Jay boys win opener, girls lose to Bluffton (12/03/03)

PORTLAND — Tuesday’s swim meet resulted in two happy Patriot coaches, even if they weren’t two winning coaches.

Barry Weaver’s Jay County boys team opened its season with a 98-83 victory over the Bluffton Tigers. The girls team, with part-time assistant Andrea Oswalt coaching for the night, slipped to a 100-86 defeat.

“I’ve got no faults,” said Weaver of his team’s effort. “To come back and win our first meet after some losses from last year was great. The effort they put out — especially the new kids — they really did a super job.”

“I’m extremely proud of them,” said Oswalt. “The margin was much, much smaller than anticipated.”

Weaver’s squad was nearly as dominant as last season when it won all but one event against Bluffton. This year’s squad took all but two victories, swept one event and took first and second in another.

Seniors Derick Lee and Adam Miller set the pace, each picking up two individual wins while leading a pair of relay victories.

Miller had easily the most exciting win of the night in the 100-yard freestyle. The race was extremely close all the way, with Miller outreaching Trayton White to win by four hundredths of a second in 56.21 seconds.

He was also in a battle through the first 25 yards of the 50-yard freestyle, but used a great flip turn to surge far ahead for a win in 24.74. Senior teammate Daniel Fisher took second in 26.51.

Lee was the lone Patriot in the pool for the 100-yard butterfly, but had no problems handling his three Bluffton competitors. He dominated the race, winning by more than three seconds in a time of 1:05.77.

He also led the sweep of the individual medley in 2:31.72.

Senior Dave Johnston had the second best time in the race, reaching the wall in 2:42.88. Nick Ehrhart finished third, aided by the disