AIMING FAST: Bartlesville swim team bolts into state this weekend
Don’t sell short the potential of Bartlesville High School at this weekend’s Class 6A girls state championship meet in Edmond.
The Lady Bruins might do anything at meet — might even bring home a state title despite going to battle with only 12 girls.
The entire team contingent, including 20 athletes, the coaches and others, departs Bartlesville High at 9:45 a.m. — following a public send-off
“I think it will be a really close race between Jenks, Edmond North and Bartlesville,” Bartlesville head coach Chad Englehart said. Jenks and Edmond North both have impressive, larger teams, but Bartlesville has more girls seeded in the top eight than either of them.
The Lady Bruins have been a growing comet of power throughout the season.
Bartlesville brings a young girls team to state — no senior and sophomores or freshmen.
“They are achieving what I thought they could achieve,” Englehart said. “I think they’re beginning to believe in themselves and getting emotionally stronger and stronger. … I think it’s going to require all 12 of them piling up points. We don’t have that someone that’s going to go out and dominate others.”
In fact, Bartlesville didn’t win any girls regional championships — but still finished second as a team to Jenks by a small margin.
Whatever the Lady Bruins achieve will have to be a true team effort, the coach added.
“I’ve been real optimistic about our opportunities this week,” he said.
On the boys side, Bartlesville enters only eight swimmers at state — including Griffin Craig, who won two regional individual titles and the 400 freestyle relay team.
Even though the Bruins are short-handed compared to the big programs, Englehart likes their potential to challenge for third.
“It will be a really good battler (between Jenks and Edmond North) for first or second place,” Englehart said. “I think the Bruins can be right there for third. That would be a really good accomplishment.”
Englehart said he felt the Bruins were a little flat in some events at the regional.
“We didn’t put our best foot forward,” he said.
This weekend’s state meet will be their final opportunity to give their all in high school competition this season.
Following are the 20 Bartlesville state qualifiers and the events in which they are seeded (parentheses).
Englehart said the relay teams will be finalized later in the week.
—
GABRIELLE BURKE (girls, soph.)
500 free (8)
100 breast (11)
—
ANNA DROEGE (girls, soph.)
200 individual medley (7)
100 fly (19)
—
GRIFFIN CRAIG (boys, jr.)
200 individual medley (1)
100 back (1)
—
OM GHONASGI (boys, sr.)
100 breast (23)
—
EMMA HOWZE (girls, jr.)
200 free (4)
100 free (3)
—
CODY LAY (boys, jr.)
200 free (9)
500 free (3)
—
TRAVIS LIEF (boys, fr.)
500 free (18th)
—
CARA MOORE (girls, soph.)
100 breast (20)
—
JARRETT MOORE (boys, sr.)
200 individual medley (7)
100 fly (7)
—
ETHAN MUNN (boys, fr.)
200 freestyle relay (11)
—
LUKE OLSEN (boys, soph.)
50 free (4)
100 free (10)
—
REAGAN PATZKOWSKI (girls, jr.)
200 free (16)
100 fly (10)
—
ETHAN PETERSON (boys, soph.)
200 individual medley (14)
100 breast (14)
—
CALLI RICHARDS (girls, soph.)
200 individual medley (5)
100 breast (7)
—
ERIN ROPER (girls, soph.)
200 free (18)
500 free (7)
—
MACIE STAPLETON (girls, fr.)
100 free (23)
100 back (13)
—
LILY TALBOT (girls, jr.)
200 individual medley (3)
100 fly (5)
—
ASHLYNN TAYLOR (girls, fr.)
200 individual medley (8)
100 back (4)
—
JULIE VILARDO (girls, jr.)
200 free (11)
500 free (4)
—
ADDISON WILLIAMS (girls, soph.)
100 fly (13th)
100 breast (9)
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Bartlesville High eyes state swimming meet this weekend
