Kentucky
Notre Dame, Highlands highlight Kentucky girls state swimming meet
The 2026 Kentucky high school swimming and diving season concluded on Saturday, Feb. 21, with the girls state meet at the University of Kentucky.
Notre Dame sophomore Clare Herfel was the only swimmer with a title to defend, and she did so successfully as the Pandas also took second place in the girls team race. The combined team race was a different story as Highlands attempted to dethrone Ryle’s two-year reign.
Here are the biggest storylines.
Complete results can be found here.
Savannah Bien vaults to fourth place on dive podium with stellar final round
The Notre Dame Academy junior sat in seventh place after six dives, accruing 239.7 points. Her one subpar dive was a forward 1.5 somersault 1 twist that scored only 33 points.
Thanks to her final six dives all scoring at least 36 points, she leapfrogged Cooper’s Chris Nowak, Highlands’ Addie Tinkler and Lafayette’s Sophie Kroggel into fourth place, finishing with 488.8 points. Her top dive was her back 1.5 somersault pike with a 2.3-degree of difficulty, scoring 47.15 points.
“I don’t really look at the scores because it always stresses me out. I try to do my best based on what my coach is telling me. If I am behind and not where I want to be sitting, I do focus more on every little detail,” Bien said.
Following in her father’s footsteps, Bien is a West Point commit and plans to dive there. She can earn a third straight top-five finish as a senior in 2027 after taking third place as a sophomore in 2025.
Nowak earned her second consecutive fifth-place finish, continuing a strong diving tradition at Cooper after Peytton Moore won three titles in four years.
“It means a lot. I’m glad I can. I know (freshman) Megan (Vogeler) and she’s getting really good so I hope she can continue that when I leave,” Nowak said.
She led all Northern Kentucky divers after the first round with 241 points and accrued 246.05 points in the final.
Tinkler burst out of the gates in the first round, setting herself up well with a score of 47.3 on her forward 2 somersault tuck dive, which came with a 2.2-degree of difficulty. She was set up to finish as high as fourth, but her 12th dive, a forward 1.5 somersault 1 twist, was awarded just 28.6 points.
Still, Tinkler earned high praise from her fellow competitors and coaches. Ryle coach Jeff Floyd said it was the best he’d seen her dive all year.
“I’m just glad to be here with my friends for my last year. This has been amazing,” Tinkler said. “I’ve known Jeff for five years and he’s been a really compassionate coach to me and has coached me even though it’s not his job.”
She improved from a 10th-place finish at the 2025 state meet.
Nowak and Tinkler’s coach, Kristina Jenny, was named the Kentucky girls diving coach of the year, securing a sweep of the award after Simon Kenton coach Austin Hall won on Friday.
“It shows that we pride ourselves on training our kids well and focusing on technique. Making sure they have fun is ultimately the best thing,” Jenny said.
In its pursuit of the combined team title, Ryle placed two divers in the top 16 as Anna Kopser took ninth and Emmalee Albertson took 10th.
Campbell County’s Abby Schuchter rounded out the Northern Kentucky divers in the finals with a 13th-place finish.
“I was definitely surprised at how well the girls did. They came in strong and they stayed steady the whole time. I was really proud of how they stayed focused and didn’t get the jitters,” Jenny said.
Clare Herfel is Northern Kentucky’s lone state champion
The sophomore and defending 500-yard freestyle state champion had no problem defending her title, cruising to a nine-second margin of victory, touching the wall in 4:51.44.
“At the start of this season, I wanted to win the 500 freestyle, so I was really happy about that,” Herfel said.
She leads a deep freestyle squad for the Pandas that included Danaka Tucker’s third-place finish in the 500 and seventh-place finish in the 200 and Liv Wallace’s eighth-place finish in the 200. Herfel also finished third in the 200 and led Notre Dame to a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay and a runner-up finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Northern Kentucky was well-represented in the longest freestyle race. Conner’s Ella Thomas took fourth place and Highlands’ Taryn Ripley took seventh place.
“I feel like our club teams are really good. Clippers, the Y, the Marlins, they all have pretty good coaching staffs,” Tucker said.
Highlands takes combined team title, Notre Dame finishes second in girls race
In 2024 and 2025, the Ryle Raiders took home the combined team title, just another marker of how far the program has come under Floyd.
But Highlands, thanks to a third-place finish in the girls 400-yard freestyle relay compared to Ryle’s seventh-place result in the same event, overtook the Raiders to win the combined team title with 272.5 points. The Bluebirds edged out Louisville Eastern, which finished with 268 points. Ryle had 265 points.
“Boys and girls, if you look, they actually both scored in the 130s. We’re a very balanced team. We knew we were going to try and chip away at their lead because Ryle’s boys and Eastern’s boys were better than ours,” Highlands head coach Kevin Kampschmidt said.
The Highlands boys scored 139.5 points to take fourth place in that team race and set the girls up for success. While Taryn Ripley was the only individual to swim in a championship final, all three girls relays earned top-six finishes, just as the boys had done on Friday.
“I’m super proud of them. That last relay, they let it all hang out, gave it everything they had,” Kampschmidt said.
The biggest factor to point to is Ryle’s boys 400-yard freestyle relay. The Raiders entered the state championship with the No. 3 seed but faltered in the prelims and failed to make the championship final.
The Notre Dame Pandas finished as the girls team runner-up for the second straight year, scoring 236 points on Saturday night. As mentioned before, the freestyle events anchored the Pandas, but head coach Jamie Kelly knows his team is expanding its abilities.
