Jay County High School sophomore Maddy Snow spins above the pool during a dive at Saturday’s sectional meet. Snow’s season came to an end Tuesday as she finished 13th in the diving regional at Hamilton Southeastern. (The Commercial Review/Ray Cooney)
Jay County High School sophomore Maddy Snow spins above the pool during a dive at Saturday’s sectional meet. Snow’s season came to an end Tuesday as she finished 13th in the diving regional at Hamilton Southeastern. (The Commercial Review/Ray Cooney)
FISHERS — Maddy Snow beat both of the divers who finished in front of her in the sectional.

It wasn’t quite enough to get her through to the finals.

Snow, a Jay County High School sophomore, saw her season come to an end Tuesday as she finished 13th in the regional diving meet at Hamilton Southeastern.

The top eight competitors from each regional advance to Saturday’s state finals.

Snow finished with 214.35 points, finishing 0.95 points ahead of sectional champion Grier Backus of Delta. Ava West of Delta, who finished second ahead of Snow in the sectional, was 17th at 189.15.

The effort was a big step forward for Snow, who was the last diver cut as the field was trimmed from 20 to 12 after the semifinals (eight dives). Her score was 36.3 points higher than in the regional tournament last season at Homestead.

Amelia Rinehart, who placed fourth in the state last season, ran away with the regional title as she scored 471.65 points for 11 dives. Joining her as state qualifiers were Gretchen Osmun (397.1) of Fishers, Melaina Munson of Carmel, Eryn McMahon of Noblesville, Ella Penny of Hamilton Southeastern, Grace Whitfield of Zionsville, Abby Sneed of Oak Hill and Elizabeth Murotani of Homestead.



Three honored

Jay County High School had three players named to the All-Allen County Athletic Conference Team, with seniors Renna Schwieterman and Gabi Bilbrey named to the first team and junior Sophie Saxman to the second team.

Schwieterman, who finished her career as the No. 2 scorer in conference history behind 1998 Bluffton graduate Abby Salscheider (1,917 points) with 1,754 points, averaged 21.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.3 steals and 2.5 assists per game this season. Bilbrey had averages of 13.3 points and 7.6 rebounds for the Patriots (23-2, 6-0 ACAC), who swept their way to the conference regular-season and tournament titles.

Joining Schwieterman and Bilbrey on the first team were Avah Smith and Taylor Kneubuhler of Woodlan, Macy Pries of South Adams and Claire Bickel of Heritage.

Saxman finished the year at 6.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game.



JH girls fourth

OSSIAN — The Jay County junior high swim team placed fourth with 211 points Tuesday in the eight-team Norwell Invitational.

The Patriots were 19 points ahead of fifth-place Bellmont. Indian Springs (466) won ahead of the host Knights (449) and Bluffton (437).

Jay County had its best success in the long-distance events, with Elly Byrum second in the 200-yard freestyle in 2 minutes, 26.35 seconds, and Gabby Gibson following in fourth place. Kaitlyn Fisher was second in the 400 freestyle at 5:24.36.

Other top-four finishes came from Ariel Beiswanger (third – 100 freestyle, fourth – 50 freestyle), Kali Wendel (fourth – 100 backstroke) and Fisher (fourth – 100 individual medley).

Byrum, Fisher, Gibson and Beiswanger also teamed to place third in the 300 freestyle.