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The Covington Catholic and Notre Dame Academy swimming teams were nearly perfect at Saturday’s Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference Championships at Scott. The Colonels and Pandas both won all but one race while repeating as swimming and diving champions.

CovCath, fueled by the meet’s outstanding male swimmer, senior Hunter Pasek, accrued 350 points to outpace Dixie Heights (271.5) which posted its highest conference finish in Ed Cook’s 11 years as coach.

“Hunter had lifetime bests in two races, the 100-yard butterfly and 100 backstroke, and he hasn’t been beaten in any one of those events this year,” said Colonels coach Richard Dickmann. “It was a good day for us because we won all but one swim and a very good day for Hunter Pasek.”

Pasek won the 100 butterfly with a finishing time of 53.01 seconds and added the 100 backstroke title with a clocking of 54.42. He also swam legs on CovCath’s winning 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams.

“I had shoulder problems as a freshman and sophomore, so I’m kind of a late starter,” said Pasek. “But after lots of kicking, and once I started feeling better, I trained harder and lately I’m doing really well.”

Dixie’s Cole Garriott, a winner in the 200 individual medley, was the lone non-CovCath champion. “We’re just trying to finish as high as we can at regional so we can send as many guys to state as possible, so doing well at conference gives us a lot of confidence,” Garriott said.

Max Williamson also was a quadruple winner for CovCath, winning the 50 and 500 freestyle races and swimming legs on the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.

Notre Dame had three swimmers earning four victories while totaling 319 points to outpace girls’ runner-up Highlands (232). Quadruple winners were Caitlyn Forman, Olivia Kuykendall and MacKenzie Margroum.

Forman, who won the 100 butterfly with a personal-best finish of 57.54 seconds, was named the meet’s outstanding female swimmer. “This is our 14th conference championship in a row, so we did did not want to lose,” said Forman, an Auburn recruit.

Cooper’s Sharli Brady was the only non-Notre Dame swim race winner, in the 200 freestyle.

Dixie won its first combined girls’ and boys’ conference title under Cook with 358.5 points while edging runner-up Highlands (352). “Total team effort,” Cook said. “This is huge for us.”

Beechwood’s Justin Youtsey won the boys’ diving crown and Highlands’ Carly Hill won the girls’ diving event.

http://www.NKY.com

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