Girls swim places second at County Championships

The Starr’s Mill girls swim team placed second at the 2022 Fayette County Championship last week. They finished 21 points behind school rival McIntosh. 

“County was very tense,” senior Blakeley Wingo said. 

The girls team had placed second behind McIntosh every time they faced each other this season. Head coach Robin Huggins attempted to strategically place girls in their best events and construct relays to beat the Chiefs. 

Although the team placed second they had lots of wins throughout the meet on January 25th.

In the first event, the 200-yard medley relay, sophomores Katie Rausch and Emma Frank, junior Julianna Carle, and senior Alana Burrows finished first. The relay edged out the McIntosh relay by .6 seconds.

The Panthers had swimmers place in the top 5 of each event throughout the entire meet. Most notably:

200 individual medley – senior Kenzie Tucker and Burrows 

50 freestyle – junior Amelia Santos and senior Maddie Bacon

100 butterfly – Burrows [qualified for GHSA State Championship] and freshman Ella Glinski

500 freestyle – Bacon

100 backstroke – Rausch

100 breaststroke – Tucker

“It was scary. We don’t like to be behind at all but 21 points was a lot,” head coach Robin Huggins said. “The girls did well, they swam hard, and I don’t feel like anybody didn’t give their very best.”