Back-to-back champs

The Patriots' first Olympic Athletic Conference championship was in doubt until the final race. In winning their second, they left no doubt.

Leading from start to finish, the Jay County High School girls swim team repeated as OAC champions Saturday by nearly 80 points over runner-up Connersville.

"The girls performed better today than I even expected," said JCHS girls coach Matt Slavik. "I had high hopes coming into this meet ... This is a great feeling. Our girls worked really hard. There was a crazy amount of time drops today. They exceeded expectations."

The Patriots, who won just a single event last year as they took the title by only 10 points, racked up six event wins for a total of 432.5 points. Connersville was a distant second with 352 followed by Anderson Highland (329.5) and Muncie Southside (177).

"I'm so excited," said JCHS senior Michelle Landfair. "It was an amazing meet. I told (Slavik) that we couldn't have done any better.

"It was awesome. There was so much less pressure. And I think that because there was less pressure we all swam better."

Jay County turned in a runner-up effort in the boys portion of the meet with 367 points. Highland took the OAC crown with 409, Connersville (32) was third and Southside (142) finished fourth.

"We feel real positive about the results," said Patriot boys coach Barry Weaver. "We had a whole boatload of personal bests. ... I hope that will give them encouragement to get after it and wind up strong."

Mary Hudson, who picked up the JCHS girls' only win last season, led the Patriots to victory again by contributing to four first-place efforts.

Hudson was the first swimmer in the pool for Jay County, swimming the backstroke leg of the 200-yard medley relay. She staked the Patriots to a lead in the event, and Elaine Hemmelgarn and Landfair kept them in front in their breaststroke and butterfly legs.

Eme Miller fought off Highland's Katie Weston over the final 50 yards as the Patriots won the event by 27 hundredths of a second in a season-best time of 1 minute, 59.73 seconds.

"What turned everything on was when we won the medley relay," said Slavik. "We went four seconds faster in the medley relay than we've gone all year.

"Dropping that time off the bat, as soon as everybody saw that, that just flipped the switch. Everybody was swimming, I think, better than they expected."

Hudson went on to dominating victories in both of her individual events.

The 2009 champion in the 100 breaststroke opened a mammoth lead on the butterfly leg of the 200 individual medley and was never challenged as she won by more than eight seconds in 2:23.84. She was in first place throughout the 100 freestyle as well as she posted a winning time of 58.12 seconds.

Hudson also teamed with Landfair, Hemmelgarn and Martyna Gajewska for a winning time of 1:49.87 in the 200 freestyle relay.

"Mary was a part of four wins today," said Slavik. "With only one win last year, holy smokes, she was on target. Everything she swam today was faster than she's gone ... She took a lead right off the bat and didn't relinquish it. ... Her determination and effort was just top-notch today."

A couple of juniors picked up the other victories for Jay County.

Megan Taylor overcame a slight deficit after eight dives to post a solid win over Connersville's Caity Lawson. She outscored Lawson by almost 25 points in her final three dives to win with 325.7 points.

Hemmelgarn also trailed early in her win as she was behind Highland's Tori Brown by almost a second in the 100 breaststroke. She reclaimed the lead and pulled away in the final 25 yards to win by more than two seconds in 1:14.83.

She was also third in the 200 individual medley.

"(Taylor) struggled a little bit with her inward flip and went into the (third) round behind and then just came on strong in the end," said Slavik. "I don't think she thought she would do that well with (her last three dives). Everything is paying off for her. ... She nailed it.

"Elaine has come on. I didn't expect Elaine to be in the role that she's (stepped into) this year. ... She came out today ... and after the (first) 25 she settled in and turned it on. ... She knocked it out of the park."

Senior Aaron Hudson, Mary's brother, picked up the only OAC championship for the Jay County boys. After finishing as the runner-up in the 100 breaststroke last year, he led throughout and won the event by nearly eight seconds as he finished in 1:03.72.

He was also the runner-up in the 200 individual medley.

"That was a good swim for him," said Weaver. "He's been working so hard all year long ... He's been real frustrated because his times are not where they were last year. ... Today to have a 1:03 and come on strong ... that felt real good for him ..."

Miller finished second for the girls team in the 200 freestyle, and was third in the 500 freestyle. Landfair placed second in the 100 butterfly and fourth in the 50 freestyle. Caitlin Ruchgy was third in the 100 butterfly, and Gajewska took third in the 100 backstroke.

Neal Fennig and Jared Valentine each added runner-up efforts for the boys team. Fennig was second in the 50 freestyle, and Valentine took the No. 2 spot in the 500 freestyle.

Fennig was also third in the 100 backstroke, and Valentine placed fourth in the 100 breaststroke. Caleb Hummel took third place in both the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle.[[In-content Ad]]