Gramling collects pair of state medals

ST. PETERS -- Central junior Sam Gramling was all smiles as he stood on the podium late Saturday afternoon at the conclusion of the state swimming and diving championships at the Rec-Plex.

Gramling is getting used to the routine and the No. 7 podium as he stood on that step for the third time in his high school career and his second time Saturday.

"A lot of the hard work is done Friday," Gramling said. "If you don't swim well Friday, you won't be swimming well Saturday."

Gramling did some of his best swimming in the prelims Friday, earning the eighth-place spots in both the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle.

"I actually had my best times yesterday," Gramling said.

It was a good thing, as he qualified by just one-third of a second in the 200. He had a cushion of over 2 seconds in the 500, with his personal best time of 4 minutes, 45 seconds.

He would not finish last in either of the finals Saturday, with seventh-place finishes in the 200 then the 500.

"I wasn't expecting to get to the finals in the 200," said Gramling, who finished 15th in that event last year at state. "That was a big surprise to me."

Gramling finished with a time of 1:46.88 in the finals. His prelim time was 1:46.60.

Gramling's specialty is the 500, and he matched his finish from last year, although his time was better. This year he swam a 4:46.15, which was over 5 seconds faster than his state time in the finals in 2007 (4:51.36). His time this year would have placed him fourth last year.

"Usually when you improve your time, the place comes," Gramling said. "That was not the case this year, but I am still very happy. My biggest goal this year was to improve on my time from last year."

It was no more than 2 minutes after Gramling received his second medal of the day and third in his collection that Larry McGinnis, his club coach, told him that practice would begin at 5 p.m. today.

"Swimming is a sport where you can't take any time off," Gramling said. "You just have to keep going."

Gramling was the only local swimmer to compete in the championship round Saturday.

Jackson's Ryan Gibson swam in two consolation races. He finished 14th in the 100 butterfly (54.46) and 16th in the 200 individual medley (2:03.54).

Rockhurst won its fifth consecutive team championship in dominating fashion. The Hawklets finished with 304.5 points. Kickapoo was second with 239 points, followed by Blue Spring, which was a distant third with 136 points.

Central finished 26th overall with 24 points while Jackson was 43rd with four points. Notre Dame, which missed qualifying a team in the consolation race in the 200 yard medley relay by just two places, did not score.