• Photo Showcase: Metro Conference swimming, Feb. 11
• Results: Metro Conference finals

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After the day Millard South’s Bob Glover had Saturday at the Metro Conference championships, swimming coaches might want to begin considering new approaches to practices and workouts.

Glover participated in his first meet other than a dual since the Dec. 17 Lincoln Southeast Invitational after being sidelined Dec. 31 with a severe case of mononucleosis.

That cost the Millard South junior two weeks of practice. Remove illness from the equation, and Glover’s performance with that extra rest might be Exhibit A that swimmers — if not their coaches — would suggest for less grueling January workouts.

Rested, refreshed and hungry for competition, Glover won two events, set one meet record and was named the meet’s outstanding male swimmer as the Patriots pushed defending champion Omaha Creighton Prep before eventually falling 404-378.5 to the Junior Jays at Millard West.

The Millard West girls also successfully defended their Metro title with a 463-370 win over Omaha Westside. It was a big step for the Wildcats as they gear up for their fifth consecutive state championship Feb. 24 and 25 at Lincoln’s Devaney Center.

“We’re happy with how things turned out,” Millard West coach Tracy Stauffer said. “Westside is a great team, and anything can happen when you get to state. I’m not ever going to underestimate him (Westside coach Doug Krecklow). They have decisions to make, we have decisions to make.”

State lineups must be submitted to the Nebraska School Activities Association by noon Tuesday, and several teams added potential names to those lists by posting automatic qualifying times. That’s one of the things that Creighton Prep coach Tom Beck said was so good about the back-and-forth dual his Junior Jays had with Millard South.

“It was like a roller coaster, up and down,” Beck said. “They kept the pressure on us the whole day, but it forced our guys to have a great team effort. They had to come through and swim well, and that put them in a position to be in our state lineup.

“We added a couple of guys this weekend, and I’m sure the fact we told them we had to have everybody contribute helped them get cuts.”

Millard South won five individual events and the meet-opening 200-yard medley relay. Glover led off that Patriots quartet that beat Prep by nearly one full second with a 1:34.65.

Glover also won the 100 butterfly in 51.50, nearly four seconds faster than the runner-up — his younger brother Jim. Then Bob topped one of the Metro’s oldest records with his win in the 100 backstroke as his 50.71 bettered the 51.20 21 years ago by Ralston’s P.J. Wiseman.

“With two individual wins and the breaking of P.J. Wiseman’s record, Bob exceeded our expectations with his swims today,” Millard South coach Tyler Hammond said. “Bob’s heart and training is what showed today. Our expectations of Bob and our team have not changed.”

Glover’s teammate Ryan Hogan also was a double gold winner as he swept the freestyle sprints by winning the 50 in 22.13 and the 100 in 47.93. Neil Girmus was the Patriots’ other individual winner when he took the 200 freestyle title in 1:45.22, more than 1.4 seconds ahead of runner-up Jack Turman of Papillion-La Vista/Papillion-La Vista South.

Turman got a gold of his own by winning the 500 freestyle in 4:50.81.

But Prep managed to overcome Millard South’s depth despite not having Michigan recruit Will Raynor in an individual event. Beck long has had a policy of making sure every swimmer on his roster competes in at least one event at Metro, even if some of his top guys only swim relays.

That strategy helped the Junior Jays post a pair of times on The World-Herald’s all-time charts. Raynor, Matthew Medara and freshman twins Sean and Ryan Tate teamed up on both of Prep’s freestyle relay teams.

In the 200, they posted the fourth-fastest time in state history by winning in 1:25.86 before landing at No. 9 all time by winning the 400 freestyle in 3:11.04.

The list of individual winners in the girls meet was short because three were double gold medalists.

Papillion-La Vista freshman Brianna McCullough was named swimmer of the meet for her wins in the 100 and 200 freestyles. She lowered her state-leading time in the 200 to 1:55.92 and won the 100 in 54.44.

Millard North’s Mary Kate Luddy took the state lead in the 200 individual medley by winning in 2:09.95 before she took the 500 freestyle title in 5:11.26.

Another Mustangs swimmer, senior Natalie Renshaw, won the 50 freestyle in 24.48 and the 100 backstroke in 1:00.12. She also is the state leader in the 100 freestyle at 54.09.

Contact the writer:

402-618-4113, alexsdad@mail.com
twitter.com/stevebeideck

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METRO CONFERENCE FINALS

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Boys

Team scoring: Omaha Creighton Prep 404, Millard South 378.5, Millard West 312, Omaha Westside 243, Papillion-La Vista/Papillion-La Vista South 176, Bellevue West 162, Omaha Burke 160.5, Omaha Central 158, Millard North 125, Omaha Benson 57, Omaha Bryan 43, Omaha North 36, Bellevue East 18, Omaha Northwest 8, Omaha South 6.

