Jackson swimmers excel with strong swims at C2 State Finals

The only thing more challenging than navigating the incredibly difficult competition at the MSHSAA Class 2 Girl’s Swim State Finals is managing the training over the last couple of weeks leading up to the event.

The Jackson High School girl’s team was under the guidance of first-year head coach Brayden Walters this season and his two Indian swimmers performed exemplary this week at the biggest meet of the year.

“We had a really good day,” Walters said following Friday’s Finals.

Jackson senior Ava Walters, Brayden’s younger sister, and sophomore Lynlee Lavalle strung together a couple of days of really good swims, with each earning points by scoring in the top 16 swimmers in each event.

Lavallee placed 15th in the 200 free in a time of 2:00.10, which was faster than her time in the prelims on Thursday.

“I tried to work on better (turns) than yesterday (in prelims),” Lavalle explained of her strategy to improve. “I was better underwater (off the walls).”

After placing 28th as a freshman in 2023, Lavalle dropped nearly four seconds in the event this year.

Ava Walters opened her Finals with an incredibly strong swim in the 200 IM.

She was seeded ninth coming out of prelims on Thursday after swimming a time of 2:13.79, which like Lavalle, was markedly faster than a year ago.

As a junior, Ava placed 17th in this event with a time three seconds slower than Thursday’s race. However, what she did in this event on Friday defies swimming comprehension.

Ava dropped her time over two seconds to 2:11.65 and won the consolation finals with a ninth-place finish.

“Today,” Ava explained, “my breaststroke went very well.”

That may be the understatement of the season.

In Thursday’s race, Ava wasn’t pleased with her breaststroke leg of the race, which she admits is typically the weakest part of this race, which involves 50 yards of each of the four strokes.

In the prelims, she went a 42.19 on her breaststroke leg, but on Friday, she lowered that time by nearly two seconds (40.41), which is unheard of in a 50-yard segment.

“After my 50 (butterfly) and 50 backstroke,” Ava said, “I just felt really good. I was ahead of my whole heat, so I think that gave me the adrenaline to just get my tempo going on my breaststroke and just bring it home.”

Which she did in beating the nearest competitor by nearly two seconds.

Lavallee had an improved swim in the 500 free after being disappointed with her race in Thursday’s prelims.

She dropped her time by almost three seconds and finished 14th in a time of 5:23.80.

Ava concluded her magnificent career, which included four consecutive trips to the State Finals, with a great performance in her specialty event, the 100 back.

After earning sixth and seventh-place finishes earlier in her career, Ava placed third on Friday in a school-record time of 57.32.

“You just have to keep a good mindset,” Ava said. “My key was to go further on underwater (off the walls) than the rest of my competition, and so that was my mindset going in.

“I worked with my underwaters and it got me a better time in the end.”

For Brayden, having his swimmers taper properly at the end of the season, first for the SEMO Conference Meet, and then for two days of maximum performance at the State Finals, worked as well as he could have hoped.

“We did a lot of sprint (training) in the last couple of weeks,” Brayden said. “We did a little bit of a taper for the conference, and then we built back up a little bit. We tapered back down for State.

“We did a lot of practicing what they were going to swim, and we practiced how they wanted to execute it. They went into this ready to go.”

As a team, Jackson finished 21st with 30 points.

The Indians also had relays compete in Thursday’s prelims.

The 200 medley relay squad of Ava (back), Lavalle (breaststroke), juniors Allyson Hayes (fly), and Audrey Tuschoff (free) finished 19th in a time of 1:59.23.

The 200 free relay team of Tuschoff, junior Emma Dean, freshman Madison Tipton, and Hayes placed 28th in a time of 1:54.26.

The 400 free relay group of Lavalle, Hayes, Tuschoff, and Walters just missed advancing to Friday’s Finals with a 17th-place finish in a time of 3:52.59. The Indians were a mere .11 seconds away from advancing to the Finals but dropped their time over four seconds from their seed time entering the meet.