JCHS earns 7 top seeds

Slick roads delayed the sectional preliminaries by a day.
That didn’t seem to slow down the Patriots.
Jay County High School’s girls swim team earned top seeds in seven of 11 events, including taking the No. 1 and 2 seeds in a pair of events, as it hosted the sectional preliminaries Friday night.
The Patriots will try to parlay that success into a third straight sectional title today, with diving preliminaries beginning at 9 a.m. and swimming and diving finals to follow at 1 p.m.
Norwell, which has defeated JCHS twice this season, earned three top seeds Friday. The other belonged to Delta.
Juniors Ashlyn Dow and Eliza Bader powered the Patriots in the preliminaries, each earning a pair of top seeds. Dow and Mara Bader, Eliza’s freshman sister, earned the top two seeds in the 100-yard breaststroke with times of 1 minute, 9.86 seconds, and 1:12.09, respectively. Meanwhile, Eliza Bader and Lilli Clemmons were one-two in the 50 freestyle at 26.06 and 26.25, respectively.
Dow’s other top seed came in the 100 freestyle as she finished more than a second and a half ahead of No. 2 seed Laure Reiff of Bluffton in 56.27. Eliza Bader picked up her other No. 1 seed in the 100 butterfly with her time of 59.01.
The Bader sisters and Dow were also part of both Jay County relays that earned the top seed. They joined Rieley Brewster to finish the 200 medley relay in 1:53.85 and Erica Hathaway to post a time of 1:43.39 in the 200 freestyle relay.
Mara Bader picked up the other No. 1 seed for the Patriots in the 200 individual medley with her time of 2:20.14, nearly four seconds faster than No. 2 seed Hayden Armstrong of Delta.
Hathaway posted top-three seeds in both of her individual events. She is the No. 2 seed for the 200 freestyle and the No. 3 for the 500 freestyle.
Clemmons added a No. 4 seed in the 100 backstroke and Elayna Paro earned the same spot in the 500 freestyle.
Rieley Brewster qualified for the championship finals in both of her events, posting the No. 5 time in the 100 butterfly and the No. 7 time in the 100 backstroke. Senior twins Hannah and Emma James each picked up a No. 7 seed as well — Hannah in the 200 freestyle and Emma in the breaststroke.
Clemmons, Hathaway, Brewster and Paro picked up the No. 2 seed in the 400 freestyle relay.
Also swimming in the consolation finals Saturday for JCHS will be Hannah James (10th - 100 freestyle), Emily Dues (11th – 100 backstroke, 14th – 100 freestyle) and Paro (12th – 200 individual medley).