Lake Ridge Swim and Dive competed at the state meet in Austin, Texas, last weekend. Preliminaries were held on Friday, February 17, in which 16 out of 24 swimmers and all three divers advanced to finals the following day.

The girl’s medley relay finished 14th in the state, and the girl’s 400 free relay finished 15th. The swimmers involved in those relays were athletes Rhiannon Boseman, junior, Katie Mercer, junior, Kylie Sheppard, junior, Caitlin Libed, junior, Khadijah Brown, sophomore, and swimming alternate, freshman Alexis Boseman.

“I feel really good about my performance. I went best times at prelims and that’s all that matters,” said Kylie Sheppard, junior.

“I feel like my overall performance was okay. I definitely felt like I could have done better but I gave it my all and I was swimming tired because of the meets we had before this one and the practices we had beforehand to get us ready for taper again. Overall, I was glad to be representing my team but I wish I had done a little bit better,” admitted Katie Mercer, junior.

“The second day was pretty rough, since most of us were already exhausted from prelims, but despite that, we all saw were there was room for improvement. With that being said, training for state next year starts now,” Caitlin Libed, junior said.

“I know that I tried my hardest this year to be my best while coming back from an injury. I am extremely proud of myself and my team,” said Rhiannon Boseman, sophomore.

Swimmer James Leibham, senior, finished 9th in the state for the 500 boys freestyle, while Khadijah Brown, sophomore, finished 12th in the state for the 200 girls IM.

“I did really well, but I could have gone out faster on my 200 IM the first day so that I could have made finals,” said Leibham.

In diving, Hunter Jaynes, junior, came in 2nd in the state in boys 1 meter dive. Kyle Sanchez, freshman, came in 6th, and freshman Sofia Minotti placed 21st in the girl’s 1 meter dive.

“I was a little shaky on the first day. I was really nervous and I missed a couple of my bigger dives. It set me off for a bad start the second day but I brought it back and closed the gap between me and third place,” Jaynes admitted.

“I felt pretty good about state. There were a couple things I could have worked on. I am just a freshman, so everyone else around me had more experience, but for 6th place, that’s not that bad,” Sanchez said.

“I feel like I did what I could do in the moment, because I was super nervous but I could have done better. It is my first year so I’m going to work harder at it next dive season,” said Minotti.