By: Marc Hardin, prepsports@enquirer.com
Covington Catholic senior Brendan Meyer(Photo: The Community Recorder/James Weber)
The Covington Catholic swimming and diving team keeps cutting into Louisville St. Xavier's winning margin at the state championship meet. But the Colonels held steady with another runner-up finish Saturday at University of Louisville's Ralph Wright Natatorium, thanks to a monumental day turned in by senior Brendan Meyer.
Meyer was a winner in every event that he competed. He won a state championship in the individual 200- and 500-yard freestyle races, plus the 200- and 400-yard relays, good for 120 points, 38 percent of CovCath's team total of 317.
St. Xavier won with 361 points. Colonels coach Chris Goodpaster said the winning margin of 44 over CovCath is about as close as the Colonels have come to the 52-time state winner since the Tigers have been on their championship streak. St. Xavier won its 28th consecutive state crown.
The Colonels have finished second five years in a row. They are third on Kentucky's all-time list with five state titles, the last in 1983.
"We were pretty pumped about our finish. My guys were outstanding," said Goodpaster, a former CovCath swimmer in his first season as head coach. "I'm pretty sure they all did their best times. When you do your best times, and get beat, you can't do anything about that."
CovCath was a distant runner-up last year to the Tigers, who won by a margin of 114.5. In 2012, the difference was 250 points, but the Colonels have whittled it by 206 in just four years. "I'm proud of my team. They got as close as they could," Goodpaster said. "This is step one. I'm 0-for-1 against St. X right now, but we'll see what happens down the road."
Meyer won the 200 freestyle with a finishing time of 1 minute, 38.45 seconds, about a half-second off former CovCath champion Max Williamson's state record time of 1:37.93 set in 2013. Meyer took the 500 free in 4:26.55.
Meyer swam the anchor leg on the winning 200 freestyle relay team, which clocked in at 1:24.02, less than a half-second off the five-year-old St. Xavier standard of 1:23.87. He also anchored the 400 relay unit, a winner in 3:06.38, which came close to the record of 3:05.72, set last year by CovCath's Meyer and three swimmers who graduated.
Meyer was a repeat winner in the 500 free and the 400 free relay. He swam with seniors Bryce Day, Josh Smith and junior Nick Smith in Saturday's 400 relay. He teamed up in the 200 relay with Day, Nick Smith and senior Evan McMillen, who placed fourth individually in the 50 freestyle. Nick Smith was third in the 100 freestyle and fourth in the 200 individual medley. The CovCath 200 medley relay team finished second, as did senior diver Evan Brungs. Senior Blake Hannah was third in the 100 backstroke.
Other top finishers from the area included Scott's Ty Grubb, third in the 100 breaststroke, and Dixie Heights' Matthew Sims, seventh in the 100 butterfly. Holy Cross' Gus Staubitz was fifth in diving, followed by teammate Owen Finke in sixth, and Highlands' Finn Murphy in seventh. Allyson Heger of Holy Cross was named state boys' diving coach of the year.