Girls Swimming places 5th in ’25 sectionals; Katie Countryman advances

February 10, 2025

Congratulations to the Trojan Girls for an outstanding Sectionals! The Trojans built on their excellent prelim swims on Thursday to outperform themselves in the 2025 Sectional Finals on Feb. 8.

The girls were seeded to score 151 points and finish 7th going into the sectional finals, but they scored 164 points to move up to 5th!

The backstroke relay team of Addie Fleming (33.96), Cassie Hunt (40.42), Allison Loiselle (33.33), and Makenzie Messengale (28.86) held their seed in the medley relay to finish 8th. Addie stepped up big to fill in on the backstroke leg despite not having swum a backstroke race all season.

Katie Countryman was the Sectional Champion in the 200 free, qualifying for next week’s State Championships! She swam a 1:54.33 to drop over 2 seconds off her lifetime best, set a new school record, and win by over 2 seconds.

In the B final, Sophia Reed went for it, flipping at the 100 in a time faster than her best 100 before this meet. She finished 15th in a time of 2:20.27.

In the 200 IM, Allison dropped 4 seconds from her prelims time and notched a new lifetime best to move up 2 places and finish 12th with a 2:39.80.

Hanna Ross capitalized on her opportunity in the A final of the 50 free to finish 5th with a 25.33. The time was by nearly a second faster than she went in prelims and half-second improvement on her lifetime best.

Katie scorched the field by 2 seconds again in the 100 fly, setting a new lifetime best and Bishop Chatard record in 57.11, clipping the automatic qualifying standard for State.

In the 200 free relay, Hanna (25.47), Elaine Dilts (27.52), Addie (27.66), and Katie (23.43) combined for a 1:44.08. Katie’s 23.42 split was the fastest of all swimmers in the field, and the team out touched Franklin Central for second in a massive upset.

In the next event, with only about 10 minutes rest, Hanna turned on the jets in her 100 back to go from 8th to 4th, dropping 2 seconds from her prelims time for a 1:03.89.

The biggest time drop of the day came in the 400 free relay, which saw Hanna (55.75), Sophia (1:01.96), Elaine (1:01.54), and Katie (52.32) each put up lifetime bests to finish 3rd in 3:51.57.

With her two event wins, Katie Countryman earned berths into the State Championship meet, where she will represent the Trojans in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly.