KENTUCKY GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- February 21, 2020
- Lancaster Aquatics Center – Lexington, KY
- Meet Info
- Full Team Scores
- Results
FINAL TOP 5 TEAMS
- Sacred Heart- 503
- DuPont Manual- 159
- Christian Academy Louisville- 149
- Dixie Heights- 139
- Assumption High- 126
The Sacred Heart girls were dominant at the 2020 Kentucky High School State Championships as they won their 8th-straight title. They opened the meet with a new State Record in the 200 medley relay, taking down the mark the Sacred Heart squad formerly set in 2016. Annabel Crush led them off with a 24.93 back split. Claire Donan (breast- 28.17), Emily Lenihan (fly- 24.48), and Madeline Meredith (free- 22.85) followed as they clipped the mark in 1:40.43. Notably, Lenihan was even faster with a 24.35 split in prelims.
Crush, a junior, went on to win the 200 IM in 1:57.57. That was a lifetime best by a second. She has one more year to chase down the State Record set by Kentucky All-American Asia Seidt in 2016. It stands at a 1:56.83. Crush also won the 100 back in 52.95. She was just 6 hundredths shy of Seidt’s record in that event. She’s already been faster than that record, though, with a lifetime best of 52.31 from last March.
Crush closed out the meet with a 49.58 anchor in the 400 free relay. The girls narrowly missed the State Record by less than 2 tenths as they won in 3:22.93. Sacred Heart swept the relays, as they also won the 200 free relay in 1:34.95. Their fastest split came from Meredith with a 23.18 anchor leg.
Donan finished 2nd in the 200 IM. Her 1:59.14 was a new lifetime best. She went on to take a title of her own in the 100 breast, winning in 1:01.61. Donan also contributed a 50.72 on the 3rd leg of the winning 400 free relay.
Sacred Heart’s Mackenzie Lanning picked up a winning double to contribute to the team victory. She took a few tenths off her best in the 200 free to win in 1:49.40. She returned for the 500 free, coming from behind on the final 50 as she out-touched Dixie Heights’ Selina Reil, 4:55.33 to 4:55.58.
Christian Academy’s Gabi Albiero took down the State Record in the 50 free in her first win of the session. She took down her own former record to repeat as champion with a lifetime best 22.36. Albiero, a Louisville commit, then won the 100 fly in 52.08, just a couple of tenths shy of the State Record (51.75) set by current Louisville senior All-American Grace Oglesby in 2015. Relay-wise, Albiero put up a 23.67 fly split on the medley relay and a 22.45 anchor split on the 400 free relay.
Assumption’s Ella Welch also took down a State Record. Welch, a sophomore, put up a lifetime best 49.58 to win the 100 free. That took down the former record set by Sophie Skinner in 2015. Individually, she also placed 2nd in the 50 free (22.98). Welch turned in a 28.48 breast split on the 200 medley relay, but she was even faster with her 28.17 in prelims. SHe anchored the 400 free relay in 49.25.
