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Sports

Zumwalt West Swimmer Defends Crowns at State Championships

Senior Michelle Tipton wins the 200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle and leads the Zumwalt West 200-yard medley relay team to a first-place finish at the state swimming meet

Michelle Tipton has established herself as the premier distance swimmer in the state as she defended her crowns in both the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle Saturday at the 36th Girls Swimming and Diving MSHSAA Championships at the St. Peters Rec Plex.

But Tipton also showed that she has plenty of speed as well, as she swam a 23.28 in anchoring the Zumwalt West 200-yard medley relay team to a first-place finish. The state record in the open 50-yard freestyle is 23.24.

Tipton has stood by herself at the top of the podium four times now. But sharing the relay title with teammates Evyn Spencer, Aly Coleman and Courtney Coe was even more special.

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"As of today, winning the relay is the highlight of my high school career," said Tipton, who will be attending Evansville University in the fall where she plans to study Physical Therapy. "It was just so satisfying to look at my teammates' faces and the utter shock we had. This was so unexpected."

On the other hand, Tipton had proven herself as the swimmer to beat by winning the two distance events as a junior."I knew going into the meet that I had a big target on my back and that everybody was going to be trying to beat me," Tipton said. "I just had to train hard and swim as hard as a could."

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Tipton won the 200-yard freestyle in impressive fashion with a time of 1:51.83. Mary Beth Howard of state team champion Parkway West was second with a time of 1:53.52. Tipton had a bigger challenge in the 500-yard freestyle. She won in 4:58.90. Springfield Glendale junior Gretchen Stein was a very close second, also breaking five minutes at 4:59.28.

"I was nervous the entire year and am glad I was able to defend my titles," Tipton said. "It was equally tough to defend them as it was to win them the first time. It is kind of a bittersweet feeling that my high school career is over."

Tipton had one more chance to celebrate with her teammates as the Jaguars posed with the third-place team trophy (the top four teams win trophies as well as the top eight individuals). They finished with 141 points, which was just one more than Parkway North in fourth place. Parkway West won the team title in dramatic fashion, winning the 400-yard freestyle relay and edging Hannibal by six points 182-176. It was a record 12th state team title for the Longhorns.

Zumwalt West had a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle as Spencer, Coe, senior Lexi Webb and Tipton had a time of 1:41.64. That was good for 26 points, which gave the Jaguars 66 points in their two relays. Coleman was all-state in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing seventh in 1:07.61. Spencer was on the consolation final in the 100-yard backstroke, breaking a minute at 59.64.

The Gateway Athletic Conference had a second state champion as Francis Howell senior Abby Hempen won the 100-yard breaststroke. Like Tipton, Hempen defended her title in the event, and did so in dramatic fashion. Hempen won the finals by just .11 of a second. She won in 1:04.72. MICDS' Annie Goessling, who had won the 200-yard IM earlier in the meet, had a time of 1:04.83.

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