Swimmers drop meet to Knights

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After going nearly two years without a loss, the Patriots have a setback in consecutive meets.

Jay County High School’s girls swim team didn’t quite have the firepower to bounce back from a loss on Tuesday as it fell to the Norwell Knights on Thursday, 159-135.

“I think losing in this case is good,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik, whose boys team also lost to Norwell, 185-107. “I think some of them got used to going into places and swimming over people.

“Our team is every bit as talented as the team last year, we just need to have an understanding we have to diversify a little bit. There are some girls that are going to have to change their roles and do some things they don’t necessarily want to focus on.”

As for the Patriot boys, who got one relay victory but fell to 0-4 on the year, Slavik said there’s more to take away from the meet than what the final score says.

“You can’t look at the team scores when I’m evaluating these kids because what I look at, I’ve got Griffin Mann dropping 10 seconds in his 200 (individual medley).

“I’m looking across the board and seeing kids dropping times.”

Mann was third behind a pair of Knights with his time of 2 minutes, 32.04 seconds.

Sophomore Eliza Bader and senior Vivienne Kunkler — she signed her national letter of intent on Wednesday to attend Bethel College — had the only individual victories for the Patriots.

Bader claimed the top spot in the 50-yard freestyle in 25.57 seconds, then followed that one event later by winning the 100 butterfly in 1:04.34. Kunkler won the 100 breastroke by more than six seconds in 1:13.24.

Kunkler and Bader joined Lilli Clemmons and Ashlyn Dow to win the meet-opening 200 medley relay in 1:56.89. Slavik switched the order a bit and the quartet took off nearly two seconds from their season-best time.

Erica Hathaway, Bader, Kunkler and Dow teamed to win the 200 freestyle relay, the only other victory for the JCHS girls.

“I think our girls battled every way they could,” Slavik said. “There are some ares we can certainly improve, particularly in our distance events.”

The Jay County boys got their lone event victory in the 200 freestyle relay behind the efforts of Tayler Smeltzer, Chase McFarland, Dorane Beiswanger and Skyler Myers.

“Boys had a beautiful 200 free relay,” Slavik said. “They all nailed their splits. They are all swimming faster than they’ve done this year and it’s good to see the smiles on their faces.”