5A girls high school swimming championships: Bengals overtake Miners for title

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PROVO — After trailing Bingham on the first day, Brighton recovered and won its third state title in a row by a comfortable margin of 347 to Bingham's 266.

"We deserved it," said Brighton senior captain Whitney Kennedy. "We worked hard the whole season and it showed."

Kennedy delivered a pep talk before the meet began, reminding the team that this is their last chance and to give it everything they had.

The talk must have paid off because in the first race of the day Kaitlyn Overstreet surged ahead of the pack to grab the gold in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 58.96. Teammate Niki Brinkerhoff took sixth with a time of 1:01.94.

Katy Daggett and Abby Alger also scored some solid points for the Bengals as Daggett finished third in the 500-yard freestyle while Alger placed fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke. Freshman Anna Graf took fifth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:33.00.

Brighton's 200-yard freestyle relay team, featuring Kennedy, Zoey Freebairn, Sydney Nguyen, and Hailee Wiest, managed a third-place finish.

Bingham couldn't hold onto its lead from the first day and ended up with the second-place trophy, but the Miners, who definitely made their presence felt in the crowd, still had several impressive performances.

Kirsten Mathewson took fourth in the 100-yard butterfly and Kiersten Bradshaw notched a third-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle.

Bingham also got some impressive performances from its relay teams. Mathewson and Bradshaw, along with Diana Olsen and Mackenzie Barrow finished third in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Andee Guy, Lindsay Westra, Olsen, and Bradshaw comprise Bingham's 200-yard freestyle relay team which took second.

Brianna Francis added some serious hardware to her collection as she led Alta to a third-place finish. Francis, a junior, broke the state record in the 200-yard individual medley during the first day of competition, took first in the 100-yard breaststroke, and anchored Alta's first-place finishing 400-yard freestyle relay team. Alicia May, Taylor Coffey, and Hailey Wilkinson joined her at the top of the podium in the relay.

Francis was awarded the Swimmer of the Year award at the end of the meet.

"This is my payday," said Francis about her breakout meet. "All of my hard work paid off."