Girls and Boys Swimming Victories Bring Newman to 100 State Championships

Newman’s Girls and Boys Swim Teams each won championship victories at the State meet in Sulphur on Thursday, bringing the total State Championships for Isidore Newman School in all sports to 100.

The Boys team has won the Swimming State Championship in each of the last five years, while the Girls team has won four out of the last five championships. This marks the 13th Newman Boys Swimming State title and the 16th Newman Girls State title.

Highlights of the meet for the boys include Newman placing 1-2-3 in the Boys 500 Freestyle event (Pierce Thionville ’21, Christian Johnson ’23, and Ross Jacobson ’20) and the 100 Backstroke (Thionville, Johnson, and James Nguyen ’21).

Thionville, a junior, won both his individual events and broke the oldest Newman record in the 500 Freestyle by almost a second, with a time of 4:35.21. He came back 15 minutes later to win the 100 Backstroke in 51.09 (missing another Newman record by 0.01). Thionville also anchored both the Boys 200 Medley and 400 Freestyle relay teams, which each placed first. Johnson, a freshman, was runner-up in both his events, finishing the 500 Free in 4:51.96 and the 100 Backstroke in 55.96, while Pepijn Kuiper ’21 was runner-up in the 200 Free with 1:59.50. The Boys 200 Free relay team of Ebbo Kuiper ’23, Austin Passler ’21, Cullen Lee ’22, and Pepijn Kuiper ’21 placed second.

For the girls, junior Katherine Kramer won the 200 Freestyle in 1:57.70 and was runner-up in the 500 Free with a time of 5:25.15. Kramer was also a member of the runner-up 200 Medley relay and third-place 400 Free relay teams. The Girls 200 Free relay team of Wenbo Jiao ’21, Hailey Dondis ’20, Anna Nguyen ’20, and Riley Palmer ’21 placed first, while the Girls 400 Free relay team of Kramer, Palmer, Niyati Duggal ’20, and Claire Moffet ’20 placed third, in each event.

“It was a really special two wins this year,” said Head Coach Kristi Rigterink, “especially as the 99th and 100th State titles for Newman. It also felt really good to get that State title back on the girls’ side."

We are proud of our student athletes as we celebrate our 99th and 100th State Championship overall as a school! Congratulations swimmers!