Hudson, Fennig 2nd

The 100-yard breaststroke played out as expected.

Aaron Hudson of Jay County and Alex Habegger of South Adams pushed Muncie Central's Daniel Proctor, knowing it was their last chance at a state berth. The battle created one of several tight finishes on the day, but in the end the state dream went unrealized for the pair of local swimmers.

Proctor won the event as part of his team's third straight sectional title. Habegger settled for the runner-up spot less than a half second back as his Starfires placed fifth in the 10-team boys swimming sectional field at Jay County.

Hudson finished third for the Patriots, who finished sixth with 117 points.

"We swam well on Thursday. We had 64 percent personal bests, and we turned around today and everybody that swam had a personal best," said JCHS coach Barry Weaver. "I thought overall we did what we could do."

South Adams finished just 12 points ahead of the Patriots in fifth place.

Central took nine of the 12 events to score 280 points, 67 more than runner-up Bellmont.

"My boys ... really stepped up today," said SAHS coach Janelle Gresla. "After how good we swam Thursday night, my boys really came back and swam exceedingly well today again."

The breaststroke was one of four hotly-contested races Saturday as the sectional meet saw three events decided by less than a tenth of a second.

Hudson was second at the mid-point of the breaststroke, but slipped behind Habegger at the final turn going into the last 25 yards. They both pushed Proctor all the way to the wall, but the Muncie Central junior held them off with a winning time of 1 minute, 0.87 seconds.

Habegger finished in second place in 1:01.25, and Hudson was third at 1:01.49.

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Hudson also gave himself an opportunity at a state berth in the 100 butterfly despite entering the event as the No. 3 seed.

He led the race through the first 25 yards and was in a dead heat with top-seeded Zach Haller of Muncie Central midway through the race. The pair stayed even the rest of the way, but Haller was able to eke out the victory by just seven hundredths of a second over Hudson in 55.45.

Hudson, Neal Fennig, Wiley Young and Luke Holcomb were also the sectional runners-up at 1:46.05 in the 200 medley relay.

"He went after it," said Weaver of Hudson, whose butterfly time in the Thursday's preliminaries was 57.14. "We worked all week on stressing the last turn. I thought in both his races he did exactly wanted to. To get in there and leave it all in, that's what we've got to do, and that's what he did."

Habegger, whose breaststroke time set a South Adams school record, also finished second to Proctor in his other individual event Saturday. He posted a time of 2:08.21 to finish nine seconds off the pace.

The senior also led a couple of South Adams relays, joining Caleb Wurster, Cole Farlow and Derek Krichhofer for third in the 200 medley in 1:49.27 and teaming with Wurster, Farlow and Joel Schmidt for fifth in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:42.27.

"He just did unbelievably awesome," said Gresla of Habegger's breaststroke. "He stayed right with the kid from Muncie Central, which is what we told him he had to do. Aaron Hudson and him are good friends, so it was a great race."

Neal Fennig was the only Patriot other than Hudson to finish in the top six. The junior's best effort came in the 100-yard freestyle, where he was the runner-up in 51.17 seconds.

He also finished third with a time of 1:00.04 in the 100 backstroke, falling just short of his season-long goal of breaking the 1-minute mark.

"Neal had a great day too. He dropped time, and he's just been busting his backside for the whole year trying to break that minute in the backstroke. ... I know it's heartbreaking for him, but at the same time it was his best time by three quarters of a second."

Wurster turned in a couple of fourth-place finishes for the Starfires. He turned in times of 1:55.31 in the 200 freestyle and 5:12.59 in the 500 freestyle.

The only Patriots other than Hudson and Fennig to compete in individual events Saturday were seniors Jared Valentine and Caleb Hummel. Both improved on their preliminary times by two seconds, with Valentine taking seventh in the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.22 and Hummel 11th in the 500 freestyle in 5:51.69.

Others in the top 12 for South Adams were Farlow (ninth - 50 freestyle, 11th - 100 freestyle), Schmidt (ninth - 100 backstroke, 12th - 200 individual medley), Jacob Werst (ninth - 100 butterfly, 11th - 200 individual medley), Derek Kirchhofer (10th - 500 freestyle) and Johnny Everidge (10th - 100 butterfly).[[In-content Ad]]