Parkway West sets school record in winning Suburban South Conference meet

The Parkway West Longhorns won their second Suburban South Conference swim meet championship in three years with a dominant performance and set a new school record in the process.

The Longhorns won the meet held at Ladue with 452.5 points, far ahead of second-place Kirkwood’s 365 points. The other team scores were: Parkway Central 356, Parkway North 310, Ladue 194, Clayton 173.5, Summit 126, and Webster Groves 123.

The large margin of victory caught Parkway West coach Allison Zeller a little off guard.

“I was a little surprised by the margin,” Zeller said. “I am very proud of the team effort at this meet. We posted some fast times and I am excited to see what we can do this weekend at state.”

The state meet begins Friday (Feb. 15) at the Rec-Plex in St. Peters.

Winning conference, which the Longhorns also accomplished in 2011, helped her team, Zeller said.

“We knew we had an opportunity to come out on top as long as our girls swam to the best of their ability,” Zeller said. “There were some really good races to make the meet exciting and a lot of fast times were posted.

“We posted 25 season best times, two of the three relay teams won, and we had six new state cuts. A goal of ours was to get a few more individual state qualifying times.”

The 200 medley relay team won with a time of 1 minute, 51.86 seconds to set a school record. Girls on the relay were freshman Caroline Bias, sophomore Natalie Folkins, freshman Carolyn Kammeyer and freshman Kristen Petersen.

In diving, the Longhorns’ Francesca Giganiti celebrated her birthday in style by winning the competition. She finished with 437.8 points.

“She has been looking very strong and has been nailing her dives,” Zeller said. “She has been consistent all season. Friday night was her birthday and a conference win was a great present.”

Kammeyer won the 100 butterfly in 58.04 seconds. She impressed Zeller with her swimming in the meet.

“Kammeyer is a freshman who had a great meet,” Zeller said. “The 100 fly was an event that we did very well in.  All four of our swimmers (Kammeyer, Emily Ross, Caroline Bias, and Irene Frederick) had state qualifying times and ended up in the top six in this event.”

Kammeyer also took third in the 200 IM.

The other winner for the Longhorns in the meet was the 400 free relay team. Girls on the relay were Kammeyer, Bias, senior Ashley Robinson and Petersen. The won the event in 3:36.20.

Parkway North senior Heather Lundstrom won two events. She took the 200 IM in 2:06.96 and the 500 free in 5:06.84.

Parkway Central’s Courtney Nall won the 50 free in 24.86. Her teammate, Ally Neumann, won the 100 breast in 1:07.19.