Patriot girls win

The Patriot girls got off to a tremendous start and kept the field at bay. The boys fought back late, falling just short of pulling off a comeback win.
Keyed by victories in four of the first six events, including taking three of the top four places in diving, the Jay County High School girls swim team scored 650 points Saturday to win the Jay County Invitational title.
“We had a great day today,” said JCHS girls coach Matt Slavik, whose team finished second to Connersville last season. “We did a lot better than I expected. Our times were where I was hoping they would be at this time. … Every single girl on this team had a great swim.”
The girls team finished 45 points ahead of Connersville in the four-team event. Bellmont was third with 379 and Muncie Southside (275) placed four.
Bellmont scored 629 points to win the boys competition ahead of Jay County (613), which had lost 118-65 to the Braves in a dual meet just two days earlier. Connersville (429) finished third, and Southside (107) placed fourth.
“It was a lot better than I anticipated after Thursday night,” said Patriot boys coach Barry Weaver. “It was a good afternoon for us. … We just kept grinding away. … The 50 (freestyle) hurt us because Bellmont’s got a couple of outstanding swimmers, but we did keep the pressure on … We got back in it in the backstroke and breaststroke. … The kids did a really nice job.”
Jay County set the tone early, with junior Sammi Compton and sophomore Rachel Vogler topping the charts in the diving competition throughout.
Vogler had a 13-point lead over her teammate after the preliminary round of five dives, and was still up by six after the semifinals. Compton rallied in her final three dives, breaking the pool record with a winning score of 272.5 points, and Vogler finished second with 267.15.
Freshman Laci Hall added a fourth-place effort.
“We’re fortunate to have really good divers,” said Slavik. “Sammi and Rachel did an outstanding job. They’re coming together. … They’re exactly where they need to be.
“One, two, four is a ton of points in a meet like this. … That’s a huge advantage.”
Eme Miller, Mary Hudson, Caitlin Mark and Katy Smeltzer teamed to win the first swimming event of the day, edging Connersville in the 200-yard freestyle relay by 1.5 seconds in 2 minutes, 38 seconds. Miller dived right back in the water for a five-second win in the 200 freestyle in 2:09.05, and Mary Hudson edged Bellmont’s Erin Hunter by six hundredths of a second to take the 100 butterfly in 1:05.69.
Miller and Hudson each added a second individual victory, with Miller taking the 500 freestyle in 5:48.17 and Hudson winning the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.44.
“Eme Miller has lit a spark under a lot of these girls,” said Slavik. “She leads by her actions. She works hard every day.
“She always has a smile on her face and she’s always ready to go. She came out today and dropped one second off of her 200 free to win it … She’s never, ever gone that fast.
“And then in the 500 free she went down to a 48, which is a three-second time drop. … She’s swimming faster than she was at the end of the year last year, which is a big deal …”
The Jay County boys stayed close to Bellmont despite winning just a pair of events.
James Keen had one of those victories, taking the 100 backstroke by more than six seconds in 1:00.59. Luke Holcomb followed him in third place.
Keen was also the runner-up in the 200 individual medley in 2:12.32.
Matt Dann turned in a strong final 25 yards to fight off Connersville’s Alan Volz by less than a second with a time of 1:10.36 in the 100 breaststroke.
“This was the first time he was really in the thick of it and it was real interesting to watch,” said Weaver of Dann, a senior transfer from Bluffton who had missed the team’s first two invitational meets. “When he found out he was seeded first, he must have walked 100 laps around the pool. … His real focus was on that 100 breast. … He hung in there and came off the last turn — that was the best turn of the three — he could see the end and he was just going for it.”
Alex Sutton added a second-place finish in 5:38.9 in the 500 freestyle.
Miller, Hudson, Mark and Smeltzer placed second for JCHS in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Smeltzer finished as the runner-up in the 50 freestyle, and Mark was third behind Hudson in the 100 breaststroke.
“In the four years that I’ve been with these girls, this is probably the best meet overall in terms of improvement, which is saying a lot,” said Slavik. “We treated this like just another day. We didn’t do anything special to prepare for it, but the girls got fired up to come in and swim this morning. Their attitude was amazing and carried the day today.”[[In-content Ad]]