Mahomet-Seymour Girls’ Swim Team Shines at Byron Invitational with Multiple First-Place Finishes

By Fred Kroner

Four Mahomet-Seymour athletes won individual races on Saturday (Oct. 26) as the girls’ swimming team ended the regular season with a runner-up finish in the five-team Byron Invitational.

Capturing first place were Caroline Mills (200-yard freestyle in 2:01.50), Raegan O’Donnell (50-yard freestyle in 25.22 seconds), Karsyn Johnson (100-yard butterfly in 1:04.56) and Talynn O’Donnell (100-yard freestyle in 54.46 seconds).

The O’Donnells were also victorious in a second event. Raegan was triumphant in the 500-yard freestyle (5:21.49) and Talynn won the 100-yard backstroke (1:02.31).

Three Bulldog individuals and one relay finished in the runner-up position.

The 200-yard medley unit of Johnson, Lainey Howard, Talynn O’Donnell and Claire Waggoner took second in 1:59.06.

Other second-place finishers were Howard in the 200-yard individual medley (2:25.21), Mills in the 500-yard freestyle (5:40.05) and Callie Lu in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:12.58).

Several younger Bulldog swimmers recorded season-best performances.

Grace Rose was sixth in the 200-yard freestyle (2:20.93, an improvement of 2.12 seconds) and seventh in the 500-yard freestyle (6:06.18, an improvement of 10.33). Romy Hernandez was seventh in the 50-yard freestyle (29.78 seconds, an improvement of .42) and eighth in the 100-yard butterfly (1:14.92, an improvement of 2.84). Mia Saba was eighth in the 200-yard freestyle (2:31.23, an improvement of 3.13 seconds). Rae Duan was 10th in the 100-yard freestyle (1:17.96, an improvement of 9.54) and 11th in the 50-yard freestyle (33.64 seconds, an improvement of 1.77). Ellie Stinson was 13th in the  100-yard freestyle (1:28.70, an improvement of 1.99). Bansi Patel was 14th in the 100-yard freestyle (1:43.78, an improvement of 10.92) and 15th in the 50-yard freestyle (43.06 seconds, an improvement of 6.75 seconds).

The third-place M-S 400-yard freestyle relay squad consisted of Rose, Saba, Johnson and Howard (4:12.78).

Howard (100-yard breaststroke in 1:15.71) and Johnson (1:05.95 in the 100-yard backstroke) each ended in fourth place as did the 200-yard freestyle relay foursome of Waggoner, Maddie Logsdon, Saba and Mills (1:55.97).

Capturing fifth-place finishes were Lu (100-yard butterfly in 1:07.28) and Waggoner (100-yard freestyle in 1:02.78) along with the 200-yard medley relay unit of Raegan O’Donnell, Logsdon, Hernandez and Duan (2:15.36).

Taking sixth were Logsdon (200-yard individual medley in 2:42.12) and Waggoner (50-yard freestyle in 28.32 seconds).

In the team race, Byron was first (392 points), followed by M-S (292 points) and LaSalle-Peru (274 points).

M-S (54-6 for all meets) returns to action on Saturday (Nov. 2) in the 25-school IHSA Sectional at Urbana.