Jay girls shatter records

Favored by 18 seconds, the Patriots simply needed to swim a clean final race to win and secure the inaugural Allen County Athletic Conference title.
But they had their sights set much higher.
They wanted to finish the victory with an exclamation point. They wanted history. They wanted the record.
Katy Smeltzer, Sophie Bader, Anne Vormohr and Sophie Bader delivered in spectacular fashion, shattering the school and pool marks by nearly five seconds. Their effort capped an ACAC championship performance in which the Jay County High School girls swim team broke records in three events while scoring 437 points.
“Holy smokes. Wow. Today was a great day,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik. “It’s just what our kids needed. …
“They’ve set the bar high going into the remainder of this year. … I can’t speak highly enough of them. They’re incredible.”
The Patriots took the title by 34 points over runner-up South Adams in a four-team field that also included Bluffton and Adams Central.
Jay County’s boys got two individual titles from James Keen and one from Sok Vormohr to finish second with 352 points. Bluffton won just two events, but used depth to score 400 points to finish first.
“I thought winning five events over the course of the day was a good deal for us,” said JCHS coach Barry Weaver, whose squad also took first place in the 200-yard medley and 400 freestyle relays. “A lot of the underneath guys, the second and third gentlemen that are scoring points, really came through and had nice swims for us today. … Overall things were really good.”
With the championship all but secured and knowing they might be swimming the event together for the last time, Smeltzer, Vormohr and the Bader sisters were eyeing the school record.
Smeltzer staked the Patriots to a massive lead on the first leg, Sophie Bader extended it on the second and by the time Alex Bader was in the water it was clear the record would fall. The only question was by how much.
Vormohr provided the answer with a blistering final leg that had her teammates jumping for joy when they saw the final time — 3 minutes, 36.79 seconds. They demolished the previous record of 3:41.53 set last season by Sydney Mathias, Vormohr, Smeltzer and Sophie Bader and finished a full lap ahead of the runner-up South Adams team of Mayia Curtis, Olivia Mason, Caroline Kloepper and Riley Thomson.
“I had to double check the clock on that one,” said Slavik. “I knew they were going to go fast and I knew what they were capable of, but actually seeing it was kind of that aha moment …
“That was crazy fast.”
The same group also opened the meet with a record-breaking effort, winning the 200 medley relay by more than four seconds over South Adams’ Cady Farlow, Ashton Klopp, Brette Klopp and Olivia VonGunten in 1:49.27. Jamie Valentine, Vormohr, Smeltzer and Sophie Bader had set the previous record of 1:50.03 last year.
“Honestly, I didn’t think we were going to come out and have these best times. These kind of came out of nowhere,” said Vormohr, who won the 100 backstroke in 56.82 seconds and the 100 freestyle in 52.18. “I think we were all getting down through the dual meets …
“This is extremely nice to have before we go into sectional and state.”
Alex Bader, a freshman, turned in the other record-breaking effort in the 200 individual medley. She built a three-second lead over runner-up Brette Klopp of South Adams on the first three legs and then chased down her sister Sophie’s school record (2:12.87) as she won in 2:12.64.
She also took first in the 500-yard freestyle, lapping the entire field and finishing in 5:34.1 for a 25-second win.
Sophie Bader also picked up two victories, leading a one-two finish with Elizabeth McDowell in the 200 freestyle in 2:17.33. She paced a Jay County/South Adams sweep of the top four in the 100 butterfly in 57.47 ahead of Ashton Klopp, Smeltzer and Kloepper.
Each of Keen’s four swims resulted in JCHS victories as he won the 200 individual medley in 2:04.55 and the 100 backstroke in 55.73. He joined Sok Vormohr, Cody White and Conner Daniels for first in the 400 freestyle relay (3:28.11) and Ian Bentz, Vormohr and Daniels to win the 200 medley relay (1:47.98).
Keen, a two-time state qualifier, wasn’t happy with his times, but said he’s ready for the next month of preparation leading into tournament time.
“It felt good to be back in the atmosphere,” he added of the conference competition. “I feel like it gives us a chance to see where we’re at in a big meet. It gives us a lot of experience going into sectional.”
Vormohr’s victory came in the 100-yard freestyle, a race in which he and David Steffen of South Adams were even after 75 yards before the JCHS junior eked out the win by less than three tenths of a second in 51.09. He was also second in the 50 freestyle.
Daniel Burson was the lone double winner for South Adams, taking the top spot in the 200 and 500 freestyle races. Other wins came from Cady Farlow (100 breaststroke), Ashton Klopp (50 freestyle) and Drew LeFever (100 freestyle).
The Starfire teams of Farlow, VonGunten and the Klopp twins, and Jesse Sutton, Burson, LeFever and Steffen took the 200 freestyle relay races. Korinna Schindler won the girls diving title Friday night.
Valentine trailed Farlow for JCHS in the 100 breaststroke and Smeltzer took second behind Klopp in the 50 freestyle for the Patriots, who earned their first conference title since winning the final Olympic Athletic Conference crown in 2010.
“I think it’s pretty awesome,” said Smeltzer. “Not only as the seniors we’re super stoked about it, but I think it really opened our eyes to what our potential is with sectional. I think we all have excitement going into these next two weeks gearing up for that final meet.”
Other top four individual finishes for Jay County came from McDowell (third – 500 freestyle), Ashley Mark (fourth – 200 individual medley) and Heather Stinson (fourth – diving) for the girls, and Christian Phillips (second – diving), White (third – 200 freestyle) and Christopher McDowell (fourth – 500 freestyle) for the boys. Laurann Schoenlein, Cassie Reno, McDowell and Mark were second in the 200 freestyle relay.
Also placing in the top four for South Adams were Farlow (second – 100 freestyle), Brette Klopp (second – 100 backstroke), Curtis (third – 200 freestyle), VonGunten (second – 500 freestyle, third – 200 individual medley) Riley Thompson (fourth – 200 freestyle, fourth – 500 freestyle) and Kloepper (fourth – 50 freestyle) for the girls, and LeFever (second – 200 individual medley), Sutton (second – 100 backstroke), Zach Teeple (third – 100 backstroke), Steffen (third – 50 freestyle) and Xavier Rupp (third – diving) for the boys.