By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – In space, no one can hear you scream. It’s an alien environment. That’s also usually true in the water, but Bedford North Lawrence’s Cookie King could hear the shrill shrieks as she churned and chased during her final event.
When she hit the water for the anchor leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay, King was almost a full length of the pool behind. When she finished, she had won by the slimmest of margins, a thrilling conclusion to a historic night.
For the first time in three years, the BNL girls won a dual meet, posting a 101-181 triumph over Martinsville as the Stars dominated the final three races to pull ahead and away. The Stars completed the sweep with a 132-23 runaway in the boys meet.
King’s sizzling stretch run, a 1:03.27 leg in her 100 that made up 18 seconds, powered the Stars to their seventh event win. That included a sweep of the relays as BNL won for the first time since topping New Albany in 2020. The impact of the victory could not be overstated.
“It’s a sense of relief,” BNL coach Adam Young said. “It’s great for them. They needed it. It starts to build. You can sense it start to snowball. They needed it, and they got it.“
King was a key contributor. She teamed with Mia Manke, Emma Heinzman and Francesca Orozco to win the 200 medley relay (2:16.40), and she also cruised to the wall first in the 100 butterfly (1:09.25). But the 400 relay is always a meet’s signature race, and that was true once again. After Manke, Orozco and Heinzman set the stage, King stole the show with her comeback, clocking in at 4:40.69.
“I did not expect to catch her,” King said. “I had no idea I was that close to her until I could hear the screaming. I knew I was close, then I started to see bubbles (from the wake of the Martinsville racer ahead of her) at the last turn. I just started to crank it. I knew how much that relay would mean for our team.
“We’re all a community and we all love each other. My freshman year we had six swimmers, so finally winning a dual meet is really good for morale.”
“She really came through,” Young said. “That shows a lot of heart.”
Other winners for BNL included Heinzman (1:07.84 in the 100 free and 1:33.04 in the 100 breaststroke), the 200 free relay (Bridget Keen, Jabrie Sullivan, Amelia Rich and Jane Bingham in 2:17.78) and Manke (1:13.56 in the 100 backstroke).
“Dual meets are kind of like practice, but every once in a while one means a little bit more,” Young said. “This one was definitely in that category, to break that curse. I hope that carries forward, because they will have a real shot in the next couple of meets.”
In the boys meet, the Stars juggled their normal or stronger races and still won 10 of the 12 events.
Individual winners for BNL included Garrett Gabhart (2:16.64 in the 200 individual medley and 52.96 in the 100 free), Oliver Brown (24.79 in the 50 free and 1:21.58 in the 100 breaststroke), Talon Hooten (88.0 points in diving), Carson Puckett (1:07.92 in the 100 butterfly) and Isaiah Conner (6:43.57 in the 500 free).
BNL also took the 200 medley relay (Jayden Duke, Isaiah Eicle, Puckett and Brown in 1:56.58), 200 free relay (Gabhart, Vincent Knight, Puckett and Eicle in 1:46.54), and 400 free relay (Gabhart, Duke, Brown and Eicle in 3:47.50).
“There’s some hunger there, and they will get their shot,” Young said. “We will learn a lot about ourselves.”
BNL will visit New Albany on Saturday.
