Hudson breaks record

Mary Hudson said if she got the call Sunday to inform her she had earned a state berth she would be "the happiest person in the world."

She'll have to wait a little longer to get the official word, but she should make plans to be swimming in Indianapolis Friday evening.

Hudson's school-record time for a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke Saturday along with Megan Taylor's runner-up diving effort led the host Jay County High School girls swim team, which finished second in the sectional. She is likely to make the state finals based on her time, but the announcement of the field will not come until Tuesday because two sectionals - at New Palestine and Columbus North - were postponed until tonight.

The Patriots scored 164 points to finish just two behind third-place Delta in the 10-team field. Norwell won five events and took the sectional title with 262 points, and Muncie Central was second with three event victories and 206 points.

"Today was a great day for Jay County swimming," said JCHS coach Matt Slavik. "We had a good first race. We were on target with our relay and we never let up after that. ... We dropped some big time in some events. ... We scored better than a lot of people thought we would."

South Adams, led by double sectional champion Erika Waugh, finished in sixth place with 150 points, six points behind fifth-place Bluffton.

Starfires' coach Janelle Gresla said she was hoping for a better team finish, but was happy with the all-around effort.

"I really can't say that I have any regrets," she said. "We swam well ...

"We were right there with our best times. We had some really close races. The girls gave me what they had today."

After finishing fifth in the 200 individual medley earlier in the meet, Hudson got off to a tremendous start as the No. 2 seed in the 100 breaststroke. She led top-seeded junior Dani Thomas of Norwell by four hundredths of a second at the mid-point of the race and looked as if she extended that advantage slightly by the final turn.

Hudson continued to lead the race almost the entire way, but a surge in the last five yards from Thomas left her in second place in the closest race of the day. Thomas won in 1 minute, 8.45 seconds, and Hudson was just 12 hundredths of a second behind in second place.

The sophomore's time erased one of 2009 graduate Cori Vormohr's five individual school records. Vormohr, who now swims for Ball State, held the mark at 1:08.66.

"(Slavik) told me to just take it out hard and try to keep it strong," said Hudson. "I had no idea (how close it was). I try not to look. I just try to focus straight. And then at the end she just out-touched me.

"I was really excited that I got (personal best). I thought I was going to make it to state, but ..."

Hudson said she hoped her time would be enough to earn her one of the provisional spots in the state finals, and it likely will.

The champion from each of the state's 20 sectional meets earns a trip to the state finals, along with any other swimmer who meets the state-qualifying standard (1:07.74).

Any remaining openings in the state's 32-swimmer field are filled by the swimmers with the next-fastest times from the sectional meets.

In addition to the 18 sectional champions crowned Saturday and two more on the way tonight, six other swimmers reached the state qualifying standard Saturday. That leaves six open spots in the state finals, and currently Hudson holds the No. 3 time among the remaining swimmers behind Sumaiyah Ahmad (1:08.39) of Lowell and Mercedez Bray (1:08.42) of Terre Haute South.

"She came through with a school record," said Slavik of Hudson. "To take a name off the board that is up there so strongly and such a part of Jay County swimming is a phenomenal thing. She went out and had a wonderful race. ... Wow."

Taylor earned her second straight regional berth - the top four divers from each sectional advance to diving regional meets Tuesday - with another solid all-around performance.

The junior was in third place less than eight points out of the lead through the first five dives, and moved up to second less than three behind Delta's Kenna Gibson in the next three. Her final three dives - a reverse dive, a backward 1½ somersaults and a backward two somersaults - kept her in third place just ahead of Norwell's Leah Huggins (310) with 311.75 points, nearly 20 better than last season.

Gibson won with 316.9 points.

"I thought I started out pretty well," said Taylor. "Towards the end I kind of lost it. Those last two dives I wish I could do over. It could have been a lot different."

