By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Saturday was a painful, but very rewarding day for Washburn Rural junior diver Rhiannon Good.
Despite fighting through a knee injury, which required her to compete with a brace on her right knee, Good posted a career-best third-place finish in Saturday's Class 6A one-meter diving event, her second straight state medal.
Washburn Rural junior Rhiannon Good fought through a knee injury to finish third in Class 6A in one-meter diving Saturday at the Capitol Federal Natatorium. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
After missing a chunk of the regular season with her injury, Good bounced back late in the season before suffering another setback between qualifying third in Thursday's semifinals and Saturday's championship finals.
"I hyper-extended it and strained some muscles during cheer and it put me out for like half the season and I just started coming back to compete for city and league and state,'' Good said. "I had qualified early in the season for state so I didn't have to worry about that, but city and league were rough because I was still getting over the injury.
"It had been fine and then I re-injured it on Thursday at cheer tryouts after state (prelims and semis) so it's pretty injured right now, but I was just like, 'I have three dives, I just have to do it.' ''
Washburn Rural junior diver Rhiannon Good won her second straight Class 6A medal Saturday at the Capitol Federal Natatorium. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Good was able to hold on for her third-place finish with a score of 378.75 while Olathe East sophomore Irene Getya dominated the event at 519.20 and Olathe North junior Avery Metcalf finished second at 388.20, less than 10 points in front of Good.
"(The knee) wasn't great, but I just told myself that I just needed to push through these last three dives and then I have all the offseason to rest but these three dives, I needed them to be good to maintain my spot in third,'' Good said. "So I just pushed through. I was like, 'It's going to hurt, I know it's going to hurt, but it will just be fine and it will be worth it in the end.' And it was.''
Good's top-three showing came after she had finished seventh at state as a sophomore.
"After state last year I told myself that this year I just wanted to make top five and that's something I did do, but top-three's better than top five, so I'm excited,'' Good said. "It was a rough season, so I'm just happy I was able to compete here.''
Washburn Rural junior Audrey Appuhn reacts after a third-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke in Saturday's Class 6A state meet. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural junior star Audrey Appuhn added two more individual medals to her growing career medal haul and has now been a multi-event state medalist the past three seasons.
Appuhn posted a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1 minute, 57.55 seconds and came back later in the day to finish third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.80, posting an improvement by more than a second after qualifying fourth.
Appuhn's sixth-place showing in the 200 free came after she qualifed third, but she said she was still pleased with that performance.
"I was happy with it, I thought it was a good race,'' she said. "I think it's OK to not go a best time every time you race. I'm glad that I got to hit right around what I've been hitting this season, so it's a win in my book.''
And Appuhn's confidence showed through in the 100 breast.
"That time in that breaststroke felt amazing,'' said Appuhn, who earned second-team All-State honors. "I didn't start racing the 100 breaststroke until this year and then just learning how to use the tempo and seeing everything that I want finally all put together it felt amazing.''
Washburn Rural senior Genevieve Miranda earned a Class 6A state medal with an eighth-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly Saturday. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural senior Genevieve Miranda finished eighth in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.53 and won the 'B' final in the 100 backstroke in 1:03.17.
Washburn Rural finished 11th as a team with 89 points while Blue Valley North won the team title by 131 points over Shawnee Mission East (375-244).
Seaman senior Joslynn Grace earned second-team All-State honors in Class 5A-1A Saturday. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Grace caps prep career with pair of top-four finishes
Seaman senior Joslynn Grace wrapped up an outstanding high school career with a pair of fourth-place individual finishes to earn second-team All-State honors in Class 5A-1A.
Grace finished fourth in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:10.73 and came back later to take fourth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.62, improving on her preliminary time by nearly a second.
"I think today was really good,'' Grace said. "My IM was a little rocky, but I'm glad I got to go my best time in the breaststroke and our (400 free relay) went a best time, too, so that was really fun. I'm really happy with how this went.''
Grace admitted that she felt some sadness knowing that Saturday was her final high school event.
"I was trying not to focus on that and focus more on swimming, but now that I'm done it's kind of sad that I'm done, but I'm happy with how all of my high school seasons went,'' Grace said. "I couldn't be more blessed with how everything panned out.''
Hayden senior Kaylee Gregg finished fifth in Class 5A-1A diving Saturday at the Capitol Federal Natatorium. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden sophomore Maddie Gregg finished eighth in Class 5A-1A diving Saturday at the Capitol Federal Natatorium. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden senior Kaylee Gregg and her sophomore sister Maddie both earned individual medals in 5A-1A one-meter diving, with Kaylee finishing fifth with a score of 366.00 and Maddie finishing eighth at 303.45.
Andover captured the team championship by a 304-276.50 margin over Blue Valley Southwest.
Seaman finished 19th with 34 points while Hayden tied for 23rd with 27 points and Shawnee Heights was 34th with 8 points.
