February 11, 2017 at 5:24 a.m.
Bader to be medalist
Jay County junior seeded eighth, to become school’s third medalist
Bader to be medalist
INDIANAPOLIS — As Alex Bader turned her right shoulder toward the north end of the pool and saw her time on the scoreboard, a wide grin took over her face.
It wasn’t going anywhere, until, that is, she discovered what that number — 1:03.94 — meant.
Still smiling on the deck as the next event was about to begin, she got the signal from her family in the stands. The tears started to flow and coach Matt Slavik wrapped his junior leader in a hug as reality set in.
She is a state medalist.
Bader, a Jay County High School junior, demolished her own school record Friday night, posting the eighth-fastest time in the 100-yard breaststroke at the IHSAA Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals to guarantee herself a spot on the podium today.
“I didn’t really know that they were being serious. I just looked up there and saw them and I didn’t think it could be true,” she said. “I wasn’t even really thinking about top eight. I was just trying to go a best time and ended up getting in top eight. It was the best feeling I’ve ever had.”
Bader, who was 11th in the event as a freshman and 21st last year, becomes just the third JCHS girls swimmer to earn a state medal, joining her sister, Sophie, and cousin, Anne Vormohr, both of whom were in the stands Friday cheering her on. She will return to the pool to swim in the championship heat in today’s finals, which begin at 1 p.m.
“I can’t speak highly enough of that girl,” said Slavik, who will have a swimmer receive a state medal for the third consecutive season. “Her expression when she finished and when she got out of the pool exemplified a whole season’s worth of work …
“That was absolutely phenomenal. … She’s a gamer. She knew what she had to do. She came out and did it.”
It wasn’t going anywhere, until, that is, she discovered what that number — 1:03.94 — meant.
Still smiling on the deck as the next event was about to begin, she got the signal from her family in the stands. The tears started to flow and coach Matt Slavik wrapped his junior leader in a hug as reality set in.
She is a state medalist.
Bader, a Jay County High School junior, demolished her own school record Friday night, posting the eighth-fastest time in the 100-yard breaststroke at the IHSAA Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals to guarantee herself a spot on the podium today.
“I didn’t really know that they were being serious. I just looked up there and saw them and I didn’t think it could be true,” she said. “I wasn’t even really thinking about top eight. I was just trying to go a best time and ended up getting in top eight. It was the best feeling I’ve ever had.”
Bader, who was 11th in the event as a freshman and 21st last year, becomes just the third JCHS girls swimmer to earn a state medal, joining her sister, Sophie, and cousin, Anne Vormohr, both of whom were in the stands Friday cheering her on. She will return to the pool to swim in the championship heat in today’s finals, which begin at 1 p.m.
“I can’t speak highly enough of that girl,” said Slavik, who will have a swimmer receive a state medal for the third consecutive season. “Her expression when she finished and when she got out of the pool exemplified a whole season’s worth of work …
“That was absolutely phenomenal. … She’s a gamer. She knew what she had to do. She came out and did it.”
Coming into the meet as the No. 13 seed — the top eight from the preliminaries are guaranteed a state medal while swimmers nine through 16 advance to the consolation finals — Bader knew it would be difficult to even hold her position. She could get faster and still slip down the list. If she got slower, she’d have no chance.
She erased that second possibility from the start, getting a strong pull-out and popping her head out of the water in lane two further into the pool than she typically does. By the time she reached the wall, she was dead even with South Bend Riley’s No. 6 seeded Madison Blakesly, who was swimming in lane three.
Bader was third in her heat at the 50-yard mark, trailing only top-seeded Emily Weiss of Yorktown and Grace Estabrook of Carmel, and surged to the wall in fourth place in the heat with her school-record time.
All week she had visualized races in her mind. At Tuesday’s practice, the result was a 1:03.94.
“When I saw the 1:03.94 (on the scoreboard), I was kind of like, ‘Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Did I really go exactly what I had visualized? Did I really go that fast?’” said Bader.
She did.
Just seven days earlier her school record had stood at 1:05.84. She hacked more than a half second off of it in winning the sectional at 1:05.2, and then obliterated that mark to earn state gold.
