WICHITA, Kan.—
Emily Chesser’s options are wide open. She is in the middle of a stellar season for the Lady Golden Buffaloes of Southeast. Saturday she convincingly won the 100 butterfly and 100 breatstroke. This season, she has qualified for the state championships in every event but one.“I haven’t swam the 50 free(style),” said Chesser. “That’s the only event I haven’t qualified for yet.”
Chesser now has the choice to swim almost any event she chooses at the state championships.
“I feel like my options are just whatever I want,” she said. “It’s really nice. I’m so excited for it.”
She spent her spring break in Orlando at the Junior Nationals competition, which has translated into a more driven, motivated attitude for the Southeast swimmer.
“I went down there and had some good swims,” said Chesser. “It boosted me to go through the high school season and not take a break after it was over. It motivated me to keep turning it over in high school swimming.”
On Saturday at Northwest, she won the 100 butterfly in a blazing 1:01.41. She beat out Newton’s Christina Entz, who swam a 1:03.03 and Carroll’s Madison Hutchison who swam a 1:03.43.
Chesser said the 100 breaststroke was the highlight for her Saturday. She entered the race down by almost a half-second according to seed times to Kapaun’s Marisa Meyer. Meyer pushed Chesser, but Chesser was able to come away with the win in a time of 1:12.19 to Meyer’s 1:13.72.
“I know (Meyer) from club (swimming) and I know how she swims it, so I thought it’d be some competition,” said Chesser. “And it was, but I felt good out there. (Meyer) made me work for it.”
Andover’s Katie League took third with a time of 1:15.44.
Newton won the 16-team meet with a score of 317. Andover took second with 284, Carroll finished third with 253. Winfield and North rounded out the top five.
Many of Wichita East’s fastest swimmers weren’t at the meet due to various reasons and the Lady Blue Aces took 12th with 59 points.
Relays won it for Newton, as the Lady Railers took home top honors in two of the three relays at Saturday’s meet. The team of Entz, Sara Silfer, Sarah Schmidt and Betti Fuhr got the team going on the right foot with a win in the meet’s first event which was the 200 medley relay. The ladies won it in a time of 1:57.84 and backed it up with a win in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:45.22.
Newton’s 400 freestyle relay team of Hana Robinson, Sophia Miller, Rebecca Schrag and Karrina Gerbrand took third with a time of 4:30.04.
Winfield’s Lauren Turner cut more than three seconds for the surprise win in the 100 backstroke in 1:07.87. She beat out North’s Angela Smith and Newton’s Slifer.
