Bishop Miege junior breaks her own state record at Kansas girls swimming state meet

For Bishop Miege High School junior swimmer Cailey Grunhard, the only competition Friday was against herself.

Grunhard broke her own Kansas state record in the 100-yard butterfly at the Kansas Class 5-1A swimming and diving championships on Friday. She covered the distance in 53.64 seconds, nearly two ticks faster than her standard-setting 55.35 last year.

None of the heats for Grunhard’s event was even close. She finished almost six seconds faster than anyone else who swam the 100 butterfly.

In a sport where a hundredth of a second can mean so much, knocking two seconds off an already top-notch time was asking a lot. But Grunhard said her goal all along was to chase that sliver and take down her own performance.

“It’s a really big difference,” Grunhard said. “I would say most of it’s in my start and my turns. I’ve really improved from last year, and it’s a big step. Like my coach says, when you drop that much time, it brings you to a new level in your swimming, and it just gives you more confidence to go faster the next time.”

But as much as it took to make that two-second jump, Grunhard thinks she can get down to 52 seconds during the finals Saturday — which would set yet another state record.

In the 100 backstroke preliminaries, Grunhard was just as dominant. With her 56.12-second time, she came just 0.54 of a second away from knocking down her second record of the day.

Grunhard, along with her sister Cassie, was part of two Bishop Miege relay teams (400 freestyle and 200 medley) that took the fastest times of the day. Cassie also had the fastest time of the day in the 100 freestyle. Both sisters will compete in four events during Saturday’s finals.

On the Class 6A side of the day, a rivalry that drove last year’s championships reared its head again. In 2015, Shawnee Mission East took second place in three separate relays to Lawrence Free State. They haven’t forgotten.

SM East’s Crissie Blomquist, in particular, pushed the Lancers on Friday. She won her 200 and 500 freestyle heats and had the best time of the day for both, edging out Free State’s Cierra Campbell. Campbell had the second-best time in each event.

“I love her so much,” Blomquist said of Campbell. “She’s a good friend. But, you know — I kind of want to win this year.”

SM East and Free State will head into Saturday’s finals with top-three preliminary times for each relay (200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle).

“We remember it a lot and I think we’re more motivated this year,” Blomquist said. “Last year, we were very bad rivals. I think this year we’ll beat them.”

The Kansas Class 5-1A swimming and diving finals will start Saturday’s action at 10:30 a.m. at Topkea’s Capitol Federal Natatorium. The Class 6A finals will follow at 3:30 p.m.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Bishop Miege junior breaks her own state record at Kansas girls swimming state meet."