200-yard medley relay: 1, Millard South (Bob Glover, Neil Girmus, Ryan Hogan, Jim Glover), 1:34.65. 2, Omaha Creighton Prep, 1:35.62. 3, Millard West, 1:40.21. 4, Omaha Burke, 1:44.30. 5, Omaha Westside, 1:44.51. 6, Papillion-La Vista/Papio South, 1:45.23. 7, Omaha Benson, 1:47.84. 8, Omaha Central, 1:51.10.

200 freestyle: 1, Girmus, 1:45.22. 2, Jack Turman, PLV/PLVS, 1:46.64. 3, Matthew Medara, Prep, 1:48.11. 4, Colin Donohue, MS, 1:50.39. 5, Cody Andrews, Westside, 1:51.14. 6, Matthew Sunderman, MN, 1:51.31. 7, Matthew O'Dell, Westside, 1:52.06. 8, Kevin Boldt, MW, 1:52.22.

200 individual medley: 1, Clarence Landen, Prep, 1:58.34. 2, Ryan Tate, Prep, 2:01.65. 3, Szymmy Day, Prep, 2:02.68. 4, Zach Ogurek, BW, 2:02.77. 5, Isaac Springer, MW, 2:03.35. 6, Patrick Luddy, MN, 2:04.62. 7, Dustin Smith, MS, 2:05.47. 8, Chris Beeman, BW, 2:08.67.

50 freestyle: 1, Hogan, 22.13. 2, Connor Magee, Prep, 22.20. 3, Sean Froemming, Central, 22.36. 4, Carter Deras, Prep, 22.61. 5, Thomas Arnsperger, MW, 22.71. 6, Caleb Jeffrey, Burke, 22.92. 7, Cody Klaiber, MW, 23.06. 8, Mackinley McAllister, Burke, 23.24.

100 butterfly: 1, Bob Glover, 51.50. 2, Jim Glover, 55.31. 3, Tanner Grieve, MW, 55.45. 4, Thomas Arnsperger, MW, 55.76. 5, Matthew Magee, Prep, 55.97. 6, Caleb Kruse, MW, 56.12. 7, Sunderman, 57.13. 8, Ogurek, 57.30.

100 freestyle: 1, Hogan, 47.93. 2, Sean Tate, Prep, 48.20. 3, Andrews, 49.07. 4, Froemming, 49.90. 5, Evan White, Central, 49.92. 6, Donohue, 50.12. 7, Luddy, 51.09. 8, Klaiber, 51.51.

500 freestyle: 1, Turman, 4:50.81. 2, Girmus, 4:56.21. 3, Justin Kozol, Prep, 5:01.89. 4, Boldt, 5:04.36. 5, Beeman, 5:05.04. 6, Robbie Bethel, BW, 5:06.06. 7, Matthew O'Dell, Westside, 5:07.41. 8, Marquise Jones, MW, 5:14.33.

200 freestyle relay: 1, Omaha Creighton Prep (Will Raynor, Sean Tate, Ryan Tate, Medara), 1:25.86. 2, Millard South, 1:27.66. 3, Omaha Central, 1:30.38. 4, Omaha Westside, 1:30.56. 5, Millard West, 1:30.84. 6, Omaha Burke, 1:31.59. 7, Bellevue West, 1:33.51. 8, Millard North, 1:33.65.

100 backstroke: 1, Bob Glover, 50.71 (meet record, betters 51.20 by P.J. Wiseman, Ralston, 1991). 2, Andrew Hansen, Prep, 55.10. 3, Christopher Chavez, Prep, 55.12. 4, Matthew Prophit, MW, 57.20. 5, Kruse, 57.22. 6, Paul O'Dell, Westside, 57.62. 7, Alan Neesen, MS, 57.80. 8, Samuel Kupka, Westside, 58.42.

100 breaststroke: 1, Springer, 57.16. 2, Alex Penrice, Prep, 1:00.60. 3, Nick Robbins, PLV/PLVS, 1:03.21. 4, Merrick McAllister, Burke, 1:04.26. 5, Darius Navabpour, Benson, 1:04.80. 6, Jake Burklund, MS, 1:05.32. 7, Phillip Burroughs, MS, 1:05.70. 8, Kurt Pavlik, Central, 1:06.74.

400 freestyle relay: 1, Omaha Creighton Prep (Raynor, Sean Tate, Ryan Tate, Medara), 3:11.04. 2, Omaha Central, 3:20.04. 3, Millard West, 3:22.79. 4, Omaha Westside, 3:23.41. 5, Omaha Burke, 3:23.56. 6, Millard South, 3:24.04. 7, Bellevue West, 3:28.19. 8, Papillion-La Vista/Papio South, 3:28.60.

