February 10, 2018 at 11:05 p.m.
Bader wins Mental Attitude Award
Senior caps career with honor after placing fifth in 100 breaststroke
Bader wins Mental Attitude Award
Copyright 2018, The Commercial Review
All Rights Reserved
A gamer.
A leader by example.
One of the hardest workers in the state of Indiana.
Jay County High School coach Matt Slavik had used all of those phrases to describe Alex Bader in the last week.
The IHSAA agreed that she is all of those things, and more.
Bader, a JCHS senior, was honored at the conclusion of Saturday’s IHSAA Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals as the Mental Attitude Award winner.
“It’s really amazing and surprising,” said Bader, “just because Jay County is so small. I mean, we have people who come here and place well, but we’re not like Carmel who’s getting first place in every single event. So it’s just really shocking.”
The honor capped off a day in which she finished fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke and became the second two-time state medalist in the history of the Jay County girls swimming program.
She is the first Patriot girl to win the mental attitude award in any sport and just the fourth overall in school history. The other JCHS athletes to win the award were Tyler Rigby for the 2006 Class 3A state runner-up boys basketball team, Bob Morrison in boys swimming in 1985 and Glenn Glogas in wrestling in 1982.
The award goes to a senior who excels “in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability,” based on nominations by coaches and principals and selection by the IHSAA executive committee.
Bader said she had kind of zoned out when the announcer was talking about Farm Bureau, which sponsors the award, and then she heard her name — “Alexandra Bader.” She was mobbed by her teammates at the north end of the natatorium and then trotted along the east side of the deck to the award podium to accept the honor. It includes a $1,000 scholarship in her name.
Why was she deserving?
“It’s her interaction with her peers,” said Slavik. “It’s her interaction with teachers. It’s her interaction with coaches. It’s her attention to detail in her academics. It’s her attention to detail in athletics. It’s everything.
“She’s the total package when it comes to what I want my daughter to grow up to be like. If my daughter Mara can grow up to be like Alex Bader,” he added, choking back tears, “that would be the highlight of my life.”
Bader had already been the highlight for the Patriots all weekend, first securing herself a second-career state medal by shattering her own school record in the breaststroke Friday night. She returned Saturday to determine what medal she would walk away with.
Swimming in lane two, she hit her start and was in a battle again, for the most part, with the other three girls who joined her in a blistering third heat of the event the night before in the preliminaries. She made the 50-yard turn in sixth place but would not allow herself to slip from where she had finished Friday. She swam the final 50 yards of the race more than a second faster than Kabria Chapman of Franklin to reclaim fifth place.
“I just stood and watched that race in awe,” said Slavik. “I didn’t know what to feel.
“She did exactly what we had known she was going to do all along. It was just good to see hard work, visualization and taking the time to hone her craft paid off.”
Bader’s time of 1:03.59 was the second-fastest of her career, surpassed only by the school record of 1:02.8 from the previous night, and was just 0.11 seconds behind fourth-place finisher Mackenzie Looze of Bloomington South.
She became the first JCHS girls swimmer to medal in back-to-back seasons — she was seventh in the breaststroke last year. She matched her cousin Anne Vormohr for most medals (two) and best finish (fifth) at the state finals.
“I’m really excited. I didn’t have the time I was looking for but I ended up getting the place that I was seeded coming into today, so I was really super stoked about how I did,” said Bader. “It felt good all around. I just feel really glad that I can end on a pretty good note.”
Her fastest time prior to this weekend was 1:03.94, set during the state finals last year.
Bader’s effort Saturday came in a race against Yorktown junior Emily Weiss, who broke the national record with a time of 58.4 seconds. The previous mark of 58.56 had been set in 2015 by Lindsey Horejsi of Albert Lea in Minnesota. (Last season, Weiss broke the Indiana high school record that had been held by 2016 Olympic gold medalist Lilly King.)
Bader also competed in the consolation finals of the 50 freestyle. Right away her legs didn’t feel good, she said, and she was off stroke at the wall leading to an odd flip turn.
She finished 16th in 24.3 seconds, about a half-second slower than when she broke Vormohr’s record Friday. She was 13th in the preliminaries.
Bader tallied 15 points between her two races. That was good enough to place Jay County 23rd out of the 40 teams that scored at the meet.
