By Brian Savard
KINGSTON, Rhode Island, March 14. RARELY is the nation's smallest state thought to be a swimming powerhouse. Rhode Island, despite flying under the radar the entire season however, came up big through two Olympic Trial-caliber athletes.
Women's Individual Results
Elizabeth Beisel jumped onto the nation's list of top eight high school performances in both of her events, clocking a first-place 1:47.38 200 freestyle and a gold-medal-worthy 54.71 100 backstroke. She currently ranks seventh in the nation in each of those events. In addition, both swims set state records.
Laura Sogar of Prout, who qualified for Olympic Trials in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events, notched two individual event wins. She took the 200 IM in 2:03.63 and pounded out a breaststroke win in 1:01.46. Her 1:01.46 time currently ranks fifth in the country among high school swimmers. Sogar's swims also eclipsed two state standards.
Men's Individual Results
Ryan Garr of South Kingstown pulled in two state-record swims, taking first in the 100 freestyle (46.83) before touching first in the 100 backstroke in 52.62.
Kevin Sun, also representing South Kingstown, joined Garr in taking two individual triumphs. Sun swam back-to-back in the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly, taking each with respective times of 22.63 and 53.16.
South Kingstown put up two first-place relays. Garr, Tom Smith, Sun and Toby Fontaine teamed up in the 200 medley relay, turning in a time of 1:40.40. The same foursome mixed up its order in the 200 freestyle relay and got the same result as the medley, as Smith, Fontaine, Sun and Garr went a 1:31.49.
Team Scores
LaSalle took the women's team championship with a 279-point effort. East Greenwich finished up second with 209 points while Beisel's South Kingstown team bested Sogar's Prout team by .5 point for third (188).
Hendricken overcame South Kingstown's firepower at the top, taking the men's title easily with 327 points. Barrington placed second with 284 points while the star-studded South Kingstown men settled for third (240).