CovCath senior wins state diving title, Highlands uses balance to finish third

James Weber, Cincinnati Enquirer

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/high-schoo...

LOUISVILLE – Northern Kentucky has had a long run of dominance in boys diving in the state of Kentucky.

Logan Smith wanted to continue that legacy and left no doubt Friday night, winning the KHSAA boys state championship at the University of Louisville's Wright Natatorium. Smith, a Covington Catholic senior, scored 518.75 points to win by 75 over last year's champion, Finn Murphy of Highlands.

"It feels awesome," he said. "I've worked really hard for this. I just took it one dive at a time. The last three I just stayed on my mind and tried to nail them the best I could."

Northern Kentucky has won the boys diving title nine of the last 10 years, and Smith is the sixth different winner in that span, including Murphy.

Smith led by 60 points after Thursday's preliminaries and by 53 with two dives left. On his second-to-last dive in the finals, he blew up the scoreboard by getting two judges scores of 9.0 and scoring more than 61 points overall.

"It was awesome," he said. "When I came up out of the water, it felt awesome, everybody cheering and everything. In practice, I don't nail that dive that much. As I got up on the board, I knew I was going to drill it. Best I've ever done that dive."

Smith, who has trained with several of the area's recent champions, was diving in his future college pool. He will sign with the University of Louisville.

Smith was the only state champion for the area, which enjoyed a multitude of state medalists.

Highlands led the way with 10 total medals, including all three relays. The Bluebirds finished the meet with a new school record in the 400-yard freestyle relay, including Mac Russell, Brendan Conley, Will Griffith and Jack Banks. Conley is a senior and the other three are sophomores.

"It's really exciting because our team finished in the best way possible," said Conley. "I knew the other teams were coming for us and I had to hold them off. They wanted to give me the best finish possible, which was really humbling. We've all grown up together and it's fun to see everybody get faster as they get older."

Conley will swim for George Washington, one of the top programs in the Atlantic 10, and major in international relations.

Conley, Banks and Russell each won a pair of individual medals and two relay medals for the maximum four.

"It's a really hard sport," Conley said. "You definitely choose to be a swimmer. There's a lot of work that goes into it. You're training thousands of hours. You learn hard work and perseverance and it teaches you a lot of skills."

Highlands finished third in the state for the second straight year and will hope for a high finish in the combined standings tomorrow. The girls meet starts at 10:30 a.m., with the finals starting at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

"It's very exciting," said Highlands head coach Amanda Johnson. "This team has grown so much in the last nine years from what we started with. This morning at prelims, they were on fire. We have a lot of younger kids getting experience today, which is just as motivating."

In addition to Logan Smith's state title, CovCath had six other medals. Senior Ethan Hanna won four, two solo and two relays.

State results

Team scores: 1. St. Xavier 482, 2. Lexington Catholic 249, 3. Highlands 194, 4. Trinity 152, 5. Covington Catholic 138, 24. Beechwood 15, 26. Conner 12, 29. Dixie Heights 10, 32. Holy Cross 7,

Diving: 1. Logan Smith (CovCath) 518.75, 2. Finn Murphy (Highlands) 443.95, 6. Jude Dierker (CovCath) 425.05, 10. Peyton Fletcher (Holy Cross) 389.25, 14. Max McCauley (CovCath) 389.25, 18, Ryan Schneider (CovCath) 236.15, 22. Dekkar Haaser (Conner) 143.65, 27. Robert Arnberg (Highlands) 129.00, 31. James Spindley (Ryle) 124.40, 34. Alex Graman (Beechwood) 73.35, 37. Michael Meadows (Highlands) 69.05.

50 free: 5. Mac Russell (Highlands) 21.29, 14. Jake Ryan (Highlands) 21.95, 20. Braden Chow (SK) 22.48, 29. Jacob Slusher (Holy Cross) 22.91.

200 free: 5. Brendan Conley (Highlands) 1:41.67, 11. Eli Shoyat (Beechwood) 1:44.25, 12. Patrick Merse (CovCath) 1:44.52, 13. Tommy Johnson (Conner) 1:45.10, 16. Seth Young (Dixie) 1:52.54, 18. Aaron Lanham (Dixie) 1:49.30, 19. Sam Jones (Highlands) 1:49.36, 27. Benett Koenigsknecht (Ryle) 1:51.59, 29. William Brewer (Dixie) 1:52.69, 31. Davis Recht (Highlands) 1:53.13.

500 free: 7. Brendan Conley (Highlands) 4:40.91, 9. Eli Shoyat (Beechwood) 4:36.55, 12. Brandon Thomas (Conner) 4:48.63, 17. William Brewer (Dixie) 4:56.09, 20. Aaron Lanham (Dixie) 4:57.22, 21. Sam Jones (Highlands) 4:57.47, 25. Benett Koenigsknecht (Ryle) 4:59.90, 30. Davis Recht (Highlands) 5:04.17, 35. Joshua Mihaljevic (Cooper) 5:09.46, 37. Benjamin Vaught (Highlands) 5:14.93, 39. Robbie Bright (Latin) 5:24.58.

100 backstroke: 6. Ethan Hanna (CovCath) 52.21, 16. Parker Knollman (CovCath) 56.34, 17. Bret Holt (CovCath) 55.72, 30. David Lanham (Dixie) 58.15, 33. Harrison Pawsat (Highlands) 59.40, 38. Liam Connelly (Latin) 1:01.74.

100 breaststroke: 5. Jack Banks (Highlands) 57.08, 7. Patrick Merse (CovCath) 57.82, 16. Patrick Lester (CovCath) 1:01.09, 19. Tristen Richards (Beechwood) 1:01.30, 24. Brandon Thomas (Conner) 1:02.13, 26. Carter Reynolds (Ryle) 1:02.77, 31. Tyler Brown (Highlands) 1:03.87, 32. Roman Furuta (Ryle) 1:03.95, 37. Matt Herfel (Highlands) 1:04.86, 39. Peyton Berter (Dixie) 1:07.41.

100 butterfly: 8. Jack Banks (Highlands) 50.96, 12. Seth Young (Dixie) 51.96, 14. Tommy Johnson (Conner) 52.74, 21. Tristen Richards (Beechwood) 54.16, 22. Parker Knollman (CovCath) 54.17, 28. Braden Chow (SK) 55.24, 33. Colten Stephany (Campbell) 56.54.

200 IM: 5. Ethan Hanna (CovCath) 1:54.07, 13. Patrick Lester (CovCath) 1:59.54, 23. Tyler Brown (Highlands) 2:03.92, 26. Bradley Kathman (CovCath) 2:04.97, 28. Matt Herfel (Highlands) 2:06.58, 31. Matthew Allen (Holy Cross) 2:07.10, 35. Peyton Berter (Dixie) 2:11.66, 37. Liam Connelly (Cov. Latin) 2:12.08.

200 free relay: 4. Highlands 1:27.05 (Russell, Griffith, Ryan, Conley), 23. Beechwood 1:36.99 (Richards, Bauer, Radford, Shoyat), 24. Simon Kenton 1:37.09 (Hutchinson, Hamilton, Gemmer, Chow), 30. Dixie Heights 1:38.83 (Reil, Lanham, Hemingway, Brewer), 32. Cooper 1:39.08 (Lugar, Hill, Hoffman, Cole), 34. Conner 1:39.35 (Thomas, Haaser, Petersime, Johnson), 36. St. Henry 1:39.65 (Norris, Krumpelman, Trapp, Mabjish), DQ: Ryle (Dennis, Dumancic, McIntire, Kopser), CovCath (Kampinga, Krebs, Kathman, Lester).

400 free relay: 2. Highlands 3:10.05 (Russell, Griffith, Banks, Conley), 4. CovCath 3:15.25 (Merse, Lester, Holt, Hanna), 17. Dixie Heights 3:26.50 (Lanham, Brewer, Reil, Young), 20. Ryle 3:30.64 (Furuta, Collins, McIntire, Reynolds), 22. Cooper 3:37.40 (Lugar, Schierenbeck, Mihaljevic, Cole), 28. St. Henry 3:43.12 (Norris, Tucker, Cutcher, Mabjish), 32. Campbell County 3:48.05 (Hartig, Neiser, Chamberlin, Stephany), 38. Simon Kenton 3:54.74 (Blanchet, Smith, Carpenter, Hutchinson).

200 medley relay: 5. Highlands 1:38.21 (Banks, Ryan, Brown, Griffith), 8. CovCath 1:38.91 (Hanna, Merse, Knollman, Holt), 15. Dixie Heights 1:43.17 (D. Lanham, Berter, Young, A. Lanham), 18. Ryle 1:44.91 (Reynolds, Furuta, Koenigsknecht, Collins), 22. Beechwood 1:46.55 (Radford, Richards, Bauer, Shoyat), 24. Simon Kenton 1:47.36 (Hamilton, Gemmer, Chow, Hutchinson), 29. Cooper 1:49.93 (Mihaljevic, Schierebeck, Cole, Hill), 34. Conner 1:51.93 (Haaser, Thomas, Johnson, Petersime),