Boys fall short of record

The Patriots knew what it would take to give themselves a chance to extend their season.

After swimming to the No. 1 seed Thursday, they would need to go even faster. They would need to challenge the school record.

They did. But it still wasn’t enough.

Jay County High School’s boys swim team finished third in that meet-opening 200-yard medley relay. The host Patriots went on to place fifth in the team standings Saturday as their season came to an end.

“Everybody that swam today, I’m proud of them,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik. “Just good, solid improvement across the board.

“To put things in perspective, we had three freshmen join the 50-second club. We haven’t had that many in a long time. …

“It’s setting things in motion … in order for our boys team to get back to where it once was.”

The Patriots posted 204 points, just over half of the 407 tallied by champion Delta. It was the fifth sectional title in a row for the Eagles, who won eight events and easily surpassed runner-up Norwell (330.5) and third-place Bluffton (315.5).

South Adams was ninth out of 10 scoring teams with 129 points.

Jay County claimed the top seed in the medley relay with its time of 1:44.23, nearly a second faster than Norwell and more than 1.5 seconds faster than Bluffton. The host team grabbed the lead early in Saturday’s finals, but it didn’t last long.

Chase McFarland gave his team a slight advantage — 0.02 seconds — against Norwell’s Braden Mallary on the backstroke leg. However, by the time Skyler Myers dived into the water for the final 50 yards of freestyle, the Patriots were more than 1.5 seconds behind.

“We finished where I expected,” said Slavik. “When we came in seeded first, I was a little bit taken aback. It wasn’t that the other two teams were sandbagging or anything like that, they just had great swims today. …

“Norwell and Bluffton both had tremendous swims … for first place.”

The time for the group of Griffin Mann, Tayler Smeltzer, McFarland and Myers was faster than it had been two days earlier — at 1 minute, 43.38 seconds, it was just 0.17 seconds short of the school record — but still left them more than two seconds off the winning pace. Bluffton and Norwell shared that winning time of 1:41.36, both earning trips to the state finals. 

The top finisher in each swimming event moves on to the state meet while the top four divers advance to the regional level.

Smeltzer was the lone JCHS athlete to make the top eight in both of his individual events. He placed fourth in the 100 butterfly and seventh in the 100 breaststroke. 

“He had a phenomenal couple days,” Slavik said. “His performance in the butterfly and then in the breaststroke today were certainly phenomenal.”

McFarland matched him for the top individual finish as he was fourth in the 100 backstroke.

Myers placed fifth in the 50 freestyle, and Mann posted a sixth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke.

Dorane Beiswanger, Smeltzer, McFarland and Myers teamed for fourth in the 200 freestyle relay. Kyle Sanders, Damian Hicks, Beiswanger and Mann were seventh in the 400 freestyle relay.

For South Adams, Kamden Yoder finished the 50 freestyle in 23 seconds flat to finish as the runner-up to Braden Samuels of Delta in 21.28. Yoder was also third in the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.51.

The only other Starfire to crack the top eight was Curtis Sprunger, who was eighth in the 100 breaststroke.

The top relay finish for SAHS was fifth in the 200 freestyle event as Nic Stuber, Aidan Von Gunten, Isaac Gorrell and Yoder teamed for a time of 1:38.19. Zach Herman, Yoder, Sprunger and Gorrell were sixth in the 200 medley relay.

Also scoring for the Patriots were Justice Murphy (ninth – diving), McFarland (ninth –- 200 freestyle), Mann (ninth – 200 individual medley), Hicks (11th – 100 backstroke, 14th – individual medley), Myers (11th –- 100 freestyle), Sanders (12th – 100 freestyle, 16th –- 200 freestyle), Beiswanger (15th – 100 butterfly) and Ben Nichols (15th – 100 breaststroke).

Competing in the consolation finals for South Adams were Gorrell (12th – 50 freestyle, 14th –- 100 freestyle), Von Gunten (13th –- 200 individual medley), Ethan Duff (15th –- 200 individual medley), Herman (15th –- 100 backstroke) and Alec Neuenschwander (16th – 100 butterfly). The Starfires were 10th in the 400 freestyle relay.