Jay rolls over Jets

Matt Slavik’s job has been a little bit harder this year, and he’s thrilled.
The addition of several newcomers has added depth throughout the Jay County High School girls swim team. And Slavik must decide where to spread out that depth for a given meet.
He had almost all of his swimmers away from their specialties Monday, and the Patriots still swept the meet, winning every event for a 221-80 destruction of the visiting Adams Central Flying Jets.
“It seems that it should make my job easier, but it actually makes my job harder because there are more choices,” Slavik said. “I’ve never had this many choices of where to put girls before. It’s an exciting problem.”
One of the swimmers creating Slavik’s “problem” is French foreign exchange student Charlotte Becot. She led the team with her two individual victories Monday while also contributing to a pair of relay wins.
Becot led a one-two-three finish for the Patriots in her specialty event, the 100-yard backstroke. She was just ahead of teammate Mary Hudson at the half-way point before dominating the second half of the race to win in 1 minute, 7.59 seconds.
She also took the top spot in the 50 freestyle with a time of 27.17, fighting off Ali McClain of Adams Central by 14 hundredths of a second.
Senior Elaine Hemmelgarn also picked up two victories, with her effort in the 100 breaststroke mirroring Becot’s backstroke race. She had a slight lead over freshman teammate Caitlin Mark throughout the race before pulling away in the final 25 yards to win in 1:17.92.
Hemmelgarn also took the 200 freestyle in 2:25.97.
“Charlotte had a super night again in the 50 free and the 100 backstroke,” said Slavik of Becot, who also contributed to wins in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays. “Our medley relay looked really good. We’re swimming around the two-minute mark, which is where we want to be right now.
“Elaine Hemmelgarn is back to her old self. She swam a wonderful breaststroke tonight.”
Eme Miller took the 200 individual medley in 2:32.14 ahead of teammate Katie Simmons, Megan Taylor won the diving competition with 182.2 points with teammate Rachel Vogler in second and Mark took the 100 freestyle with a time of 1:01.16. Hudson took the 500 freestyle in 6:21.03.
“Just all the way across the board we had girls swimming off events and pulling through and showing they can do it,” said Slavik. “It’s kind of exciting to flip (the lineup) around as much as we’ve been able to and still score points and drop time.”[[In-content Ad]]