Edmond North's Kelsey Healy excels in different events as Huskies win COAC swim meet

EDMOND — Kelsey Healy decided to try something different.

The Edmond North junior — a two-time defending backstroke state champion — saw the conference meet as an opportunity to test the waters in the grueling 500-yard freestyle, an event where she has rarely competed.

It’s one thing to try, it’s quite another to excel.

“I’m really excited to see my times in the future (and) what I can do,” Healy said after winning both the 500 free and the 200 individual medley at the Central Oklahoma Athletic Conference championships Saturday at the Edmond Schools Aquatic Center. “I just enjoy that event, so I just want to keep doing well in it.”

In the 500, Healy edged defending state runner-up Kaida Bradley of Norman by just over a second with a time of 5:26.39. Healy’s 200 IM victory in 2:12.95 — an event in which she placed second at the state meet last season — arrived at the expense of teammate Caleigh Stoddard.

“I was real excited,” Healy said. “I didn’t go best times in my events, but I was happy that I got first and scored those points for the team.”

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Healy also swam the backstroke portion of the 200 medley relay (with Stoddard, Caroline Glover and Laney Jones) and the opening leg of the 400 freestyle relay (alongside Zoe Young, Sarah Kingrey and Jones), which both ended in victories for Edmond North.

“Kelsey can swim anything,” first-year Edmond North coach Suzanne Smith said. “She’s an IMer, she’s a backstroker, she can do distance, 500 free, which we saw that today. She brings a lot to the table for us with the girls. … She is not replaceable. We need her bad. It makes it difficult deciding what events to put her in, because she is good at everything.”

Individual event wins for Kingrey (200 free) and Stoddard (100 breastroke) helped the Huskies claim 7 of 11 events overall and post 424 points as a team, which bested rival Edmond Memorial by 15 points for the team title. Stillwater finished third as a team with 307 points, highlighted by a pair of individual wins by LSU signee Avery Littlefield, plus a relay victory in the 200 freestyle.

“I was very pleased,” Littlefield said. “I know both my relays did incredible. I was super happy with my performance all around today.”

Like Healy, Littlefield – the three-time defending state champion in the 50 free and a two-time state champion in the 100 free – saw the conference meet as an opportunity for experimentation. She decided to compete in the 50 free and the 100 butterfly, events that are conducted back to back. She posted wins (23.38 seconds in the 50, 55.79 in the butterfly) in both, yes, but the experiment will prove to be a short-lived one.

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“It was pretty challenging,” Littlefield said. “It was really difficult going straight from the 50 free and then running right to the cooldown pool and then trying to go back again for the 100 fly. I was trying go for our school record. I am pretty sure it is a 55.4. It was close. I think if I hadn’t raced the 50 free right before, I would have gotten it.”

In Stillwater’s victorious 200 freestyle relay effort, Littlefield swam the anchor leg in a foursome that included Mazie Finch, Gwendolyn Mendez and Olivia Lao-Alvarado.

Healy forgoing the backstroke opened the door for Deer Creek’s Ashlyn Bucy, who edged Mendez by less than a second with a time of 1:00.87 for the title as Deer Creek finished fourth as team (286 points).

Swimmers will now set their sights on preparing for the state-qualifying meets, which run Feb. 2-3 at Edmond and Jenks.

“Just technique things,” Smith said. “Little things. Starts, turns, things like that. They have got the racing down, I am not worried about it when it comes to any of their racing. It is just the little things we have just got to keep working on and improving on.”

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COAC championship meet girls swimming results

At Edmond Schools Aquatic Center

Teams – 1. Edmond North 424; 2. Edmond Memorial 409; 3. Stillwater 307; 4. Deer Creek 286; 5. Yukon 190; 6. Norman 183; t7. Mustang 120; t7. Norman North 120; 9. Edmond Santa Fe 68; 10. Westmoore 34; 11. Moore 24; 12. Piedmont 4; 13. Southmoore 1.

Individual events

200 medley – 1. Edmond North (Kelsey Healy, Caleigh Stoddard, Caroline Glover, Laney Jones), 1:46.94; 2. Deer Creek (Ashlyn Bucy, Landry Mendoza, Skyler Brown, Kinley Manuel), 1:54.73; 3. Stillwater (Mazie Finch, Gwendolyn Mendez, Avery Littlefield, McKenna Burns), 1:55.57.

200 freestyle – 1. Sarah Kingrey (Edmond North), 2:01.84; 2. Abby Bass (Norman North), 2:05.99; 3. Amelia Lightfoot (Edmond Memorial), 2:06.33.

200 individual medley – 1. Kelsey Healy (Edmond North), 2:12.95; 2. Caleigh Stoddard (Edmond North), 2:14.61; 3. Kaida Bradley (Norman North), 2:19.19.

50 freestyle – 1. Avery Littlefield (Stillwater), 23.38; 2. Laney Jones (Edmond North), 24.01; 3. Kinley Manuel (Deer Creek), 25.15.

100 butterfly – 1. Avery Littlefield (Stillwater), 55.79; 2. Kamryn Pender (Yukon), 1:00.91; 3. Ashlyn Bucy (Deer Creek), 1:02.23.

100 freestyle – 1. Caroline Glover (Edmond North), 54.89; 2. Kinley Manuel (Deer Creek), 54.99; 3. Kayden Pender (Yukon), 56.99.

500 freestyle – 1. Kelsey Healy (Edmond North), 5:26.39; 2. Kaida Bradley (Norman), 5:27.49; 3. Laney Jones (Edmond North), 5:33.70.

200 freestyle relay – 1. Stillwater (Mazie Finch, Gwendolyn Mendez, Olivia Lao-Alvarado, Avery Littlefield), 1:40.78; 2. Edmond North (Caroline Glover, Rachel Young, Caleigh Stoddard, Sarah Kingrey); 3. Deer Creek (Kinley Manuel, Kendall Arnold, Landry Mendoza, Ashlyn Bucy), 1:45.14.

100 backstroke – 1. Ashlyn Bucy (Deer Creek), 1:00.87; 2. Gwendolyn Mendez (Stillwater), 1:01.72; 3. Jacee Jimeson (Mustang), 1:03.57.

100 breaststroke – 1. Caleigh Stoddard (Edmond North), 1:09.32; 2. Brianna Ridpath (Edmond Memorial), 1:09.94; 3. Kenna Berry (Edmond Memorial), 1:12.59).

400 freestyle relay – 1. Edmond North (Kelsey Healy, Zoe Young, Sarah Kingrey, Laney Jones), 3:49.90; 2. Yukon (Kamryn Pender, Kate Samuels, Isabelle Dekinder, Kayden Pender), 3:55.62; 3. Edmond Memorial (Rachel Compton, Amelia Lightfoot, Carter Wilson, Brianna Ridpath), 4:01.13.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Edmond North swimmer Kelsey Healy leads Huskies to COAC championship