invitational at the University of South Carolina.
The boys team placed sixth out of 25 teams and the girls team finished in eighth.
Many Bengal swimmers had lifetime best times and several qualified for the state swim meet, to be held on Sunday, Oct. 8.
Seventh grader, Keira Gust, broke her own school record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:03.55 and placed 3rd out of 67 swimmers in the event. Whitney Moody placed fourth in a time of 1:05.20. Both performances qualify them for the state swim meet.
The ladies 400 freestyle relay team of Whitney Moody, Keira Gust, Abby Sanders and Ayla Palmer placed fourth overall in a time of 4:00.12, which will qualify them for the state swim meet if it continues to be a time ranked in the top 20 in the state.
The boys swim team already qualified all three of their relays for the state meet with meeting the qualifying time standards.
Other top performances for the Bengals were:
- Boys 200 medley relay, 4th Place: Parker Repka, Conan Gust, Gunner Norene, and Christian Newton
- Conan Gust – 200 free (2nd and state qualifying time) and 100 back (7th and state qualifying time)
- Conner Cattaneo- 6th in 200 free and 7th in the 100 free (both close to the automatic state qualifying times)
- Gunner Norene- 6th in 200 IM (close to automatic state qualifying time)
- Parker Repka- 7th in 50 free (.2 seconds away from the automatic time)
- Keira Gust – 10th in the 200 free
- Abby Sanders – 9th in the 50 free and 10th in the 100 breaststroke (close to the state qualifying times in both)
- Ayla Palmer – 9th in the 500 freestyle
- Claire Whitney – 8th in the 100 freestyle
Blythewood will host Lexington and White Knoll on Wednesday, Sept. 28, at Columbia Country Club for their last home meet and a special senior recognition night, when they will honor the team’s 11 seniors.
The Region championship swim meet is set for Saturday, Oct.1 at Fort Mill Aquatic Center. The Bengals look to qualify more swimmers for the state meet.