JC chasing first title

The Patriot girls have been swimming for 38 seasons.
For many of those years, including each of the last five, they have served as sectional hosts.
And yet, they have never celebrated with the trophy.
Jay County hopes to change that this week as it hosts the sectional tournament beginning with swimming preliminaries at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Diving preliminaries will start at 9 a.m. Saturday, with swimming and diving finals to follow at noon.
The Patriots enter the meet as slight underdogs to two-time defending champion Muncie Central, but coach Matt Slavik believes his team can close the gap.
“I think we’re sitting pretty good as far as winning events,” said Slavik, whose team has swimmers seeded first in eight out of 11 events. “It comes down to the girls who are seeded seventh, eighth and ninth and making sure they can move up. And then we’ve got girls who are in the 16, 17, 18 and 19 seeds, and they’ve got to finish in the top 16 if we’re going to beat Muncie Central.”
The winner of each event earns a state berth, and the top 16 competitors score points for their teams.
JCHS freshman Anne Vormohr leads the group of state-ranked swimmers heading into the meet as she is ranked sixth in the 100 backstroke and 26th in the 100 freestyle. Jay County is also ranked 19th in the state in the 200 medley relay and 23rd in the 400 freestyle relay.
The other state-ranked swimmers at the sectional are South Adams sophomore Cady Farlow (15th – 100 breaststroke) and Muncie Central’s Emmy Rawson (16th – 100 butterfly).
Muncie Central follows the Patriots with two No. 1 seeds, with Rawson holding the top spot in the 200 individual medley in addition to the butterfly. The Bearcats are seeded second in five events.
Jay County set a school record for wins this season as it finished 15-1 with the only loss coming by a 98-88 score to Muncie Central on Jan. 15.
The Patriots also finished second to Connersville at the Connersville Invitational in December, but bounced back to beat the Spartans at the Jay County Invitational a month later. Slavik said that turn-around will be part of his speech to his team heading into Thursday’s preliminaries.
“Connersville coming up here and us beating them by (88.5 points) was a big deal,” said Slavik.  “I think that was the boost of confidence we needed.
“I think we’re legit, but we’ve got to do everything right, plain and simple,” he added of his team’s chances against Muncie Central. “I think we’re ready to go and up for the challenge. It should be fun.”[[In-content Ad]]