July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Host Patriots take five titles (01/15/07)
JCHS swimming
Host Patriots take five titles (01/15/07)
By By RAY COONEY-
As Barry Weaver points out, in swimming there is no defense, nothing you can do to slow down the opponent. All that can be expected of a swimmer is their best effort and whatever points come with that.
As Saturday proved, the Jay County swim team's best continues to get better.
A year ago Cori Vormohr was the only Patriot to win an Olympic Athletic Conference title as both teams finished third in the four-team field. Hosting the conference meet this season, JCHS walked away with five championships and a runner-up finish for the girls squad.
Vormohr added two more titles and April Acker chipped in a third as the girls scored 342 points to edge Connersville (333) for second place. Anderson Highland won easily with 425, and Muncie Southside was in the basement with 81.
"It felt great," said Vormohr, who broke her own school record in the 100-yard butterfly as she picked up a pair of OAC championships for the second straight season. "My swims were strong, but it felt better because our team got runner-up. That was our goal coming into the meet.
"We all came together as a team. We had good attitudes. We were all pumped up. Since Thursday night this week we were all just ready to swim."
Jay County's boys fell just short of second place with 304 points to Highland's 310, but Sam Miller and Steven Kelly earned OAC crowns in the process. Connersville ran away with the boys championship with 406 points, and Southside finished with 189.
"I was extremely pleased," said Weaver of his boys' effort. "We dropped great amounts of time today. All three relays did an outstanding job ... the B relays all came through (as well). ... We probably had 75-to-80 percent bests, and we were probably also the team with the most close misses, and that's OK. At least we're there. We're not 10 miles behind like we have been sometimes.
"I'm real pleased with them. I'd say they did an outstanding job."
The meet played out as expected on the girls side, with Connersville and Jay County in a battle for second place. But Patriot girls coach Bev Arnold said she was afraid her team may have dug a hole it could not escape. Her girls were down by nearly 30 points at the mid-way point of the meet, but the final round of diving started their comeback.
April Acker and Tricia Skiver held their positions through the final three dives, with Acker winning the OAC title by more than 50 points with a total of 300.4. Skiver finished in third place with 247.8, just behind runner-up Stephanie Isaac (249.8).
"The two divers, they've only done one other 11-dive meet this year, and they both surpassed that by about 30 points," said Arnold. "They both had career records by quite a bit - really nice efforts from April and Tricia."
Vormohr, Briann Saxman and Maddie Fennig followed up the diving effort by turning in a trio of career-best times in the 100 butterfly, including Vormohr's new school mark of 1:02.16. Saxman and Fennig were sixth and seventh respectively to cut the Patriot deficit to just nine points.
Connersville pushed back ahead by 16 with its effort in the 500 freestyle, but then Jay County got a spark from its backstroke trio. Ivy Simons, Caitlin Ruchgy and Stephanie Skiver combined to make the event the highest scoring of the day for the Patriots, finishing in third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Simons held her seed with a season-best 1:18.15, and Ruchgy finished behind her in 1:19.60. Skiver, seeded sixth, put up a career-best by more than a full second to jump to fifth place as Jay County closed the gap to three points.
Vormohr's breaststroke victory in 1:12.01 along with fifth- and sixth-place efforts by fellow sophomores Lauren Murrell and Kelci Reed lifted the Patriots into second place. Then the team finished second and fifth in the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay - Connersville was third and sixth - to hold on to the runner-up spot.
"Our backstrokers stepped up to the call," said Arnold. "We haven't been real strong in backstroke, and they were our highest scoring event today. They really stepped in there.
"And then we went and talked to our breaststrokers and said, 'You've got to step up a little bit,' and they did as well.
"I tried to stress to the girls that it was a total team effort that got this done. Everybody's point, whether it was a 12th-place point or seventh-place points, everybody had to contribute to get done what we got done today."
Like Acker for the girls, Kelly all but had first-place diving points locked up for Jay County before the swimming portion of the meet even started. He had a significant lead after the first eight dives, then held off Southside's Keatyn May (312.6) to give the Patriots a sweep of the OAC diving titles with 324.5 points.
Teammate Donny McCowan followed him in third with 267.95.
Miller wrapped his championship and a second-place finish around Kelly's title.
