November 8, 2017 at 5:25 p.m.

Jay hopes to take back titles

JCHS girls swimming
Jay hopes to take back titles
Jay hopes to take back titles

The Patriots watched in dismay as the Starfires celebrated a championship in Portland last year.

Twice.

So the two-time Allen County Athletic Conference and sectional champions will do everything they can to make sure it doesn’t happen this season.

“No. 1 goal is we want to get back to winning our conference and carrying that to winning sectional,” said Jay County High School swim coach Matt Slavik, whose girls squad opens its season Saturday at the Norwell Invitational. “Anything can happen. I think we have a great shot at both of those.”

Those chances begin with senior Alex Bader, who committed to swim for Ball State University where she will join her sister Sophie and cousin Anne Vormohr — both 2016 graduates and former state medalists — in Muncie. Alex Bader also became the program’s third state medalist last year by finishing seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke, and is eyeing a return trip to the podium.

“To do that I’m definitely going to have to work hard in practice,” she said. “We have some new girls coming up and a couple breaststrokers that will be pushing me hard.”

Bader was also part of the state-qualifying 200-yard medley relay that returns all of its members. Elizabeth McDowell (senior), Vivienne Kunkler (junior) and Erica Hathaway (sophomore) complete the quartet.

“We have everybody back, and stronger,” Slavik said. “We’re definitely a three-relay threat this year because I don’t have to stack two relays. I can spread everyone out into three.

“Knowing who we have in our (sectional), it is still going to be tough to do. We lost some talented girls last year but what came in is more talented.”

Slavik is referring to his seven-member freshman class, which includes Eliza Bader — Alex’s younger sister and the third in line of four Bader swimmers — Rieley Brewster, Lilly Clemmons and Ashlyn Dow.

“With our freshman class we’ve added a tremendous amount of depth,” Slavik said. “I’m super stoked about where we’re at.”

Brooklyn Mattingly, Kearsten Myers and Kelly Strausburg round out the freshman, who along with the seven sophomores make up more than half of the team that is 24 strong.

Kunkler keeps the Patriots’ one-two punch at breaststroke intact. Slavik is hopeful the lanky junior can have an outside chance to reach the state finals, which was the fastest event last year led by Yorktown’s Emily Weiss repeating as state champion in breaking the state record of 2016 Olympic gold medalist Lilly King.

Kunkler is also one of nine Patriots who are capable of swimming the 50 freestyle in less than a minute.

“Typically we have four or five,” Slavik said. “Brings a lot of depth looking at the big picture of sectional or conference. Looking at a lot of third, fourth, fifth places.

“Maybe not winning everything but being able to score points.”

Hathaway will handle the distance events once again, and McDowell has been a workhorse for Jay County in the backstroke and butterfly. She may be given the task of competing in all three relays and one individual event.

Sophomore twins Emma and Hannah James and junior Kaitlyn Dow have the capability of swimming any of the four strokes. It is their versatility, and that of most of his quad, that Slavik said makes his job a little easier.

“It allows us to train the up-and-comers and not have to put them into pressure situations,” he said. “We can bounce them around and figure out where they will be best suited for us, at the same time we can get them to buy into this program.

“It takes a lot of pressure off me from the standpoint knowing you’ve got a younger generation that can fill in and step up when you need them.”

It’s the depth, too, that has helped Jay County win meets.

“I think this should be one of our best years we’ve had,” Bader said. “We have a lot of depth with freshmen coming in. We have almost every girl that returned.

“We’re going to have a pretty stacked group.”
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