Finishing at the final

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INDIANAPOLIS — When Alex Bader broke the record she had been chasing for the last two years, her reaction was a subdued fist pump and a small grin.

Yes, she had accomplished a major goal.

But she was far from finished.

It wasn’t until after the Jay County High School senior swam the greatest breaststroke race of her life and then watched the bulk of the final heat fail to surpass her time that she let it all out, leaping and screaming on the pool deck behind lane four before getting wrapped up in a hug from her younger sister Eliza.

Bader’s school-record time of 1 minute, 2.8 seconds, was good for fifth place in Friday night’s preliminaries of the 100-yard breaststroke at the IHSAA Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals at Indiana University Natatorium to guarantee her a second state medal.

“It’s just awesome because all of my hard work from the last 14, 15 years has finally paid off,” said Bader, who took part in her first competitive swim meet a few weeks before her fourth birthday. “It’s finally all coming together for me.

“It’s amazing, because I get to end my high school career on a really good note, which makes me really happy.”

She joins her cousin Anne Vormohr as the only two-time state medalists in girls swimming in JCHS history after placing seventh in her signature event a year ago.

Bader was part of a blazing third heat of the breaststroke in which each of the top four swimmers made the turn prior to the clock hitting the 30-second mark. Bader was fourth at the midpoint of the race and stayed strong there in the second 50 yards to break her previous school record of 1:03.94.

No one in the first two heats had gone faster than 1:04, meaning Bader just needed her time to be faster than four swimmers in the final heat to lock in a top-eight finish and a state medal.

As it turned out, the only swimmer in that final heat who surpassed her was Yorktown’s Emily Weiss, the defending state champion, state record holder and runner-up at junior nationals in December.

“It was just awesome because she’s going to become an Olympian,” said Bader. “And then I just knew after that that I had guaranteed my spot to get another medal for the school. I was just super proud.”

JCHS coach Matt Slavik said Bader had been swimming sub-1:03 times in practice all week. He had predicted his senior would surprise the Indiana high school swimming world again this year, as she did last year, by climbing from her No. 8 seed.

She proved him right.

“Holy smokes,” he said. “What a day. Holy cow. Words can’t express how I feel for Alex right now.

“The absolute best race that I could have ever hoped for this weekend is Alex. I knew she had it when she hit the wall ... and she was out in 29.7 ... I think she can come back stronger tomorrow.”

Earning her second breaststroke medal was the culmination of a record-breaking day for Bader.

While she surpassed her own mark in the 100-breaststroke, she also took Vormohr’s name down in the 50 freestyle after coming into the meet as the No. 17 seed. It was a record she had been chasing for the last two seasons, one she fell short of by just three hundredths of a second during the sectional meet at her home pool. So when she hit the wall and turned around to see her time, it was satisfaction that washed over her.

“It was just nice to finally see the time that I wanted in that 50 free,” said Bader, whose time of 23.79 surpassed the previous record by 0.09 seconds and was good for 13th to earn a spot in today’s consolation finals. “I had been really close in sectional, but I just wanted to get that record. And I knew to come back tomorrow I would have to go a best time.”

South Adams’ Ashley LeFever came agonizingly close to joining Bader in returning to swim today. She climbed from the No. 25 seed to 17th place in the 100 freestyle with her time of 52.36, missing the top 16 and a spot in the consolation finals by slightly more than a tenth of a second.

While the elder Bader highlighted the evening, Jay County made drastic leaps in both of its relays.

It started with Elizabeth McDowell, Ashlyn Dow, Eliza Bader and Alex Bader climbing from the No. 29 seed to 21st place in the 200 medley relay with a season-best time of 1:50.54. That was more than half a second better than their seed time.

As if that were not enough, Vivienne Kunkler joined Dow and the Bader sisters for an even bigger jump in the 200 freestyle relay. They were 2.7 seconds faster than they were at the sectional meet to claim 18th place after coming in as the No. 30 seed.

“It’s just the atmosphere,” said Kunkler, a junior. “It’s state. You get to swim at state with the fastest people around ... It’s unbelievable. Just to get the chance to swim, even if you don’t get top 16, just to swim, I don’t know, it’s amazing.”

“They swam a great relay,” said Slavik. “They did everything I asked. They were a half-second out of coming back. We went faster than we went all year.”

In other individual events Friday night, Eliza Bader, a freshman, posted a time of 1:01.42 for 31st in the 100 butterfly, and Erica Hathaway, a sophomore, was 32nd in the 500 freestyle in 5:48.54.

With everyone else’s state meet complete, the focus for Jay County today will be entirely on Alex Bader as she closes out her career before heading to Ball State University next year. She’ll warm up by trying to surpass her brand-new record in the 50 freestyle and then hopes to climb even higher on the breaststroke ladder.

She was, after all, just five hundredths of a second behind Madison Blakesley of South Bend Riley for fourth place Friday, and just one tenth behind Bloomington South’s Mackenzie Looze for third.

“Place-wise, I do want to stay in the top five and maybe move up a bit because second through fifth place were all 1:02s,” she said. “I know it was really neck-and-neck there, so it could be anybody’s race tomorrow.”