Bartlesville High School’s invasion force to the Class 6A state meet is set.
A watery host of Bruins and Lady Bruins repelled most their competition at this weekend’s regional to make the grade for the Big Wave, set for later this month in Edmond.
Jenks hosted this weekend’s East Regional.
Bartlesville boasted several regional champions, led by June Harris with three. She won the girls’ 100 and 200 freestyle relays and also swam the leadoff leg on Bartlesville’s championship squad in the girls 400 freestyle relay.
Three other Bartlesville pool warriors captured one individual regional crown apiece — Matthew Pryor (boys 200 individual medley), Hollis Gilbert (girls 500 freestyle) and Erin Downey (100 breaststroke).
Joining Harris on the winning 400 freestyle relay squad were Aidan Howze, Gilbert and Downey.
That adds up to five regional champs for Bartlesville, which is coached by Chad Englehart.
As a team, Bartlesville finished second in the regional team standings for both the boys and girls.
Jenks easily won the boys trophy (502 points), followed by the Bruins (321).
But, the race for girls’ superiority proved much closer.
Jenks edged Bartlesville — which is the four-time defending state champion — 376.5 points to 358 points.
In addition to their regional champs, Bartlesville — which is coached by Chad Englehart — boasted numerous top four finishers.
In the girls 200 freestyle, Harris and Gilbert powered to the championship and runner-up spots.
Bartlesville also proved dominant in the girls 100 breaststroke by grabbing three of the top four spots — Downey (1st), Howze (third) and Morgan Moore (fourth).
The Bruins made one of their most impressive showings in the boys 100 butterfly, with second place (Preston Willis), third place (Colin Goddard) and sixth place (Jeffrey LaFrancois).
But, Bartlesville’s final scorecard of regional success won’t be completely known until the field for the state meet is set.
There were two regionals — on in the west and one in the east.
There were 16 contestants in each final in each regional, adding up to a total of 32 participants.
For each event, only the top 24 finishers — based strictly on time, without regard to whether one regional might have more qualifiers — out of those 32 in the regional finals will compete at state.
So, state officials still need to officially compare the results from the two regionals to ascertain the state qualifiers.
But, based on the high number of Bartlesville poolsters that made it to the regional A finals, it’s likely the Bruin and Lady Bruins would be amply represented at state.
As alluded to earlier, the Lady Bruins will be trying for their fifth-straight state title.