He didn't get off to a great start in the 50 freestyle, but proved best once in the water. He pushed past Clayton Judd of Connersville, breaking the 24-second barrier for first time this season at 23.52.
After the break for diving, Miller missed a second OAC victory by less than a half second. Still, he finished with a career-best 57.83 as he took the runner-up spot in the 100 butterfly behind Highland's Zach Weston (57.36).
Aaron Hudson came in behind Miller in third place with a time of 1:01.16.
"I was real pleased with Steven (Kelly)," said Weaver. "He was consistent. That was his best score by about 40 or 50 points. There are still some things that (can improve), but overall I'm real pleased with his progress.
"We put (Miller) there and we've seen him do a 23 in a relay (in the 50 freestyle), but we've never seen him do it off a flat start because his knee has been a problem. Now he's done it flat, and that might be a thing for us to build on. He's trying real hard to get back into shape. He still can't do much in the way of kicking."
Jay County had another near-miss in the 100 backstroke as junior Tom McCord came as close as he possibly could have without walking away with a conference medal. He battled Connersville's Ben Herdrich up and down the pool, finishing in 1:00.41. Herdrich was just one hundredth of a second better as he out-touched McCord in 1:00.40.
Third-place results for the girls team came with a pair of career-best times by Ashley Horn in the 200 freestyle (2:21.28) and Michelle Landfair in the 100 freestyle (1:00.88).
Vormohr, Landfair, Saxman and Tina Gingrasso teamed for second-place in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:52.69 and the 400 freestyle relay at 4:07.50.
The top relay effort for the Patriot boys came in the 200 freestyle event where Hudson, Andres Ayesta, Chance Milligan and Scott Walker finished in 1:41.91.
Weaver also had high praise for Nathan Cain (sixth - 500 freestyle, ninth - 200 freestyle) and Thomas Bowen (ninth - 100 butterfly, 10th - 200 individual medley).
"Thomas Bowen had an outstanding day," Weaver said. "That's not a kid who is going to get a first-place for you, but he cut eight seconds off his IM and another three or four off his fly.
"Nathan Cain had a great day. ... He's getting better and better.
"Those are the things that are going to help us overall. They're just getting stronger. That's what we like to see out of them."[[In-content Ad]]
As Saturday proved, the Jay County swim team's best continues to get better.
A year ago Cori Vormohr was the only Patriot to win an Olympic Athletic Conference title as both teams finished third in the four-team field. Hosting the conference meet this season, JCHS walked away with five championships and a runner-up finish for the girls squad.
Vormohr added two more titles and April Acker chipped in a third as the girls scored 342 points to edge Connersville (333) for second place. Anderson Highland won easily with 425, and Muncie Southside was in the basement with 81.
"It felt great," said Vormohr, who broke her own school record in the 100-yard butterfly as she picked up a pair of OAC championships for the second straight season. "My swims were strong, but it felt better because our team got runner-up. That was our goal coming into the meet.
"We all came together as a team. We had good attitudes. We were all pumped up. Since Thursday night this week we were all just ready to swim."
Jay County's boys fell just short of second place with 304 points to Highland's 310, but Sam Miller and Steven Kelly earned OAC crowns in the process. Connersville ran away with the boys championship with 406 points, and Southside finished with 189.
"I was extremely pleased," said Weaver of his boys' effort. "We dropped great amounts of time today. All three relays did an outstanding job ... the B relays all came through (as well). ... We probably had 75-to-80 percent bests, and we were probably also the team with the most close misses, and that's OK. At least we're there. We're not 10 miles behind like we have been sometimes.
"I'm real pleased with them. I'd say they did an outstanding job."
The meet played out as expected on the girls side, with Connersville and Jay County in a battle for second place. But Patriot girls coach Bev Arnold said she was afraid her team may have dug a hole it could not escape. Her girls were down by nearly 30 points at the mid-way point of the meet, but the final round of diving started their comeback.
April Acker and Tricia Skiver held their positions through the final three dives, with Acker winning the OAC title by more than 50 points with a total of 300.4. Skiver finished in third place with 247.8, just behind runner-up Stephanie Isaac (249.8).
"The two divers, they've only done one other 11-dive meet this year, and they both surpassed that by about 30 points," said Arnold. "They both had career records by quite a bit - really nice efforts from April and Tricia."
