Lady Tigers claims 6A state title

Lienfang Yu watched the Arkansas High School Swimming and Diving Championships from the stands a year ago with anticipation. As an eighth-grader, she was excited to compete for Bentonville High as a freshman. "I was really excited all season building up to this," Yu said. "It was really fun. I had extra motivation to help out my team and have a lot of fun. "The entire meet was stressful, but it was like a fun stressful." She claimed the 200 individual medley in a time of 2 minutes, 6.31 seconds, edging the second-place finisher by almost two seconds. However, the 100-yard breatstroke was much closer. Yu won that event in 1:06.26, nipping Cabot's Jessica Bongfeldt by less than one-tenth of a second. Yu helped the Lady Tigers finish off the team victory by swimming a leg on the championship 400 relay team. The Lady Tigers claimed the team title with 232.5 points, easily besting second-place Little Rock Central's 193. Bentonville coach Liz Braun said every team member did their part to help the team win a state title. But the divers were a key part to the Lady Tigers winning the team title, along with Yu, who was Bentonville's lone individual champion. "Erin Dalton was especially big," said Braun, who is in her first season at Bentonville. "We didn't think she would be top six, and she ended up getting fourth for us. That brought a lot of energy and a lot of points. "Lienfang Yu, our freshman, she really came up big. We knew it would be like that with her. She's a big asset to her team." As Yu is just beginning her high school swimming career, Bentonville teammate Ryan Husband went out on a high note as well. He won the 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle and helped the Tigers to victory in 400 freestyle relay -- the final event of the meet. The Auburn signee already owns the state records in the 100 and 200 freestyle. He didn't set any records in his final high school meet, but he left no doubt about his dominance in his two individual events. Husband won the 200 freestyle by more than two seconds and took the 100 butterfly by just under two seconds. He just wanted to do all he could to help his team. "I want to make it a good experience for everyone else on this team," Husband said. "I'm happy with my individual performance. I'm happy how I ended my high school career. I just wanted to come out and see what we could do as a team." The Tigers finished third with 374 points behind champion Conway, which won its first state title in 32 years with 434 points. Little Rock Central was second with 415. But Husband finished off his high school career with a flair in the relay. "My whole high school career I've, personally, never lost a 4x100 relay," Husband said. "To be able end like that, not just me, but with the other three guys and to be able to go and win that with them is big." Braun said Husband has been a fine example for his teammates. "He's an exceptional swimmer, and he's given a lot to this program this last four years," Braun said. "We've constantly said he's constantly set the expectation and the standard in the pool for all future Tigers. He's going to be a hard one to replace next year. "Everyone's looking at Ryan Husband all the time in and out of the pool. Everyone's always looking up to him, watching what he's doing. I'm excited to see our young boys slowly fill his shoes and kind of step up to that." There were two state records set in the meet. Conway's Ty Wingfield set a record in the 50 freestyle, winning in a time of 20.36. The previous mark was 20.60. Wingfield was also part of the Wampus Cats' 200 freestyle relay team, which set the start mark of 1:24.7. The old mark was 1:26.24.

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Bentonville High School Athletics

LADY TIGERS CLAIMS 6A STATE TITLE

PAUL BOYD

Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette | 3/1/2020

PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Goff