Liberty boys swim & dive | Season preview
Published 1:36 pm Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Kris Daughters has been coaching swimming at Liberty for 15 years. She’s had teams place well at state. She’s had individual state champions. She’s never had a team quite like this one.
“It’s going to be a very exciting year,” Daughters said. “You get a few of these seasons in your career. One was in 2006 (when the Patriots placed seventh at state), and this team is even better than that.”
The Patriots bring back most of their key swimmers from last year’s team that finished seventh at the 3A state meet. It starts with senior Logan Briggs.
Briggs achieved Ironman status last year by qualifying for state in every event. He went on to take second at state in the 200 freestyle (missing All-American consideration by less than half a second). He also finished third at state in the 500. Briggs Liberty school records in the 100 free, 200 free and 500 free.
Another key swimmer for the Patriots is senior Luke Duschl. Duschl finished sixth in the 100 back and eighth in the 200 IM at state. Senior captain Kevin Hays also played a key role in Liberty’s state relays.
Other key athletes are senior diver Jesse Herrild, junior Raymond Ha, sophomore Connor Biehl and freshman Nick Klatt.
Herrild placed 22nd in the dive competition at state last year. Ha capped his impressive season with a second-place finish in the 100 breaststroke at the Sea-King district meet. Unfortunately he was sick and missed the state meet. Biehl was an important contributor in state relays last season and Daughters expects him to take a big step forward. Klatt is a newcomer who already has several state times from club meets.
Liberty’s quality is especially impressive considering the team has just 29 athletes this year, comparatively small for the program. But for Daughters and the Patriots, it’s more about quality.
“This is going to be kind of a pinnacle of boys swimming at Liberty for a while,” Daughters said. The Patriots will have talented underclassmen back, losing the senior group will hurt. “I’m not getting anyone in who’s going to replace them.”
This Patriots has one more edge: brain power. Briggs has committed to attend and swim for Dartmouth next year, Duschl is looking at either Washington University in St. Louis or Georgia Tech for an engineering degree, while Hays is hoping to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also is the current world champion on the six-by-six Rubik’s Cube.
“It brings a fun atmosphere to the team,” Duschl said. “We do have a lot of different types of people on the team, but we all come together with swim in common.”
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Liberty wins nine events, narrowly falls to Mercer Island | Boys swim & dive