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Girls

Team scoring: Millard West 463, Omaha Westside 370, Millard North 311, Omaha Marian 289, Papillion-La Vista/Papillion-La Vista South 194, Omaha Burke 170, Millard South 108, Omaha North 85, Bellevue East 80, Bellevue West 49, Omaha Bryan 38, Omaha Central 32, Omaha Benson 30, Omaha Northwest 24, Omaha South 6.

200-yard medley relay: 1, Millard North (Natalie Renshaw, Amber Baesler, Mary Kate Luddy, Laura Ney), 1:50.34. 2, Omaha Marian, 1:52.40. 3, Omaha Westside, 1:53.84. 4, Millard West, 1:54.57. 5, Omaha Burke, 1:56.52. 6, Papillion-La Vista/Papio South, 1:59.46. 7, Omaha North, 2:03.78. 8, Bellevue West, 2:05.37.

200 freestyle: 1, Brianna McCullough, PLV/PLVS, 1:55.92. 2, Molly Kroeger, Westside, 1:58.85. 3, Alexa Gross, Marian, 1:59.25. 4, Shea Marcinski, MW, 2:00.55. 5, Taylor Korte, MW, 2:00.66. 6, Kalyn Dorheim, Westside, 2:00.94. 7, Ashlee Wigness-Lindeman, Westside, 2:01.67. 8, Summer Baldwin, Marian, 2:03.76.

200 individual medley: 1, Luddy, 2:09.95. 2, Erin Oeltjen, MW, 2:11.87. 3, Dana Posthuma, Burke, 2:13.90. 4, Katherine Lincoln, Westside, 2:17.88. 5, Kacy Thurman, MW, 2:18.06. 6, Katie Nissen, MN, 2:18.14. 7, Grace Mueller, MW, 2:19.71. 8, Tara Goss, MW, 2:22.43.

50 freestyle: 1, Renshaw, 24.48. 2, Brynn Robertson, Marian, 25.00. 3, Laura Ney, MN, 25.19. 4, Victoria Trojanowski, BE, 25.28. 5, Antonia Franco, Marian, 25.45. 6, Hannah Miller, Westside, 7, Katherine McGinn, MW, 25.77. 8, Savanna Couillard, Westside, 25.86.

100 butterfly: 1, Tasha Posthuma, Burke, 1:00.20. 2, Thurman, 1:00.79. 3, Brooke Stilmock, MW, 1:01.02. 4, Elaina Blair, Westside, 1:01.49. 5, Couillard, 1:01.49. 6, Katie Hollenbeck, Burke, 1:04.21. 7, Caroline Peetz, Westside, 1:04.57. 8, Emily McCoy, MW, 1:05.33.

100 freestyle: 1, McCullough, 54.44. 2, Kroeger, 54.66. 3, Victoria Trojanowski, BE, 55.57. 4, Korte, 55.60. 5, McGinn, 55.87. 6, Mueller, 56.76. 7, Miller, 56.82. 8, Ney, 56.86.

500 freestyle: 1, Luddy, 5:11.26. 2, Dana Posthuma, 5:16.99. 3, Dorheim, 5:17.60. 4, Wigness-Lindeman, 5:22.26. 5, Gross, 5:25.23. 6, Marcinski, 5:27.11. 7, Samantha Lau, MW, 5:37.57. 8, Brooke Holmes, Burke, 5:39.71.

200 freestyle relay: 1, Millard West (Mueller, Korte, McGinn, Oeltjen), 1:39.86. 2, Millard North, 1:39.91. 3, Omaha Westside, 1:40.77. 4, Papillion-La Vista/Papio South, 1:44.65. 5, Omaha Burke, 1:44.76. 6, Millard South, 1:47.14. 7, Bellevue East, 1:48.43. (Omaha Marian disqualified).

100 backstroke: 1, Renshaw, 1:00.12. 2, Baldwin, 1:00.66. 3, Robertson, 1:02.45. 4, Morgan Guy, MW, 1:03.27. 5, Molly Clow, Marian, 1:03.88. 6, Goss, 1:04.16. 7, Lau, 1:04.38. 8, Tasha Posthuma, 1:04.70.

100 breaststroke: 1, Madison Besch, MW, 1:10.09. 2, Anna Rosenlof, Marian, 1:10.11. 3, Lincoln, 1:10.94. 4, Baesler, 1:11.04. 5, Nissen, 1:11.46. 6, Blair, 1:11.58. 7, Jeni Fendrick, MN, 1:11.66. 8, Laura Kuhn, 1:12.57.

400 freestyle relay: 1, Millard West (Marcinski, Korte, Goss, Oeltjen), 3:40.42. 2, Omaha Marian, 3:45.27. 3, Omaha Westside, 3:47.55. 4, Papillion-La Vista/Papio South, 3:49.48. 5, Millard South, 3:55.04. 6, Millard North, 3:57.34. 7, Omaha North, 4:01.12. (Omaha Burke disqualified).