BY BOB LUDER

The Blue Springs girls swimming and diving team will try to win its third state team championship in the last four seasons Friday and Saturday when the Wildcats plunge into the Missouri state championships in St. Peters.

According to Wildcats co-coach Robert Sturman, the Wildcats’ top competition should come from two sources --- Lafayette of St. Louis, the team that beat them for the title last season, and Springfield Glendale, which defeated the Wildcats in a dual meet earlier this season. In that instance, however, the Wildcats swam off events and defeated Glendale in an invitational meet the next day.

For Blue Springs to have a chance, it’s going to have to get expected top performances from its core of three stellar seniors --- Tarin Corwin, Abby Nelson and Shaida Solimani. Heading into state, Nelson was ranked first by time in the 100-yard butterfly and second in the 200 individual medley, Solimani was first in the 100 backstroke and third in the 200 freestyle and Corwin was second in both the 50 and 100 freestyle events.

Corwin will be trying for a four-year sweep of state titles in the 50 freestyle.

Blue Jays second

Raytown knew it would be no match for powerhouse Park Hill South at the Suburban Conference Mid Six meet, and coach Nancy Young found plenty to be happy about in the Blue Jays’ second-place finish.

“We swam really well on Saturday,” she said. “Thursday (preliminaries) was not as good, but we came back and swam really well in the finals.”

Young said she was especially pleased with the performances of Emily Stebbins in the 100 backstroke and 500 freestyle, and Kaytlynn Clemons in the 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle.

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