Short-handed title

The Patriots were without Erica Hathaway, seeded second in two events, to illness.

Emma James had to sit out because of an injury.

Those absences put a significant dent in their team score. But they still had enough.

Jay County High School’s girls swim team overcame the loss of the pair of seniors by winning nine races, including the final four of the evening, to repeat as Allen County Athletic Conference champions.

The host Patriots still won the title solidly as their 437 points were 58 more than runner-up Bluffton. Adams Central was third with 216, and South Adams was nine points behind in fourth.

JCHS’s boys edged Adams Central (270) for second place with 276 points. Bluffton (418) ran away with the conference crown. South Adams was fourth with 266.

If there was ever any doubt that the Patriot girls, who won last season’s ACAC title by more than 160 points, would repeat, they erased it in the final four events. Not only did they complete a relay sweep, but they took first and second places in both the 100-yard backstroke and 100 breaststroke.

Jay County started the dominant finish in the 200 yard freestyle relay. After Elayna Paro put the home team in the second spot on the opening leg, Lilli Clemmons was the fastest swimmer in the pool on the second leg by more than a second to take the league. From there, Ashlyn Dow and Eliza Bader simply pulled away from the field for a win by more than six seconds in 1 minute, 46.62 seconds.

Clemmons then got right back in the pool alongside fellow junior Rieley Brewster for the 100 backstroke. The duo dominated the race from the start, with the former winning in 1:09.02 and the latter posting the No. 2 time of 1:11.65.

The Patriots continued their pattern of strong breaststroke scoring with Dow and Mara Bader clobbering the field in the event. Dow’s winning time came in at 1:08.31, with Bader (1:13.06) as the runner-up.

Paro, Brewster and the Bader sisters then put the exclamation point on the victory, taking the 400 freestyle relay by nearly four seconds in 4:00.62.

Dow, Clemmons, Brewster and Mara Bader took care of the other relay, posting a time of 1:57.97 in the medley.

The other conference titles came from the Baders, with Eliza taking the 50 freestyle in 25.55 and the 100 butterfly in 1:01.31. Mara Bader, a freshman, won her first ACAC title in the 200 individual medley in 2:22.75.

Bader earned the Patriots’ other conference championship, taking the 200 individual medley by more than two seconds in 2:22.75.

Chase McFarland and Kyle Sanders each earned an ACAC title for the JCHS boys.

Sanders, a sophomore, got the first one of the evening by more than three seconds in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.30. McFarland won his speciality, the 100 backstroke, breaking the 1-minute mark as he finished in 59.87.

Jay County’s girls got some key points in diving, with first-year duo Mikale Knight (141.9) and Rachel Louck (13.25) placing second and third, respectively. Clemmons was third in the 50 freestyle, and Brewster placed third in the butterfly. Hannah James, Emma’s twin sister, was fourth in both the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle, and Paro took fourth in the 100 freestyle.

McFarland added a runner-up finish for the boys team in the 200 freestyle, and Griffin Mann was second in the 100 breaststroke. Posting third-place finishes for JCHS were Josh Monroe (500 freestyle), Justice Murphy (diving) and Sanders (50 freestyle).