Taylor said she was hoping to win the sectional title, but complimented Gibson and noted that she's looking forward to the chance to dive at Tuesday's regional hosted by Hamilton Southeastern.

"She had a pretty solid day," said Slavik. "She was feeling good going into things. I think she's going to represent us well down at Hamilton Southeastern."

Waugh was the only area athlete to walk out of the meet with a trip to the state finals secured.

The junior won both of her individual events, erasing an eight-second deficit to advance to the state finals in the 500 freestyle for the second straight season. She was well behind Bluffton 's Rachel Emschwiller in Thursday's qualifying, but surpassed the freshman with the sectional title on the line.

While Emschwiller was nearly five seconds slower than in the preliminary round, Waugh improved her time by more than six seconds to win in 5:23.26.

Waugh went on to take first place solidly with a time of 1:01.12 in the 100 backstroke, in which she was the top seed.

She will swim in the preliminary round of the state finals Friday at 6 p.m. The top 16 swimmers from the preliminaries advance to Saturday's consolation and championship finals.

"We knew that if she could stay with (Emschwiller) for the first half of the (500 freestyle) ... we knew we stood a chance," said Gresla of Waugh, who also erased a deficit of more than 10 seconds to win the event last season. "That's what she did.

"That was an awesome race for us."

In addition to her school-record race in the breaststroke, Hudson had a time of 2:26.56 for her fifth-place finish in the 200 individual medley. She led a pair of fourth-place relay finishes as she joined Michelle Landfair, Eme Miller and Elaine Hemmelgarn for a time of 1:59.35 in the 200 medley relay and teamed with Landfair, Miller and Martyna Gajewska to finish the 200 freestyle relay in 1:48.76.

Landfair finished her swimming career by taking third in the butterfly in 1:05.86, and Miller was fifth in the 100 freestyle with a time of 58.66. Gajewska, Jocelyn Mann, Caitlin Ruchgy and Marissa Murrell posted a time of 4:18.14 for sixth in the 400 freestyle relay.

Jay County had three swimmers in the top 12 of the 100 butterfly with Ruchgy (eight) and Mann (10th) coming in behind Landfair. Hemmelgarn was seventh in the 100 breaststroke behind Hudson, and Katie Simmons finished 10th.

"All of our breaststrokers came through for us," said Slavik. "Our butterflyers this meet, holy cow, Caitlin, Michelle and Jocelyn Mann all came through super strong. ... If I could pick the two highlights those would probably be the two ... But every race was a good race for the girls today."

In addition to her two championships, Waugh led the best relay of the day for South Adams as she joined Allison Beitler, Alexia Fox and Jansen Yoder for second in the 400 freestyle relay in a season-best time of 3:58.44. She also teamed with Yoder, Fox and Rachel Simon for sixth in the 200 medley relay in 2:03.99.

Freshman Kara DeLong turned in the second-best individual finish for the Starfires behind Waugh in the 100 breaststroke. She finished in 1:09.62 for fifth place.

Sixth-place efforts for SAHS came from Beitler in the 200 freestyle in 2:12.61, Fox in the 100 butterfly in 1:09.6 and Yoder in the 100 freestyle in 1:00.87.

Other top 12 finishes for the Patriots came from Landfair (eighth - 200 freestyle), Miller (eighth - 50 freestyle), Ruchgy (10th - 500 freestyle), Gajewska (10th - 100 freestyle, 10th - 100 backstroke), Laura Bowen (10th - 200 individual medley), Sammi Compton (10th - diving) and Simmons (12th - 500 freestyle).

South Adams got top-12 efforts from Beitler (seventh - 500 freestyle), Alyssa Sharp (eighth - 500 freestyle, 11th - 200 individual medley), Fox (ninth - 200 individual medley), Kenzie Rupp (ninth - 200 freestyle) and Yoder (12th - 50 freestyle). Beitler, Sharp, Rupp and Simon placed second in the 200 freestyle relay.[[In-content Ad]]