In one of the closest Division II boys' swimming championships ever, a mere seven-hundredths of second decided the final results on Saturday at the LHSAA State Swimming championships at the Sulphur Parks and Recreation Aquatic Center.
In their first year at Division II after winning four consecutive state titles in Division III, the Lutcher Bulldogs led for most of the meet but the Vandebilt Catholic Terriers would not go away.
Vandebilt's Kip Pierce won the 100-yard backstroke and two other Terries finished in the top-eight in that race to pull within four points of the Bulldogs, 324.5-320.5.
Vandebilt went in to the final event of the night, the 400-yard freestyle relay, with the top seed from the preliminaries.
Vandebilt led by as much as two body lengths through the first 75 yards but Lutcher stayed with them. By the 200-yard mark, the Terriers were in the lead again and were still holding on after the final turn. But at the wall, Lutcher senior Hunter Louque edged Vandebilt's Brennan Page. The Bulldogs' time was 3:26.71 while the Terriers time was 3:36.78 which kept Vandebilt from winning their first title since 2007. The Terriers had won six in a row before finishing as the runner-up last year to Alexandria Senior High School.
"Who ever would have won that race at the end would have been the state champion," Lutcher head coach Lanny Remondet said. "I can't say enough about the boys.
“Moving up in classification was difficult but we stepped up to the challenge. I told them all week that they needed to earn their respect in Division II and it looks like they may have done it."
If anyone was in doubt that Lutcher would pull it off, all they had to do was look at who was anchoring the relay team. Since his freshman season in 2006, Lutcher has never lost a relay at the state championship with Hunter Louque as the anchor.
"He has been my anchor for the last four years," Remondet said. He has been my heart and it is going to be tough without him.
"Every year there is one relay that comes out one-tenth, two-tenth or a hundredth. We have had them every year since we started winning. It is nothing new and I would not have expected anything different."
Louque also won the 100-yard freestyle four the fourth consecutive year (the first three in Division III) and took second in the 200-yard freestyle.
Had it not been for a disqualification in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the seventh-hundredths of second may not have mattered. But head coach Duane Ring was not disappointed with the Terriers performance after finishing as the runner-up for the second year in a row.
"We have been watching and scoring it as we went," Ring said. "I had scored the meet based on yesterdays finishes because I just wanted to see what we had to do and I knew it was going to be really close and came down to the wire.
"We couldn't have asked for more. They all had their best splits. That (disqualification) is what really what cost us but it happens. I am overall pleased. The boys naturally expected to win."
Vandebilt's Kip Pierce picked up two individual titles in the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard breaststroke.
Following in the footsteps of his two older sisters, Arlie and Breane, and older brother Luc, East Jefferson sophomore Dylon Rykosky took home two individual state titles in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle. As a freshman, he took second in the 200-yard individual medley and third in the 100-yard butterfly in 2008.
Jennings' Avery Capdeville took third in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:01.23.
On the girls' side, five-time defending champion, Vandebilt Catholic Lady Terriers, had to hold back to hard charging programs in St. Louis Catholic High School out of Lake Charles and Cabrini out of New Orleans.
Vandebilt finished with 366 points while St. Louis had 308 points and Cabrini finished with 272 points.
All three teams were within 20 points of each other after four of 11 events but the Lady Terriers started to pull away after that.
"We knew St. Louis and Cabrini were going to be close with us," Ring said. "The girls knew what they had to do and they did it.
"We got off to a good start with the medley relay and I had some key swimmers doing some of the other events that really helped. I had a feeling going in that we were going to do ok but it made the girls work because Cabrini was breathing down our necks. They swam some awesome times, so I couldn't be prouder of them. They did everything they had to do."
It was the first year at Division II for the St. Louis Lady Saints who had won three consecutive Division III titles. The Lady Saints trailed Cabrini 206-202 after the 200-yard freestyle but took over second place after Anne Claire Babineaux won the 100-yard backstroke. The Lady Saints also got three top-eight finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke (3rd-Shelby Churchman, 5th-Sydney Kaspar, 8th-Anne Monk) and Audrey Kolde finished 15th to distance themselves from Cabrini to finish as the 2009 Division II runner-up.
"As typical, we are very strong in the breaststroke," St. Louis head coach Ken Kolde said. "Four girls placed in the breaststroke which out-distanced us from Cabrini for second place.
"We lost three fantastic seniors from last year that pulled down nearly a 100 points. This year compared to last year if we had those three seniors coming and swimming for us this year I think we would have competed with Vandebilt Catholic. I am exceptionally pleased. All the state qualifying times were faster. We only had nine girls that qualified this year and they still performed admirably."
Claiming double state titles on Saturday night were Caddo Magnet's Sarah Davies and Cabrini's Emily Bozant. Davies won the 200-yard individual medley and the 500-yard freestyle while Bozant took home championships in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle.
