Keen, Jay relay earn state berths

James Keen was a sectional runner-up in two events last season.
On Saturday, he made sure everyone else was chasing him.
The Jay County High School sophomore earned himself a pair of individual state berths as he won the 200-yard freestyle and 100 backstroke to lead the host Patriots (304 points) to a runner-up finish by one point over Muncie Central.
Keen also teamed with Josh Lykins, Cody White and Sok Vormohr to win the 400 freestyle relay to give JCHS its first relay state berth since 2003.
“It was really special,” said Keen of that win in the final event of the day. “I just love that I can go through next week with a group like them. … They’re really good friends … I just like being able to share that with them.”
Mitchel Rigby added a third-place finish in diving to earn a spot in Tuesday’s regional meet at Hamilton Southeastern.
The winner of each swimming event advances to the state finals while the top four divers move on to regional competition.
Delta won the sectional title with 362 points despite the fact that diver Landon Carpenter picked up their only win of the day. Muncie Central won seven events, including two each by Andrew Dowdle and Cullen Tyler, but slipped to third place behind the Patriots when it finished seventh in the final relay.
South Adams placed seventh with 217 points, just three behind Bluffton and Bellmont.
“It was great fun,” said JCHS coach Barry Weaver. “It’s been a long time since a bunch of teams were fighting for the same spots as far as the team finish goes.
“It’s nice to be in the middle of that and fortunately we got over the hump in the last few events, scoring a lot of points and managed to get into second.
“We’re happy to advance three events on to the state meet and a diver on to the regional. We’re extremely proud of the kids. They’ve done a great job all year and I can’t hardly wait to keep it going for another week.”
Keen set the tone for his day in the first individual event of the meet, taking the early lead in the 200 freestyle and making the rest of the field chase him.
No one ever caught up as the JCHS sophomore won by more than 2.5 seconds in 1:51.16.
He was a heavy favorite in the 100 backstroke after finishing as the runner-up by less than a second last season. He dominated the race, taking the top spot by more than three seconds over fellow sophomore Josh Minch of Delta in 55.13.
“I think James had himself under control and was able to swim the way he has all year,” said Weaver of Keen, who broke his own school record of 55.79 in his backstroke win. “He controlled the races the whole way. He just had a good day of swimming.”
Vormohr and White put the Patriots in position in the final relay as they were tied for second with Norwell a couple of seconds behind Delta, and then Keen and Lykins brought home the win. They turned in consecutive legs of 48.82 and 48.68 seconds to give Jay County its first state berth in a relay since Kyle Weaver, Ryne Fulton, Derek Arnold and Dustin Lee advanced in the 200 freestyle event a decade ago.
“That’s really cool, especially with a freshman, two sophomores and a junior,” said Weaver. “That’s great. … The relay was a big plus.”
Rigby, a first-year diver as a senior, was on the outside looking in after the first round of dives as he sat in fifth place. But he climbed to fourth after the semifinals and edged Bellmont’s Dakota Massman for the No. 3 spot by less than two points as he finished with 296.05.
Carpenter won with 373.3, and Ben Miller of Bluffton was second with 337.65.
“It’s neat because he’s really been willing to work hard at it,” said Weaver. “He’s been fearless as far as trying new things. … He’s been more than willing to keep at it and work … He’s just steadily gotten better through out the whole year. … It was a good day for him.”
Cory Sank turned in the top finish for South Adams as he placed third in the 500 freestyle in 5:25.39. He was also eighth with a time of 2:06.71 in the 200 freestyle.
Mitchel Kaverman added a fourth-place effort in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.32. He was also sixth in the 200 individual medley in 2:18.42.
Lykins came up just short of earning a state berth in a pair of hotly-contested individual events. He was the runner-up to Dowdle by 0.39 seconds in the 50 freestyle in 22.58 and finished third in the 100 butterfly by less than a second in 55.34.
Shelby Wendel capped his career as he edged Kaverman for the No. 3 spot in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.21. White placed fourth in the 500 freestyle in 5:26.38 and the 200 freestyle in 1:58.91, and Vormohr posted times of 2:18.35 for fifth in the 200 individual medley and 1:01.85 for eighth in the 100 butterfly.
Willie Skiver capped his career with a sixth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.58, and Kaleb Baldwin was seventh in the 100 backstroke in 1:04.23.
Also scoring for the Patriots in consolation events were Conner Dailes (10th – 200 individual medley, 10th – 100 backstroke), Ian Bentz (13th – 100 breaststroke), Skiver (14th – 50 freestyle) and Travis Barton (16th – 500 freestyle).
JCHS started the year at 0-5 before finishing with 11 consecutive wins. The second-place sectional finish was the Patriots’ best effort since 2009.
“It just showed me how far our whole team has come from the five losses at the beginning of the season,” said Keen, noting that his team finished ahead of fourth-place Norwell after finishing more than 50 points behind the Knights at their invitational in early December. “As the season progressed, I think everybody got more into it and wanted to contribute and win. … Everyone kind of got that mentality.”
Shad Swygart finished sixth for South Adams with a time of 1:03.89 in the 100 backstroke, and Jesse Sutton was eighth in 1:04.68. Drew LeFever finished seventh in 58.61 in the 100 butterfly, and Chris Inniger was eighth in the 500 freestyle at 5:47.21.
LeFever (ninth – 200 individual medley), Inniger (10th – 200 freestyle), David Steffen (11th – 100 freestyle, 13th – 50 freestyle), Xavier Rupp (12th – 100 butterfly) and Daniel Burson (16th – 200 individual medley, 16th – 100 breaststroke) competed in consolation events for South Adams.[[In-content Ad]]