On Feb. 16, four members of Ursuline’s Swim Team competed for titles in the MSHSAA State Championship. Seniors Bella Snyder and Jess Garcia, junior Sydney Kirchoff, and freshman Kate Heidenry swam hard in a total of eight races, breaking school and personal records.
The girls all competed in the 400 free relay and moved up from 13th to 12th place from entry to finals. The relay took 3rd place at Conference, dropping 9 seconds off their previous best time to earn a mark of 3:55.66, our entry time for State. From there, the girls dropped 1.5 seconds in prelims for a 3:54.19, then proceeded to drop another 2 seconds in finals to finish in 12th place at 3:52.01, just narrowly missing the previous school record.
Bella Snyder ’19 finished 4th place in the 200 free with a new school record of 1:56.29. In the 500 free, Snyder took 2nd place with a final time of 5:05.07, and the top finish in Ursuline state history in swimming. Her prelim time of 5:03.69 also earned her a new school record, as well as the Class 1 record for a while. Leading off the 400 free relay, she broke her school record in the 100 free in prelims (55.26), and then again in finals (55.04). Snyder has committed to swim for University of Massachusetts – Amherst for the fall of 2019.
Jess Garcia ’19 competed in the 200 IM, earning a season-best time by 3 seconds. She was seeded 32nd at entry, and moved up to 25th place after her prelim swim (2:24.98).
Sydney Kirchoff ’20 competed in the 200 free (2:06.04), touching the wall in 21st, and made a finals appearance in the 500 free with a 14th place finish (5:32.67).
Kate Heidenry ’22 in addition to swimming the 400 free relay with her teammates, lowered her time by 2 seconds to break the 1:00 barrier for the first time in prelims (:59.82), then lowered her time once again in finals (:59.11).