“This year, I think we’ve kind of spread out into other events and done real well across the board,” Kelly said.
Abby Carnes took fifth place in the 200-yard individual medley and sixth place in the 100-yard backstroke. McKenna Bien scored points in the consolation final of the 100-yard butterfly.
The Pandas graduated Sadie Hartig and Ava Deegan, who contributed to last year’s runner-up finish. Kelly was just as proud of how this year’s senior class stepped up, especially in the postseason.
“They had an incredible meet and were great leaders for the team,” Kelly said.
Which Northern Kentucky girls swimmers and divers finished on the 2026 state podium?
1-meter dive: 4. Savannah Bien, Notre Dame; 5. Chris Nowak, Cooper; 6. Addie Tinkler, Highlands
200-yard medley relay: 4. Notre Dame (Abby Carnes, Reaghan Connelly, McKenna Bien, Danaka Tucker); 6. Highlands (Margaret Meyers, Taryn Ripley, Keira Kobida, Vivian Winkler); 8. Ryle (Gabriella Stephens, Lydia DiVita, Annie Lucas, Haley Yauger)
200-yard freestyle: 3. Clare Herfel, Notre Dame; 7. Danaka Tucker, Notre Dame; 8. Liv Wallace, Notre Dame
200-yard individual medley: 4. Gabriella Stephens, Ryle; 5. Abby Carnes, Notre Dame
100-yard butterfly: 6. Maddie Staley, Beechwood
500-yard freestyle: 1. Clare Herfel, Notre Dame; 3. Danaka Tucker, Notre Dame; 4. Ella Thomas, Conner; 7. Taryn Ripley, Highlands
200-yard freestyle relay: 3. Highlands (Taryn Ripley, Keira Kobida, Ella Kate Reynolds, Ragan Moore); 5. Notre Dame (McKenna Bien, Liv Wallace, Peyton Quinn, Clare Herfel)
100-yard backstroke: 6. Abby Carnes, Notre Dame; 8. Alexis Fassbender, St. Henry
100-yard breaststroke: 5. Freya Reil, Dixie Heights
400-yard freestyle relay: 2. Notre Dame (Clare Herfel, Liv Wallace, Danaka Tucker, Abby Carnes); 3. Highlands (Ragan Moore, Taryn Ripley, Ella Kate Reynolds, Keira Kobida); 7. Ryle (Lydia DiVita, Haley Yauger, Evelyn Panko, Gabrielle Stephens)
The Brooklyn Nets have developed their teams through a number of strategies over the decades, and their front office has put together considerable success through the NBA draft. Many of the franchise’s best players have joined the Nets either by being selected directly in the annual draft or through trades made on that day.
Moreover, it is not only the star players who have been acquired by the Nets through the draft. Several prominent alumni have been selected by the team each offseason during this annual event, with certain colleges being more prominently represented than others. An analysis of the players from different schools reveals that both prestigious programs and smaller institutions have contributed top talent to the Nets’ roster over the years.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at every player who has been drafted by the Nets out of Kentucky State University.
Gerald Cunningham – forward
Draft year and position: fifth round (first pick, 89th overall), 1977 NBA Draft
Seasons at Kentucky State University:
Seasons played with Nets: did not make the team
All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.
The best shooter in college basketball will, in fact, stay in college basketball — and Kentucky is ready to make its final push.
Iowa State star Milan Momcilovic has withdrawn from the 2026 NBA Draft and will play somewhere at his current level in 2026-27. That’s not expected to be back in Ames, as Cyclone coach T.J. Otzelberger made clear, saying that if the 6-8 forward doesn’t make the jump to the pros, “it’s important that he’s able to find a landing spot at a college that fits what he’s looking for.”
Could Lexington be that final destination? The perimeter sniper already said he’s got respect for the Wildcats and Mark Pope, watching his programs closely since his time at BYU when they competed against each other in the Big 12.
In his eyes, he could be the piece Kentucky was missing this past season in the program’s Round of 32 exit, led by Momcilovic’s 20 points and five rebounds in the Cyclones’ 82-63 victory in St. Louis.
“I think Kentucky would be a good fit,” Momcilovic told the Herald-Leader’s Ben Roberts last week at the NBA Draft Combine. “I obviously went against Pope at BYU his first year (in the Big 12), and I loved how his team played. I think we went 1-1 against them, but they killed us at their place, because they fly the ball up the court and shoot 3s. I really like the way they play.
“And obviously, Kentucky last year, he didn’t have enough shooters around him to really coach, I feel like, the way he wanted. But I think — if I were to choose Kentucky — that would be a good fit for me. I feel like I’d be a great player for him, and he’d be a good coach for me.”
Momcilovic averaged a career-high 16.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 30.5 minutes per game while shooting 50.6 percent from the field, 48.7 percent from three and 87.8 percent at the line. He knocked down 260 3-pointers, good for 3.7 makes on 7.5 attempts per contest.
The former four-star recruit has been Kentucky’s dream portal target all offseason. Now, he’s officially a free agent, pulling out of the draft ahead of the withdrawal deadline.
On Tuesday, head coach Mark Pope revealed that there will likely be no summer trip for the 2026-27 Wildcats.
“We’re probably a lean towards not going right now,” Pope told Darrell Bird of Cats Pause.
The NCAA recently adopted a proposal that will allow schools to take summer tours every year after the rules previously limited schools to one trip every four years. Even if it ended up being somewhere close by, this would’ve been a great experience for the Cats to get some exhibition games in, especially with the roster overhaul they’re going through.
Oh well. The good news is UK will still have plenty of summer practices to develop and build chemistry.
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