Seasons end for Jay, SA

Copyright 2017, The Commercial Review

All Rights Reserved

After picking up a couple of No. 1 seeds Thursday, the Starfires were hoping to be able pick up a state berth.

The Patriots knew they were facing an uphill climb in the team standings.

Both had their seasons come to an end Saturday.

South Adams High School was thwarted by Bluffton in both of its top-seeded events and finished fifth while host Jay County came in ninth in the boys swimming sectional.

“Overall, we had some good swims,” said SAHS coach Andy Lehman. “I’m happy for our guys.

“Overall, it was a good meet. We dropped some time in some key races for us.”

Delta, which broke sectional records in three events, cruised to the team title with 419 points. Bluffton followed with 290, and Muncie Central, which won four events, was third with 251.

South Adams, led by a second-place finish from its 200-yard medley relay team, posted 210 points to finish 11 behind fourth-place Bellmont. Jay County, which had its best finish with a third-place effort in the 200 freestyle relay, totaled 165 points.

“We came in Thursday night dropping some time, getting some kids to move up, having some great swims,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik. “All but one kid had personal-best times, and not just by a little bit, by a lot.

“We came in today, we held pretty well as far as our times. The rest of the field went a little faster.”

The Starfires entered the meet seeded No. 1 in both the 200 medley relay and 100 backstroke, but Bluffton’s Walker Leas quickly showed them that holding on to those spots would not be easy.

Leas, a junior, dominated the backstroke leg of the medley relay, reaching the wall 1.64 seconds ahead of South Adams’ Zach Teeple in a preview of their race later in the day. South Adams closed the gap and Zach Colpaert made a late run, but the Tigers held on to win the event by 0.43 seconds.

Having set the tone in the opening event of the day, Leas continued the pattern when he and top-seeded Teeple met in the 100-yard backstroke. Leas was the leader from the start en route to a win in 54.88 seconds — 2.51 seconds faster than Thursday’s preliminaries — with Muncie Central’s Alec Hale (55.62) second and Teeple (57.41) third.

“It just always seem that when we get to a key meet like this, Bluffton pulls through,” said Lehman. “We’ve seen that across the board — conference meets, summer meets, here. They’re a strong team.”

Sophomore Tayler Smeltzer stepped forward to steal the show in individual events for the Patriots.

He had come up just 0.24 seconds short of breaking the 1-minute mark in the 100 butterfly Thursday and was on a mission as he took to the pool as the eighth seed in the championship heat. He left any thoughts of that No. 8 spot in his wake, trailing only Lukas Bradford of Muncie Central and Ben Moorman of Muncie Burris after the first 50 yards. Only one foe was able to overtake him in the final 50 as he easily surpassed his goal with a fourth-place finish in 58.85.



“The highlight of the day certainly has to be Tayler Smeltzer coming out and swimming a 58.8 in the 100 fly,” said Slavik. “Both his IM (11th place) and his 100 fly he dropped time, moved up spots, scored us points. He was a key contributor to the team.”

Three races later he teamed with Garrett Campbell, Ian Reynolds and Christopher McDowell for the top relay effort with a time of 1:36.14 in the 200 freestyle, one spot ahead of Zach Colpaert, Kamden Yoder, Trey Lehman and Teeple of the Starfires. The same four Patriots were fifth in the 400 freestyle relay.

McDowell was fifth in the 500 freestyle in 5:21.85 and eighth in the 200 freestyle in 1:58.34, and Campbell was sixth in the 50 freestyle in 23.63 and seventh in the 100 freestyle in 51.97.

Teeple and Colpaert each had a pair of third-place individual finishes for the Starfires, with the former finishing the 200 individual medley in 2:09.87. Colpaert, a junior, trailed a pair of Delta seniors in both sprints with times of 22.56 in the 50 freestyle and 50.16 in the 100 freestyle.

Paul Neuenschwander of SAHS climbed two spots from his seed to take fifth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.02, and Kamden Yoder was eighth in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.63.

Former Jay County swimmer Jason Minnich was fifth in both the 100 and 200 freestyle races for Burris, which was seventh in the team standings. He was also on relay teams for the Owls that finished fourth in the 400 freestyle and fifth in the 200 medley.

Also scoring for JCHS were Gabe Blankenship (11th - diving), Orlando Castro (12th - diving), Ian Reynolds (13th - 100 butterfly, 16th - 100 backstroke) and Alex LeMaster (13th - 100 breaststroke).

Competing in the consolation heat for the Starfires were Kamden Yoder (ninth - 100 butterfy), Tyler Yoder (ninth - diving), Ethan Duff (11th - 100 butterfly) Brayden Collingsworth (11th - 500 freestyle, 13th - 200 freestyle), Lehman (13th - 100 backstroke) and Neuenschwander (16th - 100 freestyle).