St. Thomas Aquinas swimmers finish first in SM North Invitational
St. Thomas Aquinas High School senior Laila Carter showed Wednesday that she is definitely ready for the spring girls swimming and diving season.
Carter won the 100-yard breaststroke and 50 breaststroke and anchored the Saints’ 400 freestyle and 200 medley relays to first place at the season-opening Shawnee Mission North Invitational.
“I want to keep applying myself harder and harder and see what I can do at state, but this was definitely a great start to the season,” Carter said. “It’s pretty exhilarating to see what your team has been training for in the preseason. I’m excited to see what we do in future meets.”
Carter’s time of 1 minute, 12 seconds in the 100 breaststroke came in under the Kansas state meet qualifying time by 4 seconds. She and her 400 freestyle and 200 medley teammates also easily qualified for the state meet.
“Laila swam great,” Aquinas coach Sam Donald said. “She swam what she expected, and it’s nice to do that when you’re that caliber of a swimmer and you can meet the times you expect.”
Aquinas earned another victory from Skylar Bird in the 100 butterfly and won the meet with 508 points.
“I was really looking forward to this meet because it was a sprint meet,” Donald said. “It was kind of a fun, non-traditional meet to get the girls ready for the year and get out of practice routine and into a meet.”
Shawnee Mission North sophomore Joely Merriman crushed the competition in the 100 freestyle, winning the event by five seconds.
“It’s not my best performance, but I’m still happy with it since I was out of the pool for a week and a half,” Merriman said. “When you win by that amount it gives you a lot of confidence.”
Merriman also anchored the Indians’ 200 freestyle relay to first place.
SM North’s Natalia Lienerova (50 backstroke), Mill Valley’s Sherry McLeod (100 backstroke), Mill Valley’s Vigneulle Puliatti (50 butterfly) and De Soto’s Gabrielle Mallozzi (50 freestyle) also were event winners at the meet.
This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 5:02 PM with the headline "St. Thomas Aquinas swimmers finish first in SM North Invitational."