Jay boys split, girls sweep dual

Copyright 2018, The Commercial Review

All Rights Reserved

With no pressure of a conference meet on the horizon, the Patriots were able to concentrate on their “off” events.

The change in routine almost worked for the boys team.

The girls, per usual, dominated.

Jay County High School’s boys swim team came up short of a pair of victories to earn a split and the girls squad continued its undefeated season Tuesday in a double dual meet with the Burris Owls and Blackford Bruins.

Despite only winning two events up until the final race of the night, the 400-yard freestyle relay, the JCHS boys could have made it a Patriot sweep.

“We needed to win and our B relay had to beat their B relay,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik, whose team lost to Burris 90-84 but beat Blackford 99-65. “Had that happened we win by a point, two points.

“But we didn’t. It is what it is.”

The Patriot relay, including Chase McFarland, Tayler Smeltzer and Skyler Myers, was neck-and-neck with the Burris team through the first 150 yards.

As Burris senior Jason Minnich — he spent his freshman and sophomore seasons as a member of the Patriots — dived into the pool he kept the Owls’ slight lead over JCHS anchor Garrett Campbell. As they made the turn following 25 yards, Minnich began to pull away. Minnich, who also won the 200 freestyle (1 minute, 57.72 seconds) and 100 freestyle (51.73 seconds), gave Burris a time of 3:39.85, nearly six seconds faster than Jay County.

“It is good competition,” Slavik said. His team moves to 3-9 ahead of a Thursday home meet with the Marion Giants. “My hat’s off to Burris, they’ve come a long way in the last couple years. They have a pretty solid boys team.”

Myers and Campbell accounted for the only two individual wins for the JCHS boys. Myers won the 50 free in 24.24 seconds, while Campbell was first in the 100 backstroke in 1:01.75.

Myers, McFarland, Smeltzer and Campbell combined to take first in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:41.59.

“They’re in events just because they wanted personal goals in those events and I knew they could win,” Slavik said. “They need a break. They’ve been going hard and everybody needs a break from events and we’re to a mindset we’re just focusing everything toward sectional, both boys and girls, and still trying to pick up some wins.”

Jay County’s girls proved once again depth is their best asset. The Patriots (12-0), who are in the wake of Saturday’s Allen County Athletic Conference championship, had nine event victories and went one-two in five of them.

“All of our relays we can mess with a little bit and try something new to get them away from the monotony of their best events,” Slavik said. “I can go through my whole roster and tell you something good about them.”

Jay County kicked off the swimming events with a victory in the 200 medley relay behind the efforts of Elizabeth McDowell, Vivienne Kunkler, Eliza Bader and Ashlyn Dow. They swam to a time of 1:59.43.

Dow went on to win both the 200 individual medley (2:21.27) and 500 freestyle (5:54.56) in leading a charge of Jay County swimmers taking the top two spots. Bader, who also won the 100 breaststroke (1:16.27) ahead of Lilli Clemmons, was runner-up in the 200 IM while Kunkler placed second in the 500 freestyle.

Alex Bader and Kunkler went one-two in the 200 freestyle, with Bader taking the top spot in 2:08.5. Bader was also victorious in the 100 butterfly (1:02.23)

Mackenzie Knisley got the other individual win for the Patriots, scoring 139.3 points to win diving.

Jay County swept the top two positions in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. McDowell, Kunkler and the Baders won the former in 1:48.71, while Alex Bader, Rieley Brewster, Erica Hathaway and Dow nabbed the latter in 3:57.78.

“Everybody was pretty excited to try something new, just kind of go out and swim and have no pressure and do their thing,” Slavik said.