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| 13 MCHS swimmers qualify for state meet |
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2/17/2017
By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
There are several swimming and diving coaches in the 8th Region who woke up Sunday morning and perhaps they issued a small selfish prayer.
The message was simply that Montgomery County, in the near future, not build an indoor swimming facility.
Saturday at Barbourville, in the 8th Region Swimming and Diving Championships, the Indians did really well.
When the waters had calmed a total of 13 swimmers had qualified for the Kentucky State High School Swimming and Diving Championships to be held at the University of Louisville’s Ralph Wright Natatorium Feb. 23-25.
That’s the most qualifiers ever as the Indians will compete in girls’ diving with three individuals swimming in events along with five different relay teams.
One is left to wonder where the program might be if there was an indoor facility here for the athletes to practice on a regular basis and where more young people would have an opportunity to participate and think what might have been.
Additionally on Saturday, Coach Lainey Neal was named the Boys’ 8th Region Coach of the Year as the Tribe made a strong showing in arguably the strongest region in the state.
Competing against all of the Lexington schools, Madison County schools, Scott County, Clark County and Bourbon County, the Indians managed an overall eighth place finish out of 14 teams with the girls finishing ninth out of 15 and the boys coming in seventh out of 14. Clark County only entered a girls’ team so they did not compete in the overall competition.
Harrison County, Berea, Mason County, Robertson County and Maysville St. Patrick are the other teams in the region that did not send teams to the competition. Some of those schools did have individuals who competed.
Montgomery County’s highest finish was by seventh grader Samantha Coffey.
Coach Lainey Neal’s squad showed tremendous improvement as they set a number of school records.
The relay events were a strong suit for Montgomery County, as they have been in the past, but the performances in individual events, collectively, were the best ever for a Montgomery County team.
Cameron Coffey, a freshman, finished seventh out of 36 entries in the 100 yard backstroke event with a time of :56.87. He was less than seven seconds off the winning pace of Lexington Catholic sophomore Matt Menke, who set a regional record with a time of :50.46.
The previous record was :51.71 set by Madison Central junior Trent Lakes, who broke his own record but still finished behind Menke.
Coffey’s younger sister, seventh grader Samantha, had a seventh place finish in the 500 yard freestyle.
Her time was 5:26.89 after she was fifth in the prelims in 5:24.37.
She finished behind three seniors, two juniors and a sophomore in that competition.
Samantha’s twin sister Sarah finished 14th overall in the same event, sixth in the consolation final, with a time of 5:41.31 and she showed great resilience in the tiring event by improving by almost two seconds from her preliminary time on Friday.
Here are the results for the Indians in the different events:
Girls’ 200 yard medley relay — The team of Jilianne Williams, Samantha Coffey, Saray Coffey and Benton Patrick finished eight in the field with a time of 1:59.55, over two seconds lower than their preliminary time. Junior Benton Patrick swam a :26.41 anchor lap.
Boys’ 200 yard medley relay — The team of Cameron Coffey, Marc McGinnis, Hank Neal and Travis Toy finished sixth in a time of 1:45.36. Travis Toy swam a :23.86 anchor lap.
Girls’ 200 yard freestyle — Seventh-grader Samantha Coffey finished 10th overall with a time of 2:02.96 and beat her preliminary time by almost three seconds. She was the youngest swimmer to make the finals in afield of 50 swimmers.
Boys’ 200 yard freestyle — Senior Marc McGinnis finished 12th in the field of 35 competitors with a time of 1:57.22. His younger brother, freshman Bryce, just missed making the finals when he finished 18th. The top 16 in the preliminaries qualified for the finals.
Girls’ 200 yard individual medley — Junior Ashleigh Richardson finished 19th in the field of 30 swimmers with a time of 2:33.40. She was less than five seconds from qualifying for the finals.
Boys’ 200 yard individual medley — Freshman Garrett Craycraft finished 21st in a field of 25 swimmers with a time of 2:44.50. He was less than five seconds from qualifying for the finals.
Girls’ 50 yard freestyle — Junior Benton Patrick finished ninth overall, winning the consolation finals with a time of :26.41. There was a field of 61 swimmers in this event and Patrick trimmed almost a half second off her qualifying time. Sophomore Morgan Shrout was 33rd in the field in :29.90 and senior Hayden Gooding was 52nd in :33.83.
Boys’ 50 yard free style — Junior Travis Toy finished 15th overall in a field of 59 swimmers. He had a time of :24.38. Sophomore James May just missed the finals, finishing 17th in a time of :24.69. Junior Carson Akers was 23rd with a time of :25.51 and senior Dillon Covington came in 49th with a time of :31.73.
Girls’ 1 meter diving — This competition had been held earlier in the week at Versailles.
Sophomore Morgan Shrout finished 10th overall with a score of 359.55. She had finished ninth in the field 22 divers in the preliminaries and then was ninth in the semifinals.
Sophomore Bryce Gooding and senior Hayden Gooding also competed in the event as Montgomery County had entries in the diving competition for the first time.
Boys’ 1 meter diving — Junior Hank Neal finished 10th with a score of 259.60. He had been ninth in the semifinals after qualifying ninth in the preliminaries.
Girls’ 100 yard butterfly — Seventh-grader Sarah Coffey was 15th overall in a time of 1:07.08 and was the youngest swimmer to make the finals in a field of 33 competitors.
Boys’ 100 yard butterfly — Freshman Cameron Coffey and junior Hank Neal finished seventh
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