Lauryn Parrish of Fishers said that she was placing bets with her friends that fellow senior Hannah Kukurugya of Crown Point would win the Mental Attitude Award for girls swimming.
Parrish lost the bet. And won the Mental Attitude Award.
It was the finish to a memorable state meet for Parrish, who collected three third-place medals and helped the Tigers finish third in the team standings.
“It’s amazing,” said Parrish. The senior said she had always dreamed of winning the award, “but I never thought it really could be a reality.”
Parrish, the daughter of Shawn and Aimee Parrish, exemplifies everything that high school swimming should be. Race as hard as you can, push yourself and your teammates to go as far as you can, and enjoy the camaraderie and company of your fellow swimmers in and out of the pool.
Parrish is also very mindful of the talent that is coming out of the high school pools in Indiana. Consider this: The breaststroke state champion this year was Yorktown sophomore Emily Weiss, who set a new state record in that event with a time of 59.37 seconds. Who was the old record holder? You might have heard of her: Evansville Reitz’s Lilly King, who won two gold medals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics last summer.
“Indiana swimming is the best swimming in the country if we’re being completely honest,” said Parrish. “They’re just not only amazing competitors and so much fun to race, but they’re fun to train with. They’re my best friends in the world, and I really wouldn’t trade them for anything, they’re incredible.”
Parrish finished third in both the 100 and 200 freestyles, and was part of the Tigers’ third-place 200 free relay with junior Amilia Nusbaum and freshmen Ellen Fero and Kyla Srncik.
Next up for Parrish is college swimming at the University of Kansas, and that was an easy decision.
“Kansas is the perfect combination of swimming, academics,” said Parrish. “The coaching staff is unreal. I love Lawrence, Kansas. From the second I stepped foot on the campus. It’s a perfect school for me, and I knew right when I stepped foot on campus that that’s where I wanted to spend four years.”
In addition to Parrish’s success, Fishers was helped out in its third-place cause by winning two medals in the 500 freestyle. Sophomore Samantha Hietpas placed fourth and her classmate Morgan Booth was eighth.
“We had a great day,” said Tigers coach Jay Chambers. “We had some minor disappointments last night, maybe not so much disappointments when some of our kids actually moved up and swam a little slower. But there were some opportunities we missed on getting some kids in the bigs. That would’ve been really great.
“But we came back and swim inspired today. Our girls were racing. Our relays did an outstanding job, much better than yesterday. I’m really proud of them.”