Louisburg relay, Brown add to their state qualification list at Bonner

Louisburg freshman Colin Brown (pictured above) along with teammates Andrew Jamison, Brayton Brueggen and Colton Prettyman qualified for state in the 400-yard freestyle relay last week at Bonner Springs.

BONNER SPRINGS — For most of the season, coach Mary Argeropoulos has been trying to figure out why the Louisburg 400-yard relay hasn’t earned state qualifying time yet.

“All year, I’ve been encouraging our relays, that according to their individual swim times, they should be able to post a qualifying time in the 400 Free relay easily,” Argeropoulos said. “On paper, they should have been able to swim a 3:44 time which would have qualified the relay, but we had just not been able to put it together at the end of a meet in competition.”

Whatever happened last Tuesday at the Bonner Springs Invitational, did the trick.

The relay team of Brayton Brueggen, Colton Prettyman, Colin Brown and Andrew Jamison blew their season best time out of the water in 3 minutes and 39.72 seconds to not only finish first, but earned that elusive state qualification bid.

The Louisburg quartet has now qualified for state in two relays, along with the 200 medley. In the 200 free relay, the group also finished first at Bonner in 1:40.41.

“It was a really great moment,” Argeropoulos said. “They knew they had swam well, but hadn’t realized that they qualified until they returned to the team area. It was so cool.”

The Osawatomie-Paola-Louisburg team put together a strong performance as well. The Miami County group of just eight swimmers, finished second overall with 333 points, behind Topeka-Seaman which won with 470.

Brown also added another state qualification time of own. He earned a state bid in his third event this season after he recorded a time of 1:54.09 in the 200 freestyle and took second overall.

The Louisburg freshman has now qualified for state in three individual events to go along with the two relays.

Osawatomie’s Luke Hebert earned a state qualifying time for the team as he was second in the 100 butterfly in 57.50 seconds, knocking three seconds off his time.

The Miami County team will now send six of its eight swimmers to the state meet later this month.

Prettyman had a good day individually at Bonner Springs as he took second in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. Jamison was also third in the 100 and 200 freestyle.

Brueggen took second in the individual medley and fifth in the 100 backstroke, while Brown also earned a state consideration time in the 100 breaststroke as he took third.

Paola’s Landen Terflinger took second in the 100 backstroke and posted a state consideration time and was fourth in the 50 freestyle.

Osawatomie-Paola-Louisburg will return to their home waters this Wednesday as they will host the Independent League Championship. Events begin at 4 p.m at the Ozone in Osawatomie.

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