It was another dominant showing Saturday for the Owensboro girls’ swim team, who won eight of 12 events in the Region 2 meet and garnered multiple awards.
Standout senior Samantha Phillips and head coach Brad Schmied both received top honors after the meet, as they were named the Region 2 girls’ swimmer and girls’ coach of the year, respectively.
Phillips said she wasn’t feeling 100 percent before the meet, but she stayed tough mentally and trusted in her team.
“I had to swim with my heart and my head rather than my arms and my legs,” she said. “Our girls did amazing. They always show up and show out, and I expected nothing less. They came through.”
Phillips and teammates Paige Neal, Abby Warren and Addison Callis were all named to the All-Region team based on their performances Saturday.
Those four started the day off the day with a win in the 200 Yard Medley Relay, setting the stage for multiple other top finishes. They also won the 200 Yard Free Relay later in the day.
“The medley relay was surprising,” Schmied said of his team, who had to shift roles a bit mid-season with the loss of Julia Smith to an injury. “Julia was out (in the backstroke), but we put in Abby and we almost had our time from last year. Didn’t miss a beat, just incredible. We did fantastic. The competition was a lot tougher this year, but we stepped up.”
In addition to their relays, OHS earned eight automatic bids to state in individual events. Phillips won the 200 Yard Free and 500 Yard Free, Neal won the 50 Yard Free and 100 Yard Free, Warren won the 100 Yard Breast, and Callis took second in the 200 Yard IM and 100 Yard Breast. In Tuesday’s diving competition, Georgia Warren claimed another first-place finish for OHS.
In the boys’ competition, Owensboro Catholic’s Cort Hobelmann earned a pair of first-place finishes (100 Yard Free, 100 Yard Back) and made the All-Region team along with teammate Jack Raymer.
“I did better than I thought I would,” Hobelmann said. “I was surprised. (Friday’s prelims) really set the bar because I dropped a second and a half on both my races. I thought if I swam my best I could win.”
Hobelmann and Jude Neal (2nd – 50 Yard Free) earned Catholic’s only automatic bids to the state championships, but co-head coach Erica Crabtree said her team still had a strong day.
“I think we had a lot of great swims,” Crabtree said. “We improved on times today versus yesterday. That’s hard to do.”
Daviess County also had one automatic state qualifier, with Trevor Church taking second in the 100 Yard Free.
As teams, Catholic finished fourth in combined scoring (4th in boys, 12th in girls), Owensboro finished fifth combined (4th in girls, 16th in boys), DC finished sixth combined (5th in girls, 8th in boys), and Apollo finished eighth combined (10th in girls, 6th in boys).
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