Vormohr, Briann Saxman and Maddie Fennig followed up the diving effort by turning in a trio of career-best times in the 100 butterfly, including Vormohr's new school mark of 1:02.16. Saxman and Fennig were sixth and seventh respectively to cut the Patriot deficit to just nine points.
Connersville pushed back ahead by 16 with its effort in the 500 freestyle, but then Jay County got a spark from its backstroke trio. Ivy Simons, Caitlin Ruchgy and Stephanie Skiver combined to make the event the highest scoring of the day for the Patriots, finishing in third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Simons held her seed with a season-best 1:18.15, and Ruchgy finished behind her in 1:19.60. Skiver, seeded sixth, put up a career-best by more than a full second to jump to fifth place as Jay County closed the gap to three points.
Vormohr's breaststroke victory in 1:12.01 along with fifth- and sixth-place efforts by fellow sophomores Lauren Murrell and Kelci Reed lifted the Patriots into second place. Then the team finished second and fifth in the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay - Connersville was third and sixth - to hold on to the runner-up spot.
"Our backstrokers stepped up to the call," said Arnold. "We haven't been real strong in backstroke, and they were our highest scoring event today. They really stepped in there.
"And then we went and talked to our breaststrokers and said, 'You've got to step up a little bit,' and they did as well.
"I tried to stress to the girls that it was a total team effort that got this done. Everybody's point, whether it was a 12th-place point or seventh-place points, everybody had to contribute to get done what we got done today."
Like Acker for the girls, Kelly all but had first-place diving points locked up for Jay County before the swimming portion of the meet even started. He had a significant lead after the first eight dives, then held off Southside's Keatyn May (312.6) to give the Patriots a sweep of the OAC diving titles with 324.5 points.
Teammate Donny McCowan followed him in third with 267.95.
Miller wrapped his championship and a second-place finish around Kelly's title.
He didn't get off to a great start in the 50 freestyle, but proved best once in the water. He pushed past Clayton Judd of Connersville, breaking the 24-second barrier for first time this season at 23.52.
After the break for diving, Miller missed a second OAC victory by less than a half second. Still, he finished with a career-best 57.83 as he took the runner-up spot in the 100 butterfly behind Highland's Zach Weston (57.36).
Aaron Hudson came in behind Miller in third place with a time of 1:01.16.
"I was real pleased with Steven (Kelly)," said Weaver. "He was consistent. That was his best score by about 40 or 50 points. There are still some things that (can improve), but overall I'm real pleased with his progress.
"We put (Miller) there and we've seen him do a 23 in a relay (in the 50 freestyle), but we've never seen him do it off a flat start because his knee has been a problem. Now he's done it flat, and that might be a thing for us to build on. He's trying real hard to get back into shape. He still can't do much in the way of kicking."
Jay County had another near-miss in the 100 backstroke as junior Tom McCord came as close as he possibly could have without walking away with a conference medal. He battled Connersville's Ben Herdrich up and down the pool, finishing in 1:00.41. Herdrich was just one hundredth of a second better as he out-touched McCord in 1:00.40.
Third-place results for the girls team came with a pair of career-best times by Ashley Horn in the 200 freestyle (2:21.28) and Michelle Landfair in the 100 freestyle (1:00.88).
Vormohr, Landfair, Saxman and Tina Gingrasso teamed for second-place in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:52.69 and the 400 freestyle relay at 4:07.50.
The top relay effort for the Patriot boys came in the 200 freestyle event where Hudson, Andres Ayesta, Chance Milligan and Scott Walker finished in 1:41.91.
Weaver also had high praise for Nathan Cain (sixth - 500 freestyle, ninth - 200 freestyle) and Thomas Bowen (ninth - 100 butterfly, 10th - 200 individual medley).
"Thomas Bowen had an outstanding day," Weaver said. "That's not a kid who is going to get a first-place for you, but he cut eight seconds off his IM and another three or four off his fly.
"Nathan Cain had a great day. ... He's getting better and better.
"Those are the things that are going to help us overall. They're just getting stronger. That's what we like to see out of them."[[In-content Ad]]
Top Stories
9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit
Chartwells marketing
September 17, 2024 7:36 a.m.
Events
250 X 250 AD