Jay rallies past South Adams

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BERNE — Through the first six events, the Starfires were out front of their conference rival.

They had taken the top spot in four races, but the Patriots were knocking.

Depth and the strength of the Patriot team helped them pull away.

Jay County High School’s boys swim team came from behind Monday by winning four of the final five events, including two freestyle relays, to beat the host South Adams Starfires 97-73.

“All in all it is good to walk away from here with a win for the boys,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik, whose team snapped a four-meet losing skid to begin the season. “It came down to numbers. Our boys had to place strategically to get the win and that they did.”

Jay County’s girls also won, besting the Starfires 97-65.

With five events remaining, Jay County’s Skyler Myers swam an off event, the 500-yard freestyle, and won in 5 minutes, 58.67 seconds. Myers then helped the 200 freestyle relay team that included Chase McFarland, Tayler Smeltzer and Dorane Beiswanger win in 1:41.39. After Parker Collingsworth of South Adams took first in the 100 backstroke (1:11.84), Griffin Mann (100 breaststroke) and the Patriots’ 400 freestyle relay team (Konner Sommers, Kyle Sanders, McFarland and Myers) also got victories to complete the night.

Mann had a time of 1:14.22 for his first individual win of his career, and the 400 freestyle relay finished in 4:05.86.

“When you look at our lineup, sort of historically, I feel like always the first half or two-thirds of the lineup is always my strongest,” SAHS coach Andy Lehman said. “We knew it was going to be close but ultimately I can’t complain. My swimmers did really well tonight.”

Kam Yoder and Isaac Gorrell each had two individual wins for the South Adams boys. Yoder won the 200 individual medley in 2:20.02 and the 100 butterfly in 59.56 seconds, while Gorrell took the 50 freestyle in 25.57 seconds — he edged Smeltzer by nine-hundredths of a second — and the 100 freestyle in 48.4 seconds.

Much like the boys’ competition, South Adams girls swim team had a strong start but couldn’t hang on. The Starfires’ 200 medley relay team of Ashley LeFever, Isabella Bailey, Hannah Neuenschwander and Isabel Von Gunten was first in 2:05.23. Bailey won the 200 IM (2:34.88), Von Gunten placed first in the 100 freestyle (1:03) while LeFever had victories in the 50 freestyle (25.33) and 100 butterfly (1:02.2) as the Starfires took five of the first six races.

But the Patriots came roaring back on the efforts of Vivienne Kunkler, Eliza Bader, Lilli Clemmons, Ashlyn Dow, Rieley Brewster and Erica Hathaway.

Individually, Kunkler won the 500 freestyle (6:20.95), Clemmons beat the field in the 100 backstroke (1:10.85) and Bader got a win in the 100 breaststroke (1:12.81).

Kunkler, Bader and Brewster teamed with Dow to win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:51.05, then joined Hathaway to win the 400 freestyle by more than 13 seconds in 4:10.90 despite trailing by almost eight seconds after the first leg.

“Girls were solid,” Slavik said. “We needed a lot of looks in different events to see where we’re at and what we need to focus on.”

Lehman, on the other hand, was pleased with the effort his girls put forth even though they were vastly outnumbered.

“For only having six girls on the team the score wasn’t that bad,” he said. “They worked really hard in the pool tonight and they maxed out.”