She also set a career-best time in the 50 freestyle, finishing 19th in 24.07. She was 0.13 seconds behind Carmel’s Alyssa Conley, who claimed the last spot in the consolation finals.
While there were no state medals for them, the South Adams swimmers ended their season in style by shattering the school record in the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay. Twins Ashton and Brette Klopp, Ashley LeFever and Olivia Von Gunten climbed all the way from the 29th seed to 22nd place, breaking the record of 3:43.50 with their time of 3:40.14.
Ashton Klopp had the other record-breaking swim, taking down her own mark in the 200 freestyle by four-tenths of a second in 1:57.21 for 27th place.
The Starfires surpassed their sectional times in each of their other events as well, with the 200 medley relay team of Audrey Burson, LeFever and the Klopp twins placing 23rd in 1:50.6, Ashton Klopp 26th in the 100 butterfly in 58.32 and LeFever 27th in the 100 freestyle, just two seconds off of Cady Farlow’s school record in 53.33.
“Coming into tonight we weren’t sure what was going to happen, but we had our mindset on breaking as many records as we could,” said SAHS coach Andy Lehman, whose team had focused its efforts on winning the team sectional title last week. “And we did that in two of the five events that we swam tonight.”
The state result for the Patriots’ 200 freestyle relay team was hard to swallow as junior Elizabeth McDowell, sophomore Vivienne Kunkler, freshman Erica Hathaway and Alex Bader were disqualified after Kunkler missed the wall on a turn. Still, Slavik said just being able to be a part of the state finals should be a positive experience for the young realy team members as they move forward in their careers.
“It’s just a completely different atmosphere to be here for the state meet,” he said “It’s a great experience.”
She erased that second possibility from the start, getting a strong pull-out and popping her head out of the water in lane two further into the pool than she typically does. By the time she reached the wall, she was dead even with South Bend Riley’s No. 6 seeded Madison Blakesly, who was swimming in lane three.
Bader was third in her heat at the 50-yard mark, trailing only top-seeded Emily Weiss of Yorktown and Grace Estabrook of Carmel, and surged to the wall in fourth place in the heat with her school-record time.
All week she had visualized races in her mind. At Tuesday’s practice, the result was a 1:03.94.
“When I saw the 1:03.94 (on the scoreboard), I was kind of like, ‘Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Did I really go exactly what I had visualized? Did I really go that fast?’” said Bader.
She did.
Just seven days earlier her school record had stood at 1:05.84. She hacked more than a half second off of it in winning the sectional at 1:05.2, and then obliterated that mark to earn state gold.
She also set a career-best time in the 50 freestyle, finishing 19th in 24.07. She was 0.13 seconds behind Carmel’s Alyssa Conley, who claimed the last spot in the consolation finals.
While there were no state medals for them, the South Adams swimmers ended their season in style by shattering the school record in the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay. Twins Ashton and Brette Klopp, Ashley LeFever and Olivia Von Gunten climbed all the way from the 29th seed to 22nd place, breaking the record of 3:43.50 with their time of 3:40.14.
Ashton Klopp had the other record-breaking swim, taking down her own mark in the 200 freestyle by four-tenths of a second in 1:57.21 for 27th place.
The Starfires surpassed their sectional times in each of their other events as well, with the 200 medley relay team of Audrey Burson, LeFever and the Klopp twins placing 23rd in 1:50.6, Ashton Klopp 26th in the 100 butterfly in 58.32 and LeFever 27th in the 100 freestyle, just two seconds off of Cady Farlow’s school record in 53.33.
“Coming into tonight we weren’t sure what was going to happen, but we had our mindset on breaking as many records as we could,” said SAHS coach Andy Lehman, whose team had focused its efforts on winning the team sectional title last week. “And we did that in two of the five events that we swam tonight.”
The state result for the Patriots’ 200 freestyle relay team was hard to swallow as junior Elizabeth McDowell, sophomore Vivienne Kunkler, freshman Erica Hathaway and Alex Bader were disqualified after Kunkler missed the wall on a turn. Still, Slavik said just being able to be a part of the state finals should be a positive experience for the young realy team members as they move forward in their careers.
“It’s just a completely different atmosphere to be here for the state meet,” he said “It’s a great experience.”
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