By Katie Hyde

The STA swim team finished 22nd in the State Championship meet this weekend, also finishing as the fourth best team from Kansas City.

Of the team’s 29 swimmers, juniors Rose Hutchison and Jane Evans, freshman Haley Baldwin and sophomore Katie Hornbeck qualified to compete in individual events at the Championship meet.

Friday, these four girls competed against other schools to place in the top 16 and continue on to Saturday’s final competition. The top eight swimmers on Friday moved on to Saturday’s Championship Heat, and the other eight moved on to the Consolation Heat.

Evans, Baldwin and Hornbeck were not in the top 16 finalists Friday, and did not move on to Saturday’s competition.

Evans qualified for State in the 50 Yard Freestyle and 100 Yard Freestyle. Baldwin qualified for State in the 100 Yard Backstroke, breaking the school record. Hornbeck qualified for State in the 100 Yard Breaststroke. Hutchison qualified for State in the 200 Yard Freestyle, the 200 Yard IM, the 50 Yard Free, the 100 Yard Butterfly, the 100 Yard Freestyle, the 500 Yard Freestyle and the 100 Yard Backstroke.

Although Hutchison qualified in 7 individual events, Hutchison only swam in the 200 Yard Freestyle and the 100 Yard Freestyle because, per MSHSAA rules, swimmers can only swim in 2 individual events at State. MSHSAA rules allow swimmers to participate in a maximum of 4 events. Because Hutchison swam in 2 individual events, she could only participate in 2 of the 3 relays.

Hutchison, who swam in the 200 Yard Freestyle and 100 Yard Freestyle at State, was in the top 16 swimmers of 51 competitors in the 200 Yard and 41 competitors in the 100 Yard on Friday, and therefore moved on to the Championship Heat Saturday. She received seventh place in both events, scoring 24 of the Stars’ 36 total points from the meet and breaking two school records.

“In the finals, I got so nervous,” Hutchison said. “But it was fun. I was kind of mad with how I finished. I guess I punched the water after I came up.”

Hutchison was upset that she had dropped down a place in one event and two places in the other. She was also upset that she won seventh place by default after senior Julia Herbig of St. Joseph’s Academy was disqualified.

“Now I’m just really happy that I made top eight because that was one of my goals,” Hutchison said.

The STA team also qualified for three relay events in the State Championship: the 200 Yard Medley Relay, the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay and the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay. The team qualified for the Consolation Final in two of the three events. Evans, Hutchison, Baldwin and freshman Taran Smith scored 13th in the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay, scoring 8 points. In the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay, Evans, Baldwin, Hutchison and freshman Lauren Zastrow finished 14th, scoring 4 points and breaking the school record. The team did not qualify in the 200 Yard Medley to move on to the second day.

At the end of the meet, each team added its points from all individual, relay, consolation and final rounds. STA finished in 22nd place with 36 points.

Though the team’s overall finish was four spots beneath last year’s finish of 18th, Hutchison still sees the season’s finish as a success.

“Honestly I think we did better than last year,” Hutchison said. “It didn’t add up, but we did better.”

One improvement from last year was that 100 percent of STA swimmers who competed Friday finished with personal best times.

Hutchison attributes the lower finish this year to a loss of strong players and fewer players who swim year-round.

“We did really good considering who was on the team last year and who is on the team this year,” Hutchison said. “I wouldn’t really call [the loss of players] a weakness; we just didn’t have as many advantages [as last year.]”

Looking forward to next season, Hutchison hopes for more successes and a better finish at the 2013 State Championship.

“Next year, I hope we do better than [2011],” Hutchison said. “I want to do better than 18th [place]. That’s a goal I have for our team and that everyone else has, too. We can do it, as long as we work hard and don’t poop around.”