Brueggen medals at state swim for third straight season

LENEXA — For the third straight season, Sabra Brueggen left the Class 5-1A state swim meet with some hardware.

The Louisburg junior showed why she is among the state’s best as she earned a fourth place medal in the 200-yard individual medley — her first ever state medal in that event — Saturday at the Shawnee Mission Aquatic Center.

The 2-day meet provided a lot of ups, and some downs, for the Louisburg swim program, but for Brueggen it was nice to return to the medal stand.

“I was very happy and content with my 200 IM swims last weekend,” Brueggen said. “Not only did I set a new personal best time, but I also walked away with fourth place in an event that is not one of my primaries.”

Brueggen, who shaved six seconds off her previous best time of the season after the preliminaries Friday, sat with the fourth-best time going into the finals.

Then on Saturday, she followed it up with her best swim ever as she set a personal best time of 2 minutes and 11.95 seconds to take fourth.

Brueggen continued her strong performance in the 100 backstroke prelims Friday as she recorded a time of 58.56 seconds — her best of the season — and had the second fastest time going into the finals.

She had a medal all but wrapped up it seemed, however Saturday met with disappointment for Brueggen. She was disqualified after she surpassed the 15 meter mark underwater.

The 100 backstroke was an event she had medaled in the last two seasons, but a mistake stopped an attempt at three straight.

“I was very excited going into day two ranked second in the 100 back,” Brueggen said. “However, finals did not go as planned. After medaling my past two seasons in this event, getting disqualified in it was very tough mentally and was not the way I wanted to end the successful weekend. By surpassing the 15 meter mark with my underwaters, I forfeited my ultimate goals to end the season with two state medals and making the all-state team.”

It made it difficult for Brueggen as she still had one race left to swim — the 400 freestyle relay. On Friday, the team of Brueggen, Cadence Weichert, Ella Bockelman and Janie Harth dropped nearly two seconds off their best time and qualified for the consolation finals in 14th in 4:07.92.

In the consolation finals, the team ended up finishing 15th overall in 4:08.70.

Weichert, Brueggen, Harth and Bockelman also made the consolation finals in the 200 medley relay. In the prelims on Friday, the team dropped more than four seconds off their best time to take 12th in 2:03.02. 

In the finals, the four Wildcats swimmers finished in 12th again in 2:03.75. It was a memorable meet all around for the Louisburg team.

“The success that came through our relays this past weekend allowed for lasting memories to be made,” Brueggen said. “To be able to swim at the state level with these teammates was truly an unforgettable experience. Making it back to the consolation finals in both these relays was also very exciting and I can’t wait to see how much relay success we can have next year at the state level, hopefully leading to everyone bringing home a state medal.”

The Wildcats also swam in a pair of other events on Friday in prelims.

Harth competed in the 50 freestyle and took 24th overall in 27.78 seconds, while Harth, Weichert, Bockelman and Talen McMurray swam in the 200 freestyle relay and finished 22nd in 1:56.

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