Maur Hill-Mount Academy swimming earns first top finish of season

Maur Hill-Mount Academy swimming arrived at a clear turning point at Washington High School, where the Ravens posted their first top finish of the season and turned in a 130.5-point performance built on seven first-place results and six silver medals. For a program that had not won a meet in five years, the Washington Invitational gave Atchison a result that looked less like a fluke and more like a breakthrough.

The wins came from all over the lineup. Lexi Griffin captured the 100-yard breaststroke, Echo Growney won the 50-yard freestyle and Mallory Panchot took the 100-yard butterfly. Griffin, Growney, Greta Schuele and Haylie Folsom added another gold in the 400-yard freestyle relay, while Lora Waters, Caeli Haigh, Rachel Olberding and Kylee Stec won the open 200-yard freestyle relay. That spread of victories showed a team scoring from multiple lanes and multiple events, not just one standout swimmer carrying the night.

Depth showed up in the runner-up finishes as well. The 200 medley relay team of Folsom, Griffin, Growney and Maggie Burcham finished second, and individual silver medals went to Stec, Panchot, Folsom and Bell. By the end of the meet, the Ravens had built a result that reflected balance across sprint races, distance work and relays, the kind of scoring profile that usually signals a team moving in the right direction at the right time.

The coach said the swimmers had shown tremendous growth and was proud of the work they had put in, a sentiment that fit the way the meet unfolded. Maur Hill-Mount Academy, the co-ed college-preparatory school at 1000 Green Street in Atchison, competes in KSHSAA Class 2A and the Northeast Kansas League and has about 210 students. In that setting, a strong swim roster matters because it keeps one of the school’s smaller programs visible in a county where other sports often dominate the conversation.

The timing matters too. KSHSAA’s girls’ Class 5-1A state swimming and diving championships are set for May 21-23 at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center in Lenexa, and the Ravens’ showing in Washington gave them a benchmark they can carry into the final stretch. After a five-year wait for a meet title, Maur Hill-Mount Academy suddenly has a result that raises the ceiling for what comes next.