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Sports

Two Lafayette Sisters Qualify for State in Diving

The Shaw Sisters, of Wildwood, both qualified for state in diving at the Lafayette High School swim meet against Mehlville Tuesday. Swimmers also won first place in every swim event.

The Shaw sisters made quite a splash at the swim meet between Lafayette and Mehlville high schools Tuesday night, with both girls achieving state-qualifying scores. The Lady Lancers Swimming and Diving Team also chalked up its eighth consecutive win, maintaining an undefeated status this season.

Senior Alyssa Shaw qualified for the state meet, which will be held at the St. Peters Rec Plex on Feb. 18 and 19, with a score of 229.95. Her younger sister, Kelly, a sophomore, scored a 214.95 to also qualify for state.

Not surprisingly, assistant coach Jill O’Sullivan, who coaches the divers, was delighted with the outcome of the meet. “It was so exciting to have both Alyssa and Kelly qualify for state,” O’Sullivan said. “This has been their goal all season, and they have been close several other times. I am very proud of how they dove.”

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Alyssa, 17, has dove all four years at Lafayette and qualified for state for the first time her junior year. Kelly dove last year, as well, but didn’t make it to state as a freshman.

Their mother, Wendy Shaw, of Wildwood, said she didn’t go to Tuesday's Mehlville meet expecting the girls to qualify for state, but realized after their first few dives that things were going very well for them.

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“They were just doing great, both of them,” she said. “Their entries were good, their form was good, and it was just the best they have ever done.”

Shaw said that it has been fun having the girls competing for Lafayette together. “They push each other, but they also really encourage each other,” she said. “I could hear them down on the deck encouraging each other.”

Alyssa said that qualifying along with her sister made it even more exciting. “After my first dive, I knew I could make it,” she said. “We’ve been having long, hard practices, and it has definitely paid off. It was fun to make it at the same meet as my sister.”

Kelly agreed. “I’m so excited,” she said. “I was really close last year and wanted to make it really bad this year. We have been working pretty hard, so it all paid off.”

The girls also competed together last year in pole vaulting for the Lafayette track and field team, and Alyssa was the district and conference champion who placed 10th at state. This year, their mother has hopes that they’ll both go to state in pole vaulting, too.

“I want them to both make state in two sports this year,” she said.

O’Sullivan added that she believes the team’s other diver, Sophie Gebaur, who was out for several weeks with a gymnastics injury, also can quality for state. “Our goal as a team is to also have Sophie make the state cut and hopefully have at least one diver score points at state,” she said.

Although most of the excitement at the meet involved the divers’ state qualifications and the presenting of their state swim parkas (an honor that team members earn when the make the state team), the swimmers also had a good showing. The girls took first place in every race and sophomore Taylor Holz achieved a new state qualifying time in the 500 free with a time of 5:38:58.

The meet’s final score was 147 to 33.

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