Cape Central swimming wins Class 1 state championship

The Cape Central Girl's Swimming and Diving team poses after recently winning the MSHSAA Class 1 State Championship at the St. Peter's Rec-Plex.

Courtesy photo

There is nothing that the Cape Central High School girl’s swim and dive team has done over the past four seasons that has followed a paved path. And those challenges have continued to follow the Tiger girls even after achieving the ultimate success on Friday by winning the MSHSAA Class 1 Swimming and Diving State Championship at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.

“This team has had adversity since their freshman year,” veteran Tiger coach Dayna Powell said.

Cape Central, which has finished fourth, second, and third overall through the past three seasons, rode four state titles (three individual events and a relay) to beat Clayton 240 to 238.50 for its first state title as a team.

“Clayton swam out of their minds,” Powell said.

To repeat, nothing has come easy for the Tigers.

Cape Central has 14 seniors this season, 13 of whom have been with the program for at least three years.

In 2021, the team had to deal with the training restrictions and obstacles of a global pandemic.

The following year, there was a debacle over aged diving boards, which eliminated favored-to-win state champion Tommy-Anne Marriott, as well as her classmate Lydia Cao, an opportunity to score points, and thus, kept the Tigers from claiming the top spot as a team.

“We were the top team going in,” Powell said. “We were poised to win, and we lost our divers.”

In each of the past two seasons, Cape Central has had its training schedule hampered significantly by not having its own facility to train properly in. However, none of that kept this group from doing just enough today to finally stand atop the podium.

“We still don’t have a pool,” Powell said. “I told Tommy and Lydia; I am surprised that they even stayed with the program.”

But they did because all of the girls believed that a day like today was possible.

Marriott dominated the diving field for the second consecutive year and won with a score of 423.85, thus earning Diver of the Year honors.

She was joined by junior Sydney Ringwald, who claimed a state title in both the 50 free (23.92) and 100 free (52.26).

Ringwald also teamed with younger sister, Kennedy Ringwald, senior Emilie Dickson, and junior Bella Pattengill to win the 200 free relay (1:38.91). However, the team title still came down to the final race (400 free relay), and wouldn’t you know it, Clayton scorched the field in that race to make a Cape title seem out of reach.

“I had told the girls before that we had to win (the 400 free relay) to win the meet,” Powell said.

However, at some point following that, it was calculated that the Tigers could still claim the team title with a second-place finish in that event.

With three of the four legs swum by Marianne Dean, Kennedy Ringwald, and Addison Ringwald, Clayton was way in front of every other squad while Ladue Horton Watkins held a slight edge (.06 seconds) over the Tigers.

Sydney Ringwald took care of that problem.

Less than halfway through the final leg of the relay, Sydney had pulled ahead of Ladue Horton Watkins and swum her team to a championship.

If only she had known that.

“As soon as she finished,” Powell said of Sydney, “she looked over and it was, like, ‘Shoot.’”

But all was fine in the end, as Cape got the team title, and Sydney earned Swimmer of the Year recognition.

The Tigers also got strong performances from its 200 medley relay squad (Addison, Dean, Dickson, and Pattengill), who took fourth (1:52.10) while Kennedy (14th, 200 free; 12th, 100 free), Addison (15th, 200 free; 12th, 100 back), Dean (11th, 200 IM; 12th, 500 free), Pattengill (10th, 50 free; 6th, 100 free), Dickson (3rd, 100 fly; 5th, 100 breast) also contributed to the championship effort.

Following the victory, the Cape girls had plans to go have a “celebratory lunch and relax, and enjoy the moment,” according to Powell, only to walk out of the facility into a snow and ice storm, which resulted in a four-hour trip back to town.

“I tell you,” Powell laughed, “it’s always something else.”

Jackson swimmers advance

The Jackson High School girl’s squad had a pair of swimmers advance out of the prelims on Friday in the MSHSAA Class 2 Meet.

Indian freshman Lynlee LaValle is seeded 15th overall in the 500 free after swimming a time of 5:25.28 while junior Ava Walters is seeded seventh in the 100 back after swimming a time of 58.93.

Both girls will compete in the finals portion of the meet today.