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Indians make solid showing at state

2/27/2020

By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor

Seniors Garrett Craycraft and Cameron Coffey combined to score 24 points last week for the Montgomery County Swimming and Diving Team as the boys’ finished 21st in Kentucky at the KHSAA State Championships at the Lancaster Aquatic Center on the University of Kentucky campus.

While the girls did not score in the state they had several solid performances from younger swimmers which bodes well for Coach Lainey Neal and her team in future seasons.

Craycraft finished sixth in the boys’ one meter diving competition last Thursday with a score of 454.50 in the finals.

He scored 13 points for the Montgomery County team with that effort.
Craycraft was ninth coming out of the preliminaries, rose to sixth in the semifinals and that’s where he finished in the finals.

Teammate Meier Patrick, a sophomore, came in 34th in the field in the qualifying but only 20 qualified for the semifinals.
Freshman Jacob Stilz qualified as an alternate but did not get to compete in the championships.

Meanwhile, in girls’ diving, freshman Kentlee Patrick finished 20th in the preliminaries and was 19th in the semifinals. Only 16 divers qualified for the finals.

Meanwhile, senior Cameron Coffey made the consolation finals in both the 50 and 100 yard freestyle events.

He came in 11th in the state in the 100 with a time of :48.83. Of the 10 swimmers who finished in front of there were four from Louisville St. Xavier along with swimmers from Louisville Trinity, Ft. Thomas Highlands, Louisville Eastern, Owensboro Catholic, Ashland Paul Blazer and Boyle County.

Coffey was ninth in the preliminaries, missing the championship field consisting of the final eight swimmers by just a quarter of a second.
He received six points for that finish for the Indians and scored five with a 12th-place finish in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of :21.82, just a half second away from sixth place.

In the boys’ 200 yard medley relay the Indians came in 27th out of the 40 teams that qualified from across the state.

Coffey and Craycraft were on that team along with Meier Patrick and freshman Jackson Bentley. They had a time of 1:50.40.

The Montgomery County quartet was the only team east of the I-75 corridor to make the state championships in this event.
In the 200 yard freestyle relay, Coffey, Craycraft and Patrick teamed with junior Pruitt Lansdale for a 35th place finish out of the 40 finalists with a time of 1:41.07. They were just seven seconds away from a top 20 finish.
The girls’ team of sophomores Samantha and Sarah Coffey and freshmen Alexis Trent and Kentlee Patrick, finished 25th in the field of 40 teams with a time of 1:57.94 in the 200 yard medley relay.

They were less than five seconds away from making the finals in this event and will have their entire team returning next year.
Patrick also competed in the 50 yard freestyle where she finished 25th in the field of 40 with a time of :25.30. She was the seventh highest finisher among those who qualified from the eighth and ninth grade classes.
She was less than a half-second away from qualifying for the finals.
In the 500 yard freestyle the Coffey twins 18th and 31st among the 40 state qualifiers.

Samantha was 18th with a time of 5:21.94, missing the finals by :02.40. Eleven of those ahead of her were juniors or seniors.

Sarah was 31st with a time of 5:28.16.
Freshman Alexis Trent had a strong showing in the 100 yard backstroke, just missing the finals.

She had a time of 1:00.57 to finish 19th, just 56/100ths of a second away from making the final group to compete for points.

In the 400 yard freestyle relay, the team of Coffey, Coffey, Trent and Patrick was 22nd in the state with a time of 3:51.32 and they were less than three seconds away from making the finals.

Coach Neal’s team was limited to just one day a week of team practice which makes the statewide showing in the relay events eye-catching when compared with the teams that are able to practice on a daily basis.
The state event wrapped up the most successful team showing in the history of the Montgomery County swimming and diving program.