12 HHS swimmers participated in the 2024-2025 NSAA State Swimming & Diving Championships at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln. State swimming is not separated by class, so a majority of the teams HHS competed against in the meet are Class A schools in other sports.
At the 2025 NSAA State Swimming and Diving Championships, Hastings High swimmers appeared in both the preliminary and final races on Friday, February 28 and Saturday, March 1.
The girls’ prelim competition experienced a slow start because of a delay shortly after the very first race of the meet. After the backstroke swimmers in the water for the second race had received the first starting command to start their race, they were told to relax, as there was an issue with the timing system. After the swimmers had been in the water, which is specifically cooled to be an ideal temperature for athletes’ performance, for a few minutes, the official told the swimmers to exit as NSAA staff and volunteers were working to fix the timing system. According to senior Abbey Fish, many jokes were shared in the stand and on the pool deck about how this “never happens” at local meets, before the system began to work properly around 13 minutes later. Once running numbers appeared on the large timing board that records the running time for each lane of the pool and stops when the swimmer in its connected lane finishes, the crowd erupted in cheers and shouts of relief.
“We were definitely all really ready to go. We kind of were mentally in the zone, you know, ready. And then, ‘Oh, just kidding.’ But we were right next to two teams that are in our conference, it was North Platte and Scottsbluff, so we know those girls really well, so you just kind of started chatting it up, hanging out and, you know, being like ‘This never happens at the Hastings YMCA, like just kind of making a joke out of it, but definitely just trying to stay loose and not trying to think about it too much,” Fish said. “But then, once they got everything fixed, we focused back up and got back in the zone.”
After the timing problem was resolved, heat two of the girls’ 200 medley relay commenced, including Hastings in lane seven. The relay was made up of senior Jaden Ochsner in the 50 backstroke, junior Catherine Lehn in the 50 breaststroke, senior Abbey Fish in the 50 fly, and senior Brooke Baker in the 50 freestyle. The relay swam a season-best of 1:56.37, dropping 0.65 of a second to place 14th out of the 32 teams who competed in the girls’ preliminary competition.
Prelims include 32 competitors, individuals for individual events, and teams of four for the three relays offered in the sport: Event 1, the 200 medley relay, Event 17, the 200 freestyle relay, and the second-to-last event, Event 23, the 400 freestyle relay.
In the preliminary round of competition, the 32 competitors race in four heats of eight lanes, and the top 16 competitors from the four heats qualify for the finals competition, which takes place the next day.
For individual events in the prelims, sisters Catherine Lehn, a junior, and freshman June Lehn, both qualified for the 100 breaststroke and swam in the same heat in the preliminary competition. Catherine Lehn swam a 1:12.26 to place 20th, and June Lehn swam a 1:13.76 to place 25th.
Also on the girls’ side, senior Abbey Fish won her heat and placed fourth in the 50 free prelims race, dropping 0.02 of a second. She also placed third in the 100 free, dropping 0.03 of a second.
“Prelims was definitely a good starting point,” Fish said. “There are definitely some things that I could clean up. And Charles and I kind of talked about that after prelims, and then I kind of focused on that going into finals.”
In the last event of the girls’ preliminary competition, the Tigers dropped 2.54 seconds to place 16th and barely snuck into the 400 free relay finals.
“We had both of our relays make it back to consolation finals. Both of those times were PRs for the season, so that was awesome,” Fish said. “We also moved up a place [from our best time coming into the competition] for our 400 free relay. So that was great.”
The boys preliminary competition started Friday at 3:00 p.m. For boys’ individual events, four swimmers qualified to swim in the competition, including freshman Connor Borchers in the 200 individual medley, who placed 27th, junior Lucas Sidlo, who placed 22nd in the 100 back, senior Landon McReynolds, who placed 14th in the 100 fly, and senior Matthew Lauder in the 50 free, who placed 11th in the 50 free and 22nd in the 100 free.
McReynolds finished 14th in the 100 fly finals with a 53.88, and Lauders finished 16th in the 50 free with a 22.74.
“Landon McReynolds made it back to constellations for the 100 fly. And then he also moved up a couple places and had another big PR. So that was a nice way for him to close out his high school career, so that was really, really nice,” Fish said.
The swim team on the boys’ side qualified for all three of the possible relays in the preliminary competition. The boys 200 medley relay placed 16th, with a time of 1:43.79 by dropping 0.57 of a second. Hastings placed 22nd in the 200 free relay and 19th in the 400 free relay.
“I feel like as a team, we did really well. Some people swam better than expected. You know, for some it didn’t go exactly how they planned it, but overall, I feel like it was a really fun time, a lot of PRs, a lot of season best,” Fish said.
In the finals, the boys placed 14th in the 200 medley relay with a 1:56.32.
On the girls’ side, the finals medalist for the team was Abbey Fish. After focusing on things she could improve from prelims, her attention to detail paid off. In the 50 free, she placed third with a time of 24.01 after dropping 0.07 of a second. In the 100 free, Fish also medaled third with a time of 52.04, dropping 0.12 of a second from her prelim time. During the meet, Fish swam a qualifying time for the USA Swimming Futures Championships held at University of Wisconsin in July, which she plans to attend.
“Overall, I’m going to take away more of the memories and the friendships and the bonds created during the season, more than I’m going to take away the medals,” Fish said. “Obviously, you know, third, you can’t be mad about that. Obviously, that’s still really great… But again, you can’t complain with PRs, and kind of Iike I said, I’m going to take more of the memories away than the metals, and I think that’s something important to think about as well, so overall I’m really happy with how I did.”
In the finals, the girls’ 200 medley relay finished 14th, swimming 0.05 of a second faster than their prelim time. The girls 400 freestyle relay placed 15th, moving up one place from their preliminary competition spot with a time of 3:51.98.
Towards the end of finals, Head Coach Charles Scribner and Kearney High Head Coach Jane Bartee jumped into the pool fully clothed during one of the breaks, when swimmers have time to cool down and warm up, to celebrate the end of both of their coaching careers.
“And so then all the Kearney kids and us, we stood around them. It was kind of a nice moment for them to close out their careers. Jane and Charles have a really special connection. They’ve been coaching buddies for a really long time. Jane tried to recruit him to go to Wyoming. They have a really special bond, and it’s really nice for us and Kearney, we see them all the time,” Fish said. “A lot of us have really close friends on the Kearney team. So it was kind of a nice moment for all of us, just to kind of see the end of an era for them. And then we all got it on video. It was a really, really fun moment…”
