On the Chase

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Chase McFarland has had his sights set on reaching the 50-second club all season.

He got himself two seconds away heading into Thursday’s sectional preliminaries with hopes of finally reaching his goal.

As he made his third turn for the final 25 yards he churned his arms like a windmill all the while staring at the board looking at his time.

“I’ve got to go,” he told himself.

He’s now part of a special group.

McFarland, a Jay County High School junior, broke 1 minute in the 100-yard backstroke to earn the third overall seed and helped the Patriots’ 200-medley relay turn in the fastest time on Thursday in the IHSAA boys swimming sectional prelims.

“Feel amazing,” said McFarland, who had a time of 59.98 seconds. “I’ve been trying to go for it all year and I got down to 1:02. (Coach Matt) Slavik told me I could do it.

“I was just so nervous. I tried to turn that nervousness into excitement and I got it.”

McFarland joins seniors Tayler Smeltzer and Skyler Myers as the best individual performers when the meet resumes Saturday with diving prelims set for 9 a.m. Swimming resumes at 1 p.m.

Smeltzer is seeded third in both the 100 butterfly (56.4 seconds) and 100 breaststroke (1:05.65), and Myers is tied for third in the 50 freestyle (24.1 seconds).

The top eight places swim in the championship heat Saturday, with seeds nine through 16 competing in the consolation finals.

Griffin Mann, Myers, McFarland and Smeltzer kicked off the meet by earning the top seed in the 200 medley relay with their time of 1:44.23, a mere second away from the school record.

“We certainly told them the only way they are going to win that thing is if they swim a perfect race and they darn near swam a perfect one today,” Slavik said. “I love starting meets off when we rock and roll in the medley relay because it sets the tone and it carried us through today as well.”

The last time the Patriots sent a relay to state was five years ago when Cody White, Sok Vormohr, James Keen and Josh Lykins qualified in the 400 freestyle relay.

McFarland is confident his team can hold on to the top seed on Saturday, which is ahead of Norwell by 0.93 seconds.

“I think it’s possible, yeah,” he said. “We just have to go hard and compete as a team.”

The South Adams medley relay team of Zach Herman, Curtis Sprunger, Kam Yoder and Isaac Gorrell is seeded sixth.

Dorane Beiswanger, Smeltzer, McFarland and Myers teamed to earn the fourth seed in the 200 freestyle relay for Saturday in 1:37.47. Aidan Von Gunten, Nic Stuber, Gorrell and Yoder earned the eighth seed after a swim-off with Muncie Central. Yoder made up more than a full body length in the final 50 meters to get the final championship spot.

Mann will also swim in the championship heat of the 100 breaststroke as he is seeded sixth. He’ll join Reid Claycomb, Konner Sommers and Sanders as the eight seed in the 400 freestyle relay.

Yoder will compete in the championship heats of the 50 freestyle (23.11) and 100 butterfly (57.2) races as he is seeded second and fourth respectively. Braden Samuels of Delta set sectional and pool records with his time of 51.52 seconds, one hundredth of a second faster than the state standard. Sprunger will also swim in the championship heat of the 100 breaststroke for the Starfires as the eighth seed.

Delta, which is four-time defending sectional champion, is the top seed in six of the 11 swimming events.

Competing in the consolation finals for Jay County are Damian Hicks (11th – 100 backstroke, 14th – 200 IM), Ben Nichols (14th – 100 breaststroke), McFarland (ninth – 200 freestyle), Mann (ninth – 200 IM), Myers (ninth – 100 freetsyle), Sanders (13th – 100 freestyle, 16th – 200 freestyle) and Beiswanger (15th – 100 butterfly).

Ethan Duff (15th – 200 IM), Von Gunten (12th – 200 IM), Gorrell (12th – 100 freestyle, 13th – 50 freestyle), Herman (13th – 100 backstroke) will all compete in the consolation finals for the Starfires. Alec Neuenschwander, Stuber, Von Gunten and Herman are the 10th seed in the 400 freestyle relay.