Liberty North girls capture fifth place in Missouri Class 2 state swim meet
Ainsley Dillon and her teammates had all the motivation they needed.
Still stinging from falling short in a 200-yard freestyle relay in which they were seeded first, the Liberty North Eagles rebounded with a second-place finish three events later in the 400 free relay to close their day out in style at the Missouri state Class 2 girls swimming and diving championships on Saturday at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.
“I think we were a little angry after the 200, so that 400 was really important,” Dillon said. “It was over half the relay’s last race ever, so it was really emotional, too. Getting second was just the cherry on the top.”
Both relay teams consisted of seniors Kate Huyser, Julia Blanchard and Bryn Mattes, but it was sophomore Dillon who swam a spectacular 51.16-second final leg that sealed the 400 free runner-up finish behind Rock Bridge.
“I like chasing people down, so that last 50 was a lot of fun,” said Dillon, who also finished fourth individually in both the 50 and 100 freestyle.
That silver medal also allowed Liberty North to finish with 144 points and overtake both Parkway South and Liberty for fifth place in the Class 2 team race, the best of any Kansas City-area squad and the highest in the school’s 10-year existence.
“We had a goal to come down here and improve on our seventh-place finish last year. We did that, so we’re happy about that,” Eagles coach Mark Warner said. “We have a good group of seniors graduating this year and they’ve really taken ownership in trying to get the culture established.”
Liberty garnered a top-10 team showing with a ninth-place total of 117 points. Blue Springs had 95 points to finish right behind the Blue Jays in 10th.
The area’s only state champion came in the morning’s 1-meter diving competition, where Staley senior Ella McMahon successfully defended her title.
McMahon’s total of 474 points fell just shy of last year’s 481.50, but was still enough to hold off Lee’s Summit North junior Annica Valmassei, who scored 413.90 points. Blue Springs senior Katie Garten was fourth with 375.35 points.
“Ella is always like a machine. Whenever she gets on deck, she’s laser-focused, always thinking about her next dive,” Falcons coach Ethan Rose said. “She shot out ahead and was steadily ahead. The girl who finished second started to creep up on her, but she sealed the deal on her last dive.”
Blue Springs junior Annemarie Rehbein carved out the area’s highest individual swim finish with a second-place effort in the 100 breaststroke, an event she finished seventh in last year.
Rehbein was part of a trio of swimmers to all finish the event in under 1 minute, 6 seconds. Her time of 1:05.64 fell just short of Kirkwood’s Alyssa Dennis (1:05.52), but just ahead of Marquette junior Hailey Benting (1:05.71), who came into the event with the top seed.
“I knew after the last 50 that it was neck and neck between all three of us,” Rehbein said. “I knew I had to go out with as fast of a 50 as I could and just try to maintain it.”
The area’s only other second-place finish came from the Liberty 200 free relay team of seniors Kate Towns, Christina Rangel and Madisyn Carmichael and junior Kate Minette.
The Blue Jays also got a pair of third-place efforts from junior Ellie Hartwig in the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly.
This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 10:22 PM.