Carmel won its 32nd consecutive state title in the sport with 363 points. Northridge was a distant second with 215.
All Rights Reserved
A gamer.
A leader by example.
One of the hardest workers in the state of Indiana.
Jay County High School coach Matt Slavik had used all of those phrases to describe Alex Bader in the last week.
The IHSAA agreed that she is all of those things, and more.
Bader, a JCHS senior, was honored at the conclusion of Saturday’s IHSAA Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals as the Mental Attitude Award winner.
“It’s really amazing and surprising,” said Bader, “just because Jay County is so small. I mean, we have people who come here and place well, but we’re not like Carmel who’s getting first place in every single event. So it’s just really shocking.”
The honor capped off a day in which she finished fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke and became the second two-time state medalist in the history of the Jay County girls swimming program.
She is the first Patriot girl to win the mental attitude award in any sport and just the fourth overall in school history. The other JCHS athletes to win the award were Tyler Rigby for the 2006 Class 3A state runner-up boys basketball team, Bob Morrison in boys swimming in 1985 and Glenn Glogas in wrestling in 1982.
The award goes to a senior who excels “in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability,” based on nominations by coaches and principals and selection by the IHSAA executive committee.
Bader said she had kind of zoned out when the announcer was talking about Farm Bureau, which sponsors the award, and then she heard her name — “Alexandra Bader.” She was mobbed by her teammates at the north end of the natatorium and then trotted along the east side of the deck to the award podium to accept the honor. It includes a $1,000 scholarship in her name.
Why was she deserving?
“It’s her interaction with her peers,” said Slavik. “It’s her interaction with teachers. It’s her interaction with coaches. It’s her attention to detail in her academics. It’s her attention to detail in athletics. It’s everything.
“She’s the total package when it comes to what I want my daughter to grow up to be like. If my daughter Mara can grow up to be like Alex Bader,” he added, choking back tears, “that would be the highlight of my life.”
Bader had already been the highlight for the Patriots all weekend, first securing herself a second-career state medal by shattering her own school record in the breaststroke Friday night. She returned Saturday to determine what medal she would walk away with.
Swimming in lane two, she hit her start and was in a battle again, for the most part, with the other three girls who joined her in a blistering third heat of the event the night before in the preliminaries. She made the 50-yard turn in sixth place but would not allow herself to slip from where she had finished Friday. She swam the final 50 yards of the race more than a second faster than Kabria Chapman of Franklin to reclaim fifth place.
“I just stood and watched that race in awe,” said Slavik. “I didn’t know what to feel.
“She did exactly what we had known she was going to do all along. It was just good to see hard work, visualization and taking the time to hone her craft paid off.”
Bader’s time of 1:03.59 was the second-fastest of her career, surpassed only by the school record of 1:02.8 from the previous night, and was just 0.11 seconds behind fourth-place finisher Mackenzie Looze of Bloomington South.
She became the first JCHS girls swimmer to medal in back-to-back seasons — she was seventh in the breaststroke last year. She matched her cousin Anne Vormohr for most medals (two) and best finish (fifth) at the state finals.
“I’m really excited. I didn’t have the time I was looking for but I ended up getting the place that I was seeded coming into today, so I was really super stoked about how I did,” said Bader. “It felt good all around. I just feel really glad that I can end on a pretty good note.”
Her fastest time prior to this weekend was 1:03.94, set during the state finals last year.
Bader’s effort Saturday came in a race against Yorktown junior Emily Weiss, who broke the national record with a time of 58.4 seconds. The previous mark of 58.56 had been set in 2015 by Lindsey Horejsi of Albert Lea in Minnesota. (Last season, Weiss broke the Indiana high school record that had been held by 2016 Olympic gold medalist Lilly King.)
Bader also competed in the consolation finals of the 50 freestyle. Right away her legs didn’t feel good, she said, and she was off stroke at the wall leading to an odd flip turn.
She finished 16th in 24.3 seconds, about a half-second slower than when she broke Vormohr’s record Friday. She was 13th in the preliminaries.
Bader tallied 15 points between her two races. That was good enough to place Jay County 23rd out of the 40 teams that scored at the meet.
Carmel won its 32nd consecutive state title in the sport with 363 points. Northridge was a distant second with 215.
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