Conference champs

Even after the Patriots won the 200-yard freestyle relay in record time, the Starfires were still right on their heels.
It was in the final three events that the defending champions pulled away.
Jay County High School’s girls swim team broke five Allen County Athletic Conference records Saturday and swept through the end of the meet, scoring 427 points to fight off the challenge from South Adams and earn a repeat.
The Starfires totaled 398 points, well ahead of Bluffton (329) and Adams Central (150).
“It’s amazing. It was definitely one of our team’s biggest goals for the whole season,” said JCHS senior Abby Saxman, whose team led by just five with three events remaining. “And to be able to come here and have such good competition between us and all the other teams was really exciting.
“And then to win was the cherry on top.”
“I was nervous a few times when it was between South Adams and us by one or two points,” added sophomore Alex Bader, who set a new conference record in the 100 breaststroke. “I know we had to have some clutch swims, and we had a lot of those throughout the day.”
Jay County’s boys slipped from the second-place slot they held most of the day to finish third with 336 points. Bluffton had a slight lead for most of the day and won the championship with 399 points, finishing 30 ahead of South Adams.
The Tigers’ title came with three ACAC-record swims, including a pair by Josh Ehle.
The Patriots went into the meet knowing that they’d have an uphill climb in the battle for second against the Starfires.
“I think that we both swam well, they’ve just got more depth than we do,” said JCHS boys coach Cori Vormohr, whose team was one point ahead of the Starfires with three events left but could not hang on. “Most of our kids had at least one season best or lifetime best, which was great.”
The pair of runner-up efforts marked a strong day for South Adams, which posted four record swims.
Two of those came from the Steffen twins — David in the 100 freestyle (50.47) and Daniel in the 100 breaststroke (1 minute, 7.46 seconds). David also anchored the record-breaking 200 freestyle relay team (1:34.24), and Ashton Klopp shattered the girls 500 freestyle record by 10 seconds in 5:24.83.
While proud of the record breakers, SAHS coach Andy Lehman praised his entire team for fighting to earn the runner-up finishes.
“Knowing that we are really coming into this meet with a deficit … due to diving, we knew that we had some big points to make up,” he said. “So really, our goal was to be right there with the other teams swimming wise.
“All around today we had some awesome swims, so I’m very happy.”
The girls meet came down to the final four races, with the Patriot team of Anne Vormohr, Alex Bader, Sophie Bader and Ashley Mark first breaking the 200 freestyle relay record in 1:40.16. Vormohr got right back in the pool and topped South Adams’ Brette Klopp by four seconds to win the 100 backstroke and set the stage for Jay County’s most dominant event of the day.
That effort came in the 100 breaststroke, with Alex Bader leading the charge as she took down the conference record by finishing in 1:08.04. She broke the mark of 1:08.32 set last season by South Adams’ Cady Farlow, who now swims at Purdue, and Jamie Valentine (1:16.39) and Vivienne Kunkler (1:22.12) followed in third and fourth.
Elizabeth McDowell, Vormohr, Sophie Bader and Alex Bader capped the victory by winning the 400 freestyle relay in 3:39.52.
“The back half of our meet, our kids just swam super strong,” said JCHS girls coach Matt Slavik. “They knew where we were at going into it. And we had backstrokers and breaststrokers and our 200 free relay and our 400 free relay all stepped up and just had amazing swims.”
Those swims finished off a day that also included Vormohr breaking the 50 freestyle ACAC record by more than a second in 24.2 and Sophie Bader bettering her own 200 freestyle mark in 1:56.49. Heather Stinson also set a new high score for conference diving Friday for the first of the Patriots’ five records.
Sophie Bader added a first-place finish in the 100 butterfly in 58.94, and Alex Bader won the 100 freestyle in 55.01.
South Adams took the top spot in the three other girls events, with Ashton Klopp’s setting the record in the 500 freestyle, her twin sister Brette taking the 200 individual medley in 2:19.53 and Ashley LeFever, Audrey Burson and the Klopps winning the 200 medley relay in 1:54.76.
The only win for Jay County’s boys came from senior Christian Phillips in Friday’s diving competition. Their best effort Saturday was in the 100 freestyle, in which Sok Vormohr followed David Steffen in second place and Connor Daniels finished right behind him in third.
Daniel Burson and Jesse Sutton went one-two in the 200 freestyle for the Starfires.
Other top-four finishes for the Patriot girls came from McDowell (third – 200 freestyle, third – 500 freestyle), Mark (third – 200 individual medley, fourth – 500 freestyle) and Dow (fourth – 100 butterfly). The Patriot team of Dow, McDowell, Valentine and Mark finished second in the 200 medley relay in 2:03.63.
Also placing in the top four for Jay County’s boys were Travis Barton (third – 200 individual medley, third – 100 butterfly), Christopher McDowell (third – 200 freestyle, third – 500 freestyle), Vormohr (third – 50 freestyle), Daniels (fourth – 50 freestyle), Jason Minnich (fourth – 200 freestyle) and Tayler Smeltzer (fourth – 100 butterfly).