Suburban South Conference girls swim meet is wide open

The Suburban South Conference swim begins its two-day run Wednesday at Summit.

The event begins  with preliminaries competition at 4 p.m. The finals will be held Thursday (Feb. 9) beginning at 4 p.m.

Parkway Central coach Kevin Mabie said his girls are excited about the conference meet and swimming at Summit.

“We have had some big moments at Summit at past conference meets,” Mabie said. “I don’t know that the girls would call it their favorite pool because they get opportunities to swim places like the Rec-Plex, but I like that pool because I know it’s fast.”

Parkway West is the defending champions. Last year was the first year for the Suburban South meet. In previous years, the conference schools combined with the Suburban West. The two leagues split schools and swam a crossover conference meet.

“Last year we began hosting a Suburban South Conference meet with the same team’s each year,” Mabie said.

Parkway Central has never won a conference meet.

Mabie said it’s a big event on the Colts’ calendar.

“We train all season for conference and state,” Mabie said. “Several girls will rest for this meet so they can swim well. One of our goals each season is to win this meet. Though we never won the cross-over meet either, as far as I know, we have consistently been in the top three.”

This year, Mabie said he sees the meet as one where several schools can leave triumphant.

“Parkway West lost some fast swimmers, so that may make the field a little bit weaker,” Mabie said. “But West County is full of many of the state’s top swimmers, so it’s competitive nonetheless.

“I think (Parkway) North certainly has a good shot, however (Parkway) West became the champions last year with their depth. And if depth wins conference, they and a few other teams, including us, have a shot.”

Parkway Central junior Ally Neumann won 100 breaststroke last year. Her top time in the event this year is 1 minute, 10.73 seconds.

“She’ll try to do that again this year,” Mabie said.

After conference comes the state meet, which will be held Feb. 17-18 at the Rec-Plex in St. Peters.

That’s why conference is so important. It’s the last big meet before state.

“We usually gain a lot of confidence here for next week’s state meet,” Mabie said.