Sunday, February 06, 2005

OWENSBORO Greenwood swimming sisters Jennifer and Kelly Adams made sure it wasnt their final meet as teammates.

The duo each won events at the First Region Swimming and Diving Championships at the Owensboro HealthPark on Saturday, automatically qualifying for state in two weeks in Lexington. Both also got to share in at least one more celebration together.

After our races we were jumping up and down and would greet each other, Kelly Adams joked. It really means a lot for both of us and were extremely excited about state.

Jennifer, a senior who will swim at Western Kentucky next year, won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.19. The time was her personal best and a school record. She also finished second in the 100-yard freestyle with a personal best and school-record time of 54.60.

The result also qualified her for state as the top two finishers in each event automatically qualify, plus the remaining 14 best times in regionals across the state.

Kelly, a freshman, defended her 500-yard freestyle title with a time of 5:18.69. She finished third in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:59.84

Its real special for (Jennifer and Kelly), Greenwood coach Emili Williams said. For me, its emotional. This was emotional enough, I dont even want to think about state.

While Kelly Adams has three more regional championships remaining in her high school career, Jennifer Adams wanted to make the most of her final regional event.

I came in so prepared today, she said. But the 50 is such an unpredictable race. It got me so nervous, but I think thats what helped me get through it.

Both Adams sisters helped Greenwood finish sixth in female team scores with 95 points. Greenwoods boys earned 17th place (23 points) for a combined team finish of eighth place (118).

Bowling Green placed fourth overall in the combined (264), fifth in girls (121) and third in boys (143).

We had kids dropping times like crazy, Bowling Green coach Ron Preiskorn said. Friday was the big day for us because weve got a lot of young swimmers that dropped a lot of time and it was a great weekend for us.

Daviess County won the combined title with 353.50 points and male championship with 220.50 points, while Hopkinsville won the girls side with 225 points.

Most importantly for Bowling Green, it made sure to end a one-year absence from state. Bowling Green freshman Jennifer Kwok qualified in the 500-yard freestyle, being edged out by Kelly Adams by less than two seconds (5:20.47).

At only a slender 5-foot-2, Kwok doesnt look like the most intimidating swimmer. But her performance this year and Saturday has impressed Preiskorn.

Its a big deal for us to have somebody qualify, he said. Since shes not tall, she has to make up for it with hard work. Shes one of our most dedicated swimmers. She may take a Sunday off, but she works so hard. You like to see people that work hard get rewarded for it, and its paid off for her.

Kelly Adams repeat title highlighted what had been a season with some frustrations. Adams missed considerable time because of a shoulder injury.

Along with the injury, Adams qualified only fourth for the event in Fridays preliminaries.

I was kind of psyched out finishing fourth (on Friday), Kelly Adams said. But I knew I won it last year and I could do it again.

Russellville sophomore Rebekah Epley made it a three-peat on Saturday, even though she won her fifth consecutive 100-yard butterfly regional championship,

For the third year in a row, Epley broke the First Region record. Saturday, she destroyed the record she owned by almost two seconds (56.61).

I usually dont know how good Im going (in the pool), but today I just knew, Epley said. Theres always pressure to live up to and I kind of feed off that.

Epley also qualified in the 100-yard backstroke with a second-place time of 57.73. Russellvilles girls finished third (155 points) and its boys took eighth (69) for a combined finish of sixth place (224).

Other automatic individual qualifiers included: Russellvilles Anne Chambers in the 200-yard freestyle (second place, 1:57.98) and 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.84); Glasgows Anthony Mason in the 200-yard freestyle (second place, 1:46.49) and 100-yard breaststroke (second place, 1:02.14); Russellvilles Alex Koller in the 200-yard individual medley (second place, 2:03.22) and 100-yard backstroke (second place, 54.92); Allen County-Scottsvilles Andrew Bloink in the 100-yard butterfly (first place, 56.10) and Barren Countys Jonathan Buck in the boys 500 yard freestyle (second place, 5:04.11).

A pair of Russellville girls relay teams also qualified in the 200-yard medley (first place, 1:54.87) and 400-yard freestyle relay (second place, 3:45.51).  Daily News ·813 College St. ·PO Box 90012 ·Bowling Green, KY ·42102 ·270-781-1700