Brown leads Wildcat swim with school’s first state medal

Louisburg freshman Colin Brown finished eighth in the 100-yard butterfly Saturday at the Class 5-1A state swim meet in Lenexa. Brown became the school’s first state medalist in boys swim.

LENEXA — For the first time in its four years of existence, Louisburg found its way up to the podium of the Class 5-1A state boys swim meet.

Wildcat freshman Colin Brown earned the school’s first state medal in boys swimming Saturday at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center in Lenexa.

Brown recorded a time of 56.46 seconds in the finals of the 100-yard butterfly to take eighth overall. He swam a season-best time of 55.85 in the preliminaries Friday to garner a spot in the finals.

“Colin’s swim in the medal finals on Saturday was so fun to watch,” coach Mary Argeropoulos said. “Hardware from state is not easy to earn and he did a marvelous job all season working toward that final.”

In all, Louisburg sent four swimmers to the state meet in Brown, Brayton Brueggen, Colton Prettyman and Andrew Jamison and the Wildcats turned in several times that earned spots in the consolation finals. As team, the Wildcats finished 15th overall with 44 points.

***Louisburg senior Brayton Brueggen swims the backstroke for the 200 medley relay team Friday. On Saturday, the team finished 10th overall.***

The OZ-PA-LOU team also had swimmers from Paola and Osawatomie that swam in the consolation finals in Paola’s Landen Terflinger and Osawatomie’s Luke Hebert.

“We were thrilled to represent OzPaLou at state this season,” Argeropoulos said. “The boys worked so hard and it definitely paid off. We are so proud of their season and final performances at state. Each swimmer had at least one personal best time and competed fiercely in the pool.”

The 200 medley relay of Brueggen, Brown, Jamison and Prettyman set a new personal best Friday in the prelims, only to set another one Saturday in the consolation finals.

***Louisburg sophomore Colton Prettyman swims the breaststroke Friday during the prelims of the state meet.***

The Wildcat quartet finished 10th overall with a time of 1:48.26 and set the tone for a successful day.

In the consolation finals of the 200 freestyle, Brown finished 13th overall in 1:52.62 seconds and Terflinger was 16th in 1:57.70. Terflinger was also 11th in the 500 freestyle in 5:20.

Jamison improved on his time in the 100 breaststroke as he took 12th overall in the consolation finals in 1:05.83. Prettyman just missed out on the finals as he took 18th in 1:06.81, while Jamison missed the finals of the 200 individual medley and finished 17th in 2:11.52

Hebert scored points for the Osawatomie side as he took 12th in the 100 butterfly in 56.37.

Louisburg freshman Andrew Jamison finished 12th in the state in the 100 breaststroke.

The 400 freestyle relay Brueggen, Jamison, Brown and Prettyman ended the meet strong. After advancing to the consolation finals Friday, the team improved their time Saturday.

Louisburg finished 12th in the event with a time of 3:33.73. It was the end to what was an historic season for Louisburg boys swim.

“There were so many fun aspects of the state meet but perhaps my favorite was watching these young men support, cheer for, console, push and encourage one another each and every practice and meet,” Argeropoulos said. “We are looking forward to the 2023-2024 season.”