Boys swim team wins fourth consecutive league title

By Andy Brown
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Updated: February 19, 2020

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The Osawatomie-Paola-Louisburg boys swim team celebrated its fourth straight ILC league title last Thursday in Osawatomie.

OSAWATOMIE – It wasn’t a new experience for some of the swimmers Thursday when the Osawatomie-Paola-Louisburg boys captured the ILC title for the fourth consecutive season.

But for the ones for Louisburg, especially since this was their first go-around with the program, it was a welcome addition to what has been an already successful season.

The Miami County team reclaimed the ILC title with 457 points and won the seven-team meet going away at the OZone in Osawatomie. Parsons was the next closest with 349 points and Piper was third with 324.

“This win was a team win,” coach Gerri Hart said. “Everyone on the team scored points this year. All the boys practice as a team everyday pushing each other to get better for this meet. Their hard work paid off with this big win.

“Coach Maddie (Carrigan) and I are so proud of the boys hard work and team spirit. My favorite thing about this team and every team that came before this is that we are one community working to improve together as swimmers and people, not three schools.”

Justin Bradley and Theo Hebert had a pair of league titles to lead the Miami County squad. Bradley won the 200-yard freestyle in 2 minutes and 2 seconds and was also victorious in the 500 freestyle in 6:00.

Hebert captured the 100 butterfly in 1:00.60 and later won the 100 backstroke in 1:03.44.

Louisburg freshman Braden Branine captured the first individual swimming league title in school history as he won the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.44. He also took fourth in the 200 individual medley.

This is Louisburg’s first year with the boys swim program.

Branine, along with Bridger Baus, Remington Rice and Cole Brown, won the school’s first league relay title. The four Wildcat swimmers won the 200-medley relay in 1:56.03.

Baus finished runner-up in the 100 butterfly in 1:05.63 and later finished fourth in the 100 backstroke in 1:06.92. Brown also had a big meet as he took second in the 200 individual medley in 2:30 and was fourth in the 100 breaststroke.

Another Louisburg freshman, Brayton Brueggen, finished runner-up in the 500 freestyle in 6:01. Rice had a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly. Isaiah Waggerman was third in the 200 freestyle in 2:14.

In the relays, Bradley, Brown, Hebert and Waggerman took second in the 400 freestyle, while Baus, Hebert, Waggerman and Bradley finished third in the 200 freestyle.