OWENSBORO – It was another post Region 2 meet dip in the pool for Bowling Green swim coach Dee Wilkins.

It’s exactly how he hoped the day would end.

Bowling Green celebrated its 14th straight region title in style Saturday at the Owensboro Healthpark, besting South Warren for the overall title. BG finished with 1,002 points, with South Warren totaling 608.5 points. Greenwood was third with 596 points.

In the boys’ division, the Purples finished with 518 points, with South Warren finishing second with 367 points. In the girls’ division, Bowling Green tallied 484 points, with Greenwood finishing with 363 points.

Seniors and team captains Sam Sutton and Neal Morsi set the tone for Bowling Green with region record performances, helping Bowling Green continue its region dominance.

“I’m very pleased and especially proud of our captains,” Wilkins said. “We get three regional records out of the captains and then Lilly (Morris) wins the (butterfly). It was just an all-around great effort today. There was a lot of great competition.

“We focused on the preliminaries, to get everybody in a spot to win. If you don’t win on Friday, it’s hard to come in and win Saturday and take the trophies home. We focus on getting as many as we can in the top eight locked in and it kind of takes care of itself.”

Morsi earned the region record time in his win in the 100-yard butterfly – finishing in 50.09 seconds to eclipse the previous mark by .05 seconds. Morsi then added his second region record of the day in the 100-yard backstroke – finishing with a time of 50.93, which was also 0.5 seconds better than the previous best that Morsi set at last year’s region meet.

Morsi also joined Ethan Taylor, Mei Fukushima and Grady Sine to win the 200-yard medley relay – edging South Warren by 0.15 seconds – and finished second with Fukushima, Phillip Kenner and Connor Creek in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

“I was really happy,” Morsi said. “I knew I had to get my team the lead in the relay for us to have a chance to win. I think I did that pretty well.

“I was trying to go under 50 in the 100 (butterfly) and the 100 back. I didn’t quite do that. I hope I get that at state.”

Sutton set the record in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:04.98. She followed that up with a win in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:04.30 – just 0.3 seconds off her region record time set last year.

Morris picked up a win in the 100-yard butterfly and finished second in the 100-yard backstroke.

Sutton and Morris also joined Maggie Morris and Reagan Fields to finish second in the 200-yard medley relay and capped the day with Kate Chaudoin and Carlie Bowen to finish second in the 400-yard medley relay.

“I’m excited having two individual records and a couple of relay records (set earlier in her career),” Sutton said. “Hopefully that just shows the younger kids to work hard and keep doing everything you need to do (to be successful).”

Several other local swimmers also set region records.

South Warren’s Neal Wolfram won the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 4:39.12 – shattering his region record mark set in 2017 by almost five seconds. Wolfram also won the 200-yard freestyle and the 400-yard medley relay along with Trey Wolfram, Drew Wolfram and Logan Hughes. The Wolframs and Hughes also finished second in the 200-yard medley relay.

“I was happy with how I swam,” Neal Wolfram said. “It was a team effort overall. Both relays, we swam well. We probably swam better in the relays than the individuals. It was a whole team effort.

“I realized I could probably (get the record). I didn’t get it last year, so I wanted to break the record again.”

Greenwood’s Luke Shourds won the 200-yard IM in a time of 1:53.70 to tie former teammate Tanner Cummings’ region-record time. Shourds also won the 100-yard breaststroke.

“Tanner is one of my best friends, so I was making jokes with him about it,” Shourds said. “It’s fun to share that with him.”

Shourds’ teammate Logan Flesher won the 100-yard freestyle and finished second in the 50-yard freestyle. Shourds, Flesher, Canaan Timberlake and Luke Wilson also finished second in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Other region runner-ups included South Warren’s Trey Wolfram in the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard freestyle, South Warren’s Logan Hughes in the 200-yard IM and 100-yard breaststroke, Butler County’s Mattie Smith in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle, South Warren’s Maddie Osmun in the 50-yard freestyle, and Bowling Green’s Khenner in the 500-yard freestyle.

Greenwood’s Anne Elizabeth Zoellner, Chloe Cummings, Allison Zinobile and Maiah Cisco finished second in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Bowling Green’s Connor Twyman won the boys’ 1-meter diving event earlier in the week, with Bowling Green’s Drew Law finishing second. In the girls’ diving, Bowling Green’s Rachel Harwood finished second.

The top two finishers in each event qualify for the state meet, which will begin Feb. 21 in Louisville, with more at-large berths to the state meet to be determined after all region meets are completed.{&end}