Blue Valley North wins sixth straight East Kansas League boys swimming title

Blue Valley North relied on its depth and won its sixth consecutive East Kansas League boys swimming title Saturday afternoon at BV Northwest.

The Mustangs captured two relays and just three individual events, but they had 20 swimmers place in the top six of an individual event.

“We have had a great attitude this year and we have broken three school records,” Mustang coach Derek Berg said. “We are going to take 15 swimmers and four divers to state.”

The Mustangs are the defending Class 6A state champions and will take an undefeated record into the state meet Feb. 19-20 in Topeka.

BV North had 412 points with the host Huskies second at 286 points. The Huskies won four individual events and one relay.

Defending 6A state 50-yard freestyle champion Brian North won the EKL title in the event for the second time with a time of 21.43 seconds.

“I had a good start,” he said. “And I put my head down and gutted it on in.”

Sophomore Sam Disette was fifth in the 100 butterfly preliminaries, but won the event with a time of :52.33, improving his preliminary time by 2.22 seconds.

“My coach told me to just get in there and swim,” he said. “I went all out the entire race.”

And Disette, a sophomore, is out for swimming for the first time.

“I played basketball last year,” he said.

He swam in the summer months for his country club team.

“The guys (BV North swimmers) talked me into going out,” he said.

Junior Ryan McMonigle easily captured the 100-yard backstroke with a time of :52.28.

“The key is the underwater dolphin kicks,” he said. “I won league last year and placed third at state.”

Two BV Northwest juniors were the only double-winners at the meet and both are out for swimming for the first time on the high school level.

Both PJ Musser and Yousef Eldakak swim for the Kansas City Blazers.

Musser captured the 200-yard individual medley (1:52.81) and 100 freestyle (:45.82). His 100 free time is a school record.

Eldakak won the 200 freestyle (1:47.58) and 500 freestyle (4:54.61).

BV West was the winner in two events.

Senior Daniel Fecteau was the champion in the 1-meter diving with an 11-dive score of 553.6. His point total is a school record.

Fecteau has won the last two 6A state titles, but can’t defend his crown because BV West is a 5A school this year.

Junior Jordan Cowen captured the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:00.91. He was tied with BV North’s Jamie Cohen going into the last 25 yards.

“I saw he was close,” he said. “I gave it my all.”

He beat Cohen by 1.2 seconds.

This story was originally published February 7, 2015 at 7:21 PM with the headline "Blue Valley North wins sixth straight East Kansas League boys swimming title."