Four win crowns (01/14/08)

Any Patriot fan who was in attendance at the Olympic Athletic Conference meet a year ago got a pretty good idea of what they would see Saturday.

Jay County High School's conference champions from 2007 - Cori Vormohr, Sam Miller, April Acker and Steven Kelly - all repeated, and junior Miller added a second victory, giving the team six titles as both the boys and girls teams finished third in the four-team field.

Anderson Highland was dominant in the girls competition with 433 points. Connersville scored 369 to edge Jay County (359) for second place, and Muncie Southside was a distant fourth.

Connersville edged Highland 397-392 for the boys title. Jay County was third with 349, and Southside (115) finished fourth.

While both Patriot coaches had second-place hopes, neither had any complaints after the meet.

"The thing I'm most pleased about is the fantastic swims," said girls coach Bev Arnold. "We had personal bests everywhere today. ... It's also really exciting that our conference champions from a year ago repeated."

"Overall, I think we had an outstanding day," added boys coach Barry Weaver. "I feel like we did what we could do today.

"A lot of the young kids really dropped some time. It was just one after the other ... and that's what we're looking for."

Vormohr and Miller, and divers Acker and Kelly, highlighted the meet for the Patriots.

Vormohr broke school records in a pair of events and created an even more impressive piece of school history.

The junior was the No. 1 seed in the 100-yard butterfly, but two others were within a half-second. That would not be the case by the close of the race.

After trailing by four tenths of a second at the mid-point, Vormohr pulled even with 25 yards to go. She roared down the stretch, destroying her own school record of 1-minute, 2.16 seconds with a time of 59.98.

It marked the first time in 33 years of school history that any female swimmer had broken the 1-minute mark in a stroke other than freestyle.

"Wow. That's a double wow," said Arnold. "Not only was she a repeat conference champion, she set two school records today. She's our first female in Jay County history to swim a stroke event under a minute. ... And she just kind of took that in stride."

Vormohr faced no challenge in her second event, taking the breaststroke by more than six seconds. Her time of 1:10.32 was four tenths better than her previous school record.

Miller matched Vormohr's two titles with relative ease as he was in control of both of his events. He had a solid two-second lead midway through the 200 individual medley, and won by more than four seconds in breaking his own school record by two seconds in 2:03.66.

The junior took the 100 butterfly title by more than a second in 54.75.

He also turned in an incredible final leg of the 400 freestyle relay, swimming his first 50 yards in 21.73 seconds and finishing his 100 in 47.62. Only two swimmers in JCHS history, Jason Arnold and multiple state champion Bob Morrison, have ever been faster.

"I was very stunned," said Weaver. "To go out in a 100 that fast ... says a few things. He's a very good swimmer now, and he's got some very good times. But I think he's one of those who maybe could turn in some great times, some really state-level times.

"It really surprised me going out in 21.7, because that was the fourth event of the day. When you've already won two events and swam a school-record time ... that's pretty amazing."

Each of Jay County's diving titles came in comeback fashion.

April Acker trailed by 16 points to Kayla Byrne of Highland after the preliminary round, and was still down by 4.7 heading into the final three dives. However she rallied back to take the title by seven points, breaking the 300-point barrier for the first time in her career with a score of 301.75.

Kelly and Donny McCowan sat second and third for Jay County behind Connersville's David Goins after the preliminaries, but jumped into the top two slots in the semifinals. McCowan was first after eight, nine and 10 dives, but Kelly edged past him with his final dive to win by 0.9 points at 318.65.

"They did some consistent things," said Weaver of his one-two diving finish. "Steven ... turned around in the middle and had enough scores to get him right up near the top. The last three ... were solid.

"(Acker) actually started out a little slowly this morning," said Arnold, noting that most of the junior's lower degree of difficulty dives came early in the day. "She kind of found herself in a little deficit, but just kept chipping away. ... April dove really, really strong in those last three dives."

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