sports spotlight: kate steward
By Mike Tupa
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
KATE STEWARD
Trying to select the greatest swimmer in Bartlesville High School/Bartlesville Splash Club history is like trying to judge a beautiful baby contest without a goo-goo darling in the fight.
Kate Steward certainly deserves a spot among the sweet elite.
She excelled on all levels, overcame injury in college to become an All-American for the University of Kansas and qualified for the 2021 U.S. Olympic Women’s Swim Trials.
During her high school years she mined more gold than John Sutter (of California’s Sutter’s Mill).
Amazingly, Steward still holds four Class 6A girls state records nearly seven years after her graduation — the 200-yard medley relay (2016, 1:43.53, along with Delaney Shipman, Greta Olsen and Allison Biddinger), the 400-yard freestyle relay (2018, 3:27.11, along with June Harris, Biddinger and Erin Downey), the 200-yard individual medley (2018, 2:02.27) and the 100-yard breaststroke (2018, 1:01.46).
During her four seasons as a Lady Bruin the team won the state championship every year.
Steward — crowned by flowing light-reddish-blond curly hair and endowed with a smile that could melt lead — has embodied a composite of enthusiasm, intensity, confidence, class and graceful grit.
Steward elevated her skill into a tremendous college career at Lawrence, Kan.
To conclude her senior year she qualified for the NCAA Championships in both the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke events.
Her freshman season she won the Big 12 crown in the women’s 200-yard breaststroke while setting a new team record (2:11.98) and being selected All-Big 12 First Team member.
Her sophomore season (2019-20) she captured the Big 12 championship in both the women’s 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke and swam multiple school record-setting times.
The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America named her All-American honorable mention both her sophomore and junior campaigns.
Nearly three years after the end of her Kansas career she still owns the women’s school records in the 200 breaststroke (two top times); the 200 individual medley (two of the top three times) and the 100 breaststroke (two top times).
(Interestingly, the next-fastest Kansas school record times in both the women’s 100 and 200 breaststroke events was set by another Bartlesville High product, Haley Downey, who also qualified for the U.S. Olympic Women’s Swim Trials. Downey and Steward were teammates for two years at Bartlesville before Downey graduated.)
As a senior Steward filled a berth on the CSCAA Scholar All-America Team and received Kansas’ coveted Marlene Mawson Exemplary Woman Student-Athlete Award.
In addition, she was one of just 248 Division I female athletes nationwide nominated for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
Steward entered the field of education following her time at Kansas. But the impact of her power in the pool — and especially the brightness of her personality — will continue to define her athletic and education achievements.
Kate Steward
Photo provided by Bartlesville Public Schools