Four swim to all-state honors at state meet

The big piece of chocolate cake was well-deserved for Central junior Jordan Gramling.

Gramling finished in the top eight in the state in two events to earn two all-state honors at Saturday's state swimming meet in St. Peters, Mo.

"It felt really good," Gramling said. "I exceeded my goals by quite a bit, actually. My goals were really, really low for what I actually achieved today."

Gramling, a junior, took fifth in the 100 freestyle, finishing in 46.88 seconds, and sixth in the 50 freestyle with a 21.72. He celebrated with a trip to Joe's Crab Shack, where he indulged with a piece of chocolate cake for dessert.

Gramling swam alongside Rockhurst's Matthew Margritier, who set meet records in winning both the 100 freestyle and 50 freestyle.

Ryan Gibson

"The other guys I knew were really, really fast," Gramling said. "The guy that was in both my events set meet records in both and I swam right beside him. It helps a lot because you can tell how fast you need to go."

The two all-state finishes didn't surprise Central coach Dayna Powell.

"This last month of the season has been phenomenal for him," she said. "He's just had a great season all together. He just kept getting more confident and faster."

Gramling grabbed a pair of fifth-place finishes in his two individual preliminaries Friday. He touched the wall in 21.64 in the 50 freestyle to break the school record, and finished in 46.73 in the 100 freestyle preliminaries.

"I felt really nervous," Gramling said. "I didn't really know if I'd make it in the finals. I thought I was going to make it just in the top 16 and some people would possibly get ahead of me."

Gramling (Jordan)

Jackson's Ryan Gibson also earned two all-state honors Saturday. The senior finished sixth in the 200 freestyle and tied for seventh with Central's Caleb Coots in the 100 butterfly final. Both swimmers touched in 52.40 in the 200 freestyle.

Jackson sophomore Kristian Troxel earned all-state in the 500 freestyle to cap Jackson's successful meet.

"We had three on the podium today with all-state, and that's the first time in Jackson history," Jackson coach Carol Baugh said. "In the four years we've had a team, that's the first time we've had three events that had all-state swimmers."

Baugh raved about Troxel's performance in the 500 freestyle.

"His seed time for the 500 was a 4:47.57 and then he swam a 4:40.10, which put him in third place [Friday]," Baugh said. "He came in and swam in the championship final and swam the same exact time. He had a 4:40.10. We told him he must have liked that time. He was seeded 16th, so he cut quite a bit of time there."

Kristian Troxel

Gibson reached the 200 freestyle finals by taking sixth in the preliminaries. He finished in 1:43.85. He reached the 100 butterfly finals with a seventh-place finish in the preliminaries (51.97).

Troxel added an 11th-place finish in the 200 individual medley (1:58.12).

Troxel reached the 500 freestyle championship by taking third in the preliminaries (4:40.10). Troxel made the 200 individual medley consolation finals with an 11th-place finish in the preliminaries, touching in 1:58.62.

Coots' seventh-place finish was a satisfying finish for the Central senior.

"Caleb's been there four years with us to state, and this is the first time he's had the all-state honor," Powell said.

He swam a 51.99 in the 100 butterfly preliminaries to earn a spot in the championship event.

Coots also got to swim in the 200 individual medley consolation. He finished 13th in 1:58.32.

Coots reached the 200 individual medley consolation finals by touching the wall 13th in the preliminaries. He finished in 1:58.98.

Central's 200 freestyle relay team of Gramling, Prithvi Rudrappa, Pablo Jaramillo and Coots took 19th in 1:33.17. Notre Dame's Alec Domjan, Dustin Parsons, Daniel Neff and Ben Rockett were 22nd in 1:33.98.

Central's 400 freestyle relay team of Gramling, Rudrappa, Blake Kidd and Coots was 21st in 3:26.03, while Notre Dame's Rockett, Matt Jedlinski, Domjan and Neff were 25th in 3:28.97.

The Bulldogs' 200 medley relay finished 24th with a time of 1:45.46. Parsons, Collin Andersson, Rockett and Neff competed for Notre Dame.

Parsons was 18th in the 100 butterfly preliminaries (54.59). Parsons took 38th in the 200 individual medley preliminaries (2:06.80).

Andersson was 42nd in the 100 breaststroke preliminaries (1:06.73).