Central relay team, Kuper grab all-state swim honors

Central's 200-yard freestyle team captured all-state honors by finishing eighth in Saturday's finals at the boys' Missouri Swimming and Diving Championships at the St. Peters Rec-Plex in St. Peters, Mo.

Senior Andrew Moreton and juniors Sam Maguire, Alex Heddle and Clay Schermann clocked 1:33.88 in the event. The foursome swam their fastest time of the year (1:33.11) in Friday's preliminaries to rank eighth fastest among the 16 entries for Saturday's final.

"This group I thought all year had the potential to do this," Central coach Dayna Powell said.

The team's best time entering state was 1:35.79.

"They did it when they needed to," Powell said. "To get in the top eight is awesome. I was real pleased they were able to do that."

Jameson Kuper claimed the first ever all-state swimming honor for Notre Dame's boys. Kuper placed eighth in the 200 freestyle, clocking 1:49.53.

Kuper, a freshman, came into the day with the eighth-fastest time (1:48.73) from the preliminaries.

Notre Dame coach Pat Kuper, also Jameson's mother, said there were only five freshmen combined in all of Saturday's events.

"We felt like he made a statement," she said. "He was a little disappointed. He wanted to go out a little faster than he did."