Regan Richardson Lowers 100 Freestyle Record at Kansas Boy’s 1-5A State Championships

KSHSAA 1-5A Boys’ State Championships

• Lenexa School District Shawnee Mission Aquatic Center
• February 16th, 17th, & 18th
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Full Results

The KSHSAA 1-5A boys’ state swimming & diving championships was a hard-fought battle between two-time defending champions Andover Central High School and rival Andover High School. Wichita Collegiate and Wichita Kapaun-Mount Carmel also made noise, thanks to strong individual performances and two relay victories by Wichita Collegiate.

Wichita Collegiate High School kicked off the meet with a dominant performance in the 200 medley relay, winning in 1:36.71. Collegiate set itself apart from with the fastest breaststroke and butterfly splits in the field, delivered by Adam Sandid (25.68) and Derek Yang (22.56), respectively. Andover Central and Andover High finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, posting times of 1:37.19 and 1:38.27, respectively, making them the only three teams to clear 1:40 in the field.

Sandid, who will swim at Johns Hopkins University starting fall of 2023, did not swim breaststroke the remainder of the meet, opting instead for the 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle relay. Similarly, Yang would not swim the 100 butterfly later in the competition, sticking instead to the 50 and 100 freestyle and the 200 free relay.

Moments after collecting gold in the 200 medley relay, Sandid was back in the water for the 200 freestyle to defend his 2022 title. Though Sandid did not lower his year-old state record (1:39.92), he won the race in a commanding 1:41.33, more than 3 seconds ahead of runner-up Jackson Lee from Andover Central who touched in 1:44.60, shaving a full second from his lifetime best.

Sandid collected his second individual gold of the day in the 100 butterfly, touching in 50.42. Lee, once again, claimed silver behind Sandid in 52.11, clipping 0.73 from his prelims time. Sandid and Yang capped off their 2023 campaign with another victory in the 200 freestyle relay, powering Wichita Collegiate to a 1:27.43, getting to the wall more than 2 and a half seconds ahead of Maize South, which finished in 1:30.12, powered by a 20.41 split from Regan Richardson‘s anchor leg, the fastest in the field.

Maize South’s Richardson was one of three double-individual champions, alongside Sandid and Wichita Kapaun-Mount Carmel’s Frank Alberti. Richardson, a sprint specialist, claimed gold in the 50 and 100 freestyles Saturday, flirting with the state record in the former and lowering it in the latter.

Richardson won the 50 freestyle in 20.56, just 0.10 ahead of Wichita Collegiate’s Derek Yang, who took silver in 20.66. Richardson’s effort in the 50 fell just 0.08 short of the state record (20.48) set in 2013 by Winfield’s Keiser Witte. Richardson later won the 100 freestyle, posting a new state record of 45.06, shaving 0.06 from the 2019 mark set by Lex Hernandez-Nietling. Richardson’s new record in the 100 free marked the only state record in an individual event in either the 1-5A or 6A KSHSAA Championships. Yang again claimed silver in 47.33. A few minutes later, Yang finished off his meet with a victory in the 200 freestyle relay.

Frank Alberti, representing Wichita Kapaun-Mount Carmel, won the 200 IM in 1:53.95, getting to the wall just ahead of Andover Central’s Brian Nguyen, a sophomore, who touched in 1:54.33 for silver. Alberti cruised a 1:58.93 in prelims, though was clearly in command of the race in finals. Alberti dominated the first 100, splitting a 52.45 going into the breaststroke, exactly one second ahead of Nguyen. Nguyen, however, made his move on the breaststroke, splitting a 33.24, which tied for the fastest split in the field with teammate and 3rd-place finisher Noah Kreuger (1:56.44). Alberti popped a 26.74 to finish off the freestyle, a full 0.90 faster than Nguyen. According to SWIMS, Alberti’s best time entering the meet was a 1:56.05, giving the junior a 2.10-second time drop overall.

Alberti also won the 100 backstroke, posting a 51.41, slightly off his prelims time of 51.14, though a full 2.49 seconds ahead of runner-up David Gott of Andover High. Nguyen took 3rd in 54.11, 0.01 faster than his prelims time, making for an overall drop of nearly half-a-second from his best time entering the meet.

Andover Central’s Noah Kreuger won the 100 breaststroke in 58.63, making him the only swimmer to break 1:00 in the field. Though Krueger was not the fastest swimmer at the 50-yard turn, his strong back-half propelled him to the victory, posting a 31.28 on the second 50, out-splitting the next fastest by nearly a second.

Lansing sophomore Zach Mendez won the 500 freestyle in a 4:46.90, touching nearly 5 seconds ahead of the silver medalist from Andover, Jonathan Gott, who touched in a 4:51.51. Notably, Gott would have won the 6A title in the 500 freestyle with his runner-up time at the 1-5A meet.

Overland Park-Saint Thomas Aquinas sophomore Alex Moeller won the 1-meter diving competition, putting up 450.90 points to lead the 9-man field. Buhler’s Benjamin Helus placed 2nd with 368.80 points. Andover High had a slight edge over Andover Central in diving as the former boasted two divers while the latter had zero. Sophomore Braden Larson scored 15 points for Andover High with a 5th-place finish on the 1-meter board, while freshman Henry Lasater pulled in 9 points with a 9th-place finish. While these points alone do not account for the difference between Andover Central and Andover High, they provided Central a cushion going into the second half of the meet.

Both Andover High School and Andover Central High School swam under the 2020 State Record set by the Wichita Independent School in 2020 (3:11.60), touching the wall in 3:10.89 and 3:11.27, respectively. Though Maize South placed 4th in the 400 free relay, Regan Richardson, the 50 and 100 freestyle champion, blasted a 44.68 split to cap off his high school career, the fastest in the field by over 2 seconds.

Ultimately, both schools from Andover would finish 1-2 in the team standings, with Andover High taking the team title with a total of 311 points, while Andover Central claimed runners-up honors with 262 points, well ahead of the Wichita Collegiate, which took third with 216 points.

Before the meet began, swammer Cole Hines took to the awards podium to serenade the crowd with his guitar, and then lead the athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators in the National Anthem.

Top-10 Team Standings

1. Andover High School 311
2. Andover Central High School 262
3. Wichita Collegiate High School 216
4. Wichita-Kapaun Mt Carmel HS 190
5. Overland Park-Blue Valley Southwest HS 178
6. Maize High School 142
7. Maize South High School 127
8. Overland Park-Saint Thomas Aquinas HS 124
9. Tecumseh-Shawnee Heights HS 123
10. Lansing High School 87