Girls Swim Wins Third Straight United Kansas Conference Title
The Lansing High School girls swim team won the United Kansas Conference (UKC) title for the 3rd time in a row on Wednesday, May 11th. Since the conference started, Lansing has won every UKC title for boys and girls since the conference began in 2018.
"The girls won this year with a decisive victory over DeSoto by 75 points after narrowly taking the championship last year by just 3 points," said Coach David Bresser. "The girls swam really well."
Some highlights from Coach Bresser:
- They won all three relays, which really helped for team standings. Of note, our 200 Free Relay broke a school record (Ellie Johnson, Stephanie Braga, Kailyn Cline, and Tanja Weihing)
- Ellie Johnson (SR) was named Swimmer of the Year based on her performance (2 individual runner-up and 2 relay wins)
- Tanja Weihing (SR exchange student from Germany) was 2nd in the 50 Free but broke our oldest school record (7-year-old record)
- Alexis Buchholz (SR) was our only individual champion. She won the 100 Breaststroke breaking her own school record.
Then they competed at state where we had our 2nd highest finish in program history with a 12th place finish. We had all three relays swimming on the second day of finals.
Some highlights:
- Alexis Buchholz was a medalist, finishing 6th in 100 Breast. She also lowered her school-record time.
- The 200 Free Relay finished 7th also on the medal stand. This was the first time we had medalists in any event since 2018.
- Ellie Johnson, Anna Yedlinsky, Kailyn Cline, Tanja Weihing
- Ellie Johnson and Tanja Weihing both made finals in their individual events. Ellie in 100 Free, Tanja in 50 Free
- 200 Medley Relay finished (Caitlynn Kankelfitz, Alexis Buchholz, Kailyn Cline, Tanja Weihing)
- 400 Free Relay finished 11th (Caitlynn Kankelfitz (SO), Kailyn Cline (SR), Tanja Weihing (SR), Ellie Johnson (SR))
"I am extremely proud of this team and the season we had. The girls really came through at UKC to easily win. The state meet was incredible. I loved seeing the three four-year seniors who made it through a COVID non-season their sophomore year, all medal at state and swim well. It was special for me to see Ellie, Alexis, and Kailyn go out with a bang. They worked very hard to get to this achievement. Medal at state in the morning…graduate in the evening. It was a day I did not want to end!"
- Thank you to Coach Bresser for information in this article and pictures