BEAVER 4TH AND 10TH, EXTINE AND MEDLEY RELAY 15TH AT STATE MEET!

Yorktown's Larah Beaver receives her 4th place medal Saturday

at the IU Natatorium.

Yorktown rode strong performances from junior Larah Beaver and sophomore Jessica Extine to score 27.5 points and finish 21st in the team standings at the 2011 IHSAA State Meet at the IU Natatorium on Saturday. It's the best YHS finish since the Kelsi Hall-led Tigers finished in 16th place in 2008.

Beaver had two individual Top 10 finishes on the day, becoming the first Lady Tiger to pull that off since Hall doubled in the 50 and 100 free's at the 2007 State Meet. Beaver earned first team All-State honors in the 100 back, going 56.49 to claim 4th in the championship final. She beat longtime nemesis and Indiana University recruit Allie Day for the first time along the way, and shattered her own YHS school record with a 56.16 in Friday night's preliminary round!

Beaver also swam impressively in the B final of the 100 free, finishing the day in 10th place with a 52.52. That effort came on the heels of Larah's lifetime best 52.45 on Friday night.

Extine also came to race after earning her way into the B final of the 50 free with a 24.27 on Friday night. Jess took it out strong in her first individual event at the State Meet, touching the wall in 24.44 Saturday afternoon for 15th place. That race was one of the more interesting ones of the weekend--it featured THREE ties, including Jess' deadlock with North Central's Kellie LaMothe.

Extine swam one other individual event at State, the 100 fly. She went 59.81 on Friday night to earn 26th place.

One other Tiger made her individual event debut at the State Meet over the weekend for the Tigers. Sophomore Caroline Grasso touched the wall in 1:00.81 for 25th place. You're gonna be hearing a lot more from this young lady over the next two years.

The YHS relays had mixed results. The medley relay quartet of Grasso, sophomore Kersea Gable, Beaver and Extine swam much slower than the week before, but still had enough in the tank to make the B final on Saturday.

The girls finished in 1:52.79 and brought home a 15th place finish for the green and white.

The 200 free relay team of Beaver, Grasso, senior Gabby LaVoie and Extine managed a 1:40.11 in Friday night's prelims, just off their season best time. But that would only hold up for 18th, which cost the girls a spot in the B final by two spots and .58 of a second.

The Lady Tigers just missed out on a Top 20 finish in the team standings, trailing 20th place Wawasee--the Warriors scored 30 points over the two days of competition.

This Yorktown State Team loses only LaVoie heading into next season. Watch out for a significant jump in the team standings at the 2012 State Meet, and for Beaver and Extine to make serious runs at their first individual state titles a year from now.

GO TIGERS!