BV North’s DiSette, SM East lead record-breaking day at Kansas 6A state swimming

Five state records fell Saturday at the Kansas 6A boys swimming and diving championships, with Blue Valley North’s Sam DiSette breaking two marks individually and sharing a third record in a relay.

Shawnee Mission East dominated the team competition again, winning the 6A championship for the third straight season under coach Wiley Wright.

DiSette’s time of 20.09 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle broke his own record, which he set in preliminaries, by 14-hundredths of a second. DiSette swam the 100 freestyle in 44.15, narrowly beating a four-year-old record. He also swam the anchor leg of the winning 200 freestyle relay, teaming with Mitch Fisher, Owen Stamper and Levi Johnson to share another state record.

“You knew Sam would be rested and amped up for state,” Blue Valley North coach Derek Berg said. “He wanted to go out with a bang and he did.”

Free State’s Jordan Portela swam the 100 butterfly in 48.66, beating his own record, set in 2016, by .78. DiSette and Portela gave the best individual performances at Hummer Sports Complex, scoring 40 points apiece to lead the all-state first team. They were joined by Free State’s Evan Yoder and Blue Valley West’s Jonah Park, along with Shawnee Mission East’s Ian Longan, Hayden Linscott, Evan Root and Aidan Holbrook.

Diver John Tran of Blue Valley Northwest, along with Manhattan’s Preston Harrison and Lawrence’s Stephen Johnson, round out the first team.

In winning the team title for the 11th time in Wright’s 35 years as coach, the Lancers piled up 394.5 points, outscoring second-place Blue Valley North by 112.5. SM East won two events, setting the state mark in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:08.04 with Evan Root, Ian Longan, Aidan Holbrook and Hayden Linscott.

Longan took home SM East’s only individual victory, edging Root in the 100-yard backstroke by five-tenths of a second.

Eight different SM East swimmers combined for 19 top-three finishes, and the Lancers finished second in five events. Holbrook and Linscott came away with four top-three finishes each, and Root and Longan had three top-three finishes. Tyler Cunningham finished third in the 100 butterfly, while P.J. Spencer, Joe McGuire and Elias Lowland also earned top-three finishes in relays.

“Coach Wright always has numbers and so many fast swimmers,” Berg said. “Their depth, as usual, was a big story.”

Portela also won the 200 freestyle to complete a sweep of all eight individual races he entered over four years. He picked up another first-place medal swimming anchor in the 200 medley relay, teaming with Yoder, Evan Eskilson and Corey Schultz-Bever.

With Portela swimming anchor, Free State finished second in the 400 freestyle relay, edging Blue Valley North by less than a second. Portela, Aidan Goertz, Eskilson and Yoder, were about 1  1/2 seconds off SM East’s state-record pace.

Yoder won the 200 individual medley, and finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke, helping to push Free State to a third-place finish overall. Portela wanted to win a team title like two of his older siblings had, but he was happy with the progress Free State made.

“I was trying to hold in my tears up on the podium after the 400,” said Portela, who along with Yoder will swim at Minnesota in the fall.

Among other top Kansas City finishers, Tran scored 440.75 in the finals to take first in diving, with Kyle Fuhrman of Olathe Northwest and Chad Bourdon of Free State following.

Blue Valley North’s Mitch Fisher finished third in the 50-yard freestyle. Olathe East’s Jake Gartenberg placed third in the backstroke. Olathe East freshman Philip Costello took third in the breaststroke.

DiSette, Johnson, Logan McMonigle and Ian Hulshof finished third in the 400 freestyle relay.

Second-teamers included Blue Valley Northwest’s Alex Thill, Lawrence’s Alex Heckman, Olathe South’s Max Stoneking and Olathe East’s Austin Lee.

Class 5A

Swimmers from two Kansas City schools broke state records, with Ryan Downing of Bonner Springs taking first place in the 100 breaststroke in 56.28 seconds, and Turner’s Gabe Peña, Thomas Xiong, Ethan Harrity and Ashton Chowning finishing the 200 freestyle relay in a state-record time of 1:29.21.

Downing also finished third in the 200-yard individual medley. For his efforts, He was chosen swimmer of the meet in Class 5-1A, and was one of seven Kansas City swimmers to make the all-star first-team.

Other first-teamers: Leavenworth’s Brayden Love won the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly, Nick Callahan of St. James Academy won the 50 freestyle, and Mill Valley’s Mitch Willoughby scored 445.70 points to win 1-meter diving. Rounding out the first team: Zach Petz and Anderson Maginn of St. James Academy and Bishop Miege’s Lex Hernandez-Nietling.

St. James Academy tied for second place, which was the best finish by a local school. Its 200 medley relay squad of Maginn, Callahan, Ryan Jones and Harry Tjaden finished third.

Leavenworth’s Danny Christie finished third in the 100 butterfly, which helped him make all-state second-team, along with Chris Sprenger and Garrison Fangman of Mill Valley.

Wichita Heights won the team competition, with Maize coming in second.

This story was originally published February 18, 2017 at 9:15 PM with the headline "BV North’s DiSette, SM East lead record-breaking day at Kansas 6A state swimming."