INDIANAPOLIS — Since the beginning of the season, the mindset of Munster senior Nikki Smith has been on improving her 100 butterfly time from last year’s state meet.
She accomplished exactly that in Friday’s preliminaries, completing the event in 53.48, down from last year’s finals time of 53.90. Smith’s preliminary time was second-fastest in the 100 fly, only bested by Carmel’s Veronica Burchill, who set the state record at 52.59.
In the process of achieving her own goal, Smith edged Crown Point’s Aly Tetzloff, the defending state champion in the event, who clocked in at 53.49.
“We’ve been racing each other since we were 8, so it’s fun to compete against her,” Smith said. “I race her four or five times during the season, and it’s really good competition for me. We both push each other, so I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do (on Saturday).”
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When local coaches and swimmers looked up at the results board following an event on Friday, they often did so in disbelief.
“It’s a very humbling meet,” Munster coach Matt Pavlovich said. “You come here, and it seems like every year, the competition gets faster and faster. Last year, we thought it was really fast, and this year it’s even faster.”
According to Chesterton coach Kevin Kinel, Indiana will have one of the fastest state meets in the country, if not the fastest. Chesterton’s Cara Kroeger dropped 1.5 seconds from last year’s 200 IM time, but moved from sixth to eighth.
“It’s really cool to say I’m in one of the fastest meets in the country,” Kroeger said. “My time (2:01.64) would win a meet in any other state or this meet eight years ago.”
Although Crown Point coach Bryon Angerman doesn’t know if the Bulldogs are in position for a repeat runner-up finish, he believes they will be in contention for third or fourth.
Crown Point’s 200 medley relay finished prelims second at 1:43.09, while the 200 free relay time of 1:34.20 was also behind only Carmel. Hannah Kukurugya bettered her seed time in the 500 free with a 4:49.76, the second-best qualifying time.
“There are a few of our girls that want to go for some state records, and want to be state champions again,” Angerman said. “They’re definitely going to have their work cut out for them. Nobody is going to hand you a state championship.”
Kelsi Artim turned in Crown Point’s most impressive performance, finishing the 100 breast in a career-best 1:02.91, improving her seed from sixth to third.
Chesterton’s Vanessa Krause finished with the fourth-fastest 50 free prelim time at 23.29. She swam the 100 fly in 54.35, rounding out the trio of local swimmers in the top five. Caylee Casbon earned a berth in the consolation finals of the 100 back with a career-best time of 56.80.
“I thought coming in that team scores for second through eighth were going to be all jumbled up, and it looks like that’s the case,” Kinel said. “We’ve got to come here and swim faster (on Saturday), and I’m hoping for a top five finish.”
Brandon Vickrey is a freelance writer.