A record year

In the first 35 years of swimming at Jay County High School, the girls team had never won more than 11 dual meets.
Now the Patriots have surpassed that mark in three straight seasons.
Jay County clobbered the visiting Blackford Bruins 207-96 Tuesday on Senior Night to set a new school record for wins with their 14th.
“I feel really honored that I’m part of such a successful part of the school,” said senior Julie Valentine of the Patriots, who can extend the record when they close the regular season Thursday at Marion.
The JCHS record for wins was 11, a mark originally set in 1976 and tied on three occasions, before the Patriots posted a 12-3-1 mark in 2010-11. They improved to 13-2 last season and are now 14-1 this year.
“I’m really proud to be part of a team that’s doing so well,” said senior Liza Haggenjos. “I attribute that to the cohesiveness of the group. We all just work really well together as a team.”
Jay County’s boys also continued their winning ways as they racked up their eighth straight win, 188-72.
“To win eight in a row now, I think they’ve kind of gotten excited,” said JCHS boys coach Barry Weaver, whose team lost its first five meets of the season before going on its current streak. “Just the general attitude is always a little better when you’re doing some winning. They want to try to run off 11 in a row.”
Berta Paniego, a foreign exchange student from Spain, provided one of the highlights of the night in the 200-yard freestyle. She took an early lead in the event and picked up her first career win by nearly four seconds over Valentine with a time of 2 minutes, 28.48 seconds.
“It feels pretty good,” said Paniego. “I’m so excited to be on this team this year. … I think these girls are really awesome, and I love all of them.”
Mitchel Rigby, a senior and first-year diver, set the tone early for the Jay County boys (8-5). Although he was uncontested in the diving competition, he pushed himself to a career-best score of 203.1 as he broke the 200-point barrier for the first time.
“I just felt really good going into it,” said Rigby, whose previous high score was 178.75. “I had a good practice that got me ready for it.
“I’ve just been working real hard at it.”
Senior Shelby Wendel took the top spot in the boys 200 freestyle in 2:20.04, and was also second in the 100 freestyle. Sok Vormohr posted winning times of 2:24.36 in the 200 individual medley and 5:56.47 in the 500 freestyle, and Cody White finished first in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.94 and was second in the 100 breaststroke.
Keen finished ahead of White in the 100 breaststroke in 1:11.38, and Josh Lykins placed first with a time of 1:00.21 in the 100 backstroke. Lykins also joined Connor Daniels, Luke Rowles and Evan Mathias to take the 400 freestyle relay in 4:16.21.
“Up and down the line we mixed up things quite a bit,” said Weaver. “Josh (Lykins) did a nice job in the backstroke … In the 500, Sok got a nice win.”
Brooke Harshman, Alyson Lucas, Taylor Campbell and Haggenjos finished off a sweep of the relay events for the Jay County girls by winning the 400 freestyle in 4:35.49. Anne Vormohr and Sophie Bader teamed with Courtney Thomas and Abby Saxman to take the 200 freestyle relay in 1:59.04 and joined Carli Ostrowski and Ashley Mark for a winning time of 2:04.2 in the 200 medley relay.
Caitlin Mark was first in the 100 freestyle in 1:00.96, and Katy Smeltzer took the top spot in the 100 butterfly in 1:09.62. Sammi Compton, a senior, won the diving competition in front of three teammates with 177.65 points.
Anne Vormohr came up just 0.13 seconds short of the school record as she won the 50 freestyle in 24.85, and Bader picked up an individual win in the 100 breaststroke in 1:11.38.
Abby Arnold’s 50 freestyle record of 24.72 and Mary Hudson’s 100 breaststroke mark of 1:08.4 are the only swimming records that survived the season.
Bader broke school marks in the 200 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle this year, and Vormohr set records in the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke. The freshman cousins also had a hand in setting new marks in all three relays along with Caitlin Mark, Ashley Mark and Smeltzer.
“Ten out of 12 records getting broken, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Slavik. “I’ve never seen a record board demolished the way it was this year.”[[In-content Ad]]