Southeast Missourian Player of the Week: Jordan Gramling

Central junior swimmer Jordan Gramling is the Southeast Missourian athlete of the week.

Grambling earned all-state honors in two events at the MSHSAA state swimming meet on Saturday.

He finished fifth in the 100 freestyle with a time of 46.88 and was sixth best in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.72.

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

Gramling said swimming next to the eventual state champion in both events helped him.

"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."

Gramling swam even faster in the preliminaries on Friday, setting a school record with a time of 21.64 in the 50 freestyle and finishing the 100 freestyle in 46.73.

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