Farlow to lead Starfires

There won’t be a lot of Starfires in the pool. But Janelle Gresla has some quality swimmers.
Cady Farlow returns to lead the 13-member South Adams High School girls swim team, which opens its season Saturday at the Norwell Invitational, after earning a pair of state berths last season.
Farlow came up big for the Starfires at the 2012 sectional meet, edging Jay County’s Katy Smeltzer to win the 100-yard freestyle and earn her first state berth. Later in the day she knocked off two-time state qualifier Mary Hudson, also of JCHS, by almost a second to picked up a second trip to the state meet in the 100 breaststroke.
She went on the place 25th out of 32 swimmers in the state finals in the breaststroke and 31st in the freestyle.
Now a sophomore, she hopes to make it back to Indianapolis and improve upon those results.
“Cady brings a really good work ethic with her,” said Gresla, who is in her 25th season coaching the Starfires. “I would really like to see her be able to go down (to state) in two events. And I would like to see her get into that top 16 in the state. The (sectional) competition on the girls side is going to be pretty tough because Jay is bringing in a pretty good group of freshman and Bellmont is bringing in a solid group of freshmen.”
South Adams returns two other swimmers — Kara DeLong and Michaela Rupp — who competed in championship races at last season’s sectional meet.
DeLong, the team’s lone senior, narrowly missed joined Farlow at the state finals a year ago. She finished as the sectional runner-up in the 100 backstroke to Norwell’s Kimberlee Bussey by just 0.26 seconds.
She was also eighth in the 50 freestyle.
Michael Rupp competed in the sectional title race in the 100 breaststroke last season, finishing in seventh place. The junior was also 10th in the 100 butterfly.
Other swimmers who return after scoring for SAHS in the 2012 sectional meet are sophomore Sylvia Marbach (12th – 200 freestyle, 13th – 500 freestyle), who is recovering from a broken collar bone, junior Maddie Kloepper (15th – 100 butterfly, 15th – 200 individual medley) and sophomore Brandi Robinson (13th – 200 freestyle). Sophomore Ellie Kaverman competed in a pair of relays for the Starfires at last season’s sectional meet, joining Farlow, DeLong and Rupp for a fourth-place finish in the 200 medley relay.
“I think the other thing that is going to help the girls a lot is we brought in (some) freshmen,” said Gresla. “That’s going to push everyone on the team to work a little harder because everyone is going to want a spot.”
That group of freshman includes Sidney Sprunger, who will focus on the individual medley, butterfly and backstroke. Gresla said another freshman, Victoria Richardson, will be able to help the team in just about any event.
And after not having any divers last season, freshman Korrina Schindler will take to the board this year.
With a team that is small in number, Gresla said she’ll need her swimmers to be at the top of their game every time they dive in the pool. There is little margin for error.
“I think a key for success is that we get them so they can swim almost all the events and every time we get in the pool whether we’re tired or swimming rested we learn to swim good times,” said Gresla. “We need to learn how to be competitively tough.”
The long-time coach is hoping her team can have another season of .500 or better and improve on last year’s sixth-place sectional finish.
“It’s real hard to say with this team right now,” Gresla said of what she’s expecting from her young squad. “I only have two girls who have swam club, and that’s Cady and Kara.
“I’m hoping we can go 50-50 and I’d love to see us get three or four events out to state. It would be cool to have a relay down there.”[[In-content Ad]]