Brown, relay earn state swim qualification times to begin season

By Andy Brown
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Updated: December 8, 2022

TOPEKA — It has been quite the first week for the Osawatomie-Paola-Louisburg boys swim team — especially for the four Wildcat swimmers.

In a five-day span, Louisburg has qualified for the state meet in two different events already and the Wildcats have also earned several state consideration times.

It all started Saturday at the Lansing Relays. The Louisburg relay team of Brayton Brueggen, Andrew Jamison, Colin Brown and Colton Prettyman qualified for state in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1 minute and 52.12 seconds.

“We were so proud of our swimmers for that amazing state qualifying swim,” coach Mary Argeropoulos said. “It really was a sweet moment after working so hard for the last couple of years and not quite qualifying. There was a lot of excitement on the pool deck. The team overall did a great job in the pool and supporting each other from the sidelines like a true team. It’s going to be a great season with these fine gentlemen.”

It was just a taste of what was to come.

On Wednesday at the Topeka-Hayden Invitational, Brown, a freshman, punched his ticket to state once again — this time as an individual. Brown won the 100-yard butterfly in 56.50 seconds, and in doing so, earned a state qualification time.

“Colin Brown swam a fantastic 100 butterfly and really made a statement with his commanding swim,” Argeropoulos said. “He simply outswam the competition last night. We are proud to see him represent OzPaLou swim at state.”

The Miami County team also posted six state consideration times as those participants try and chip away at a state qualification mark.

Brueggen, Brown, Jamison and Prettyman earned qualification times in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. The team finished first in the 200 relay and later finished fourth in the 400 relay.

“We were happy to shave off more time for a better consideration time for the Louisburg 200 free relay and will continue to reach for that qualification time,” Argeropoulos said. “In the 400 free relay, they showed true grit after a difficult schedule (they all swam the 2 events just prior to this difficult race) and laid down a great starting point to work for an automatic qualifying time in this event.”

Along with his mark in the 100 butterfly, Brown earned a state consideration time in the 100 backstroke. Jamison, a freshman, also earned consideration times in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke where he took second and third, respectively.

Paola freshman Landen Terflinger also earned a state consideration time in the 100 freestyle. As group, Osawatomie-Paola-Louisburg took fourth in the team standings out of nine squads.

In his two individual events, Brueggen was fifth in the both the 200 IM and 100 backstrokes, while Prettyman was fifth out of 55 swimmers in the 50 freestyle and was fifth in the 100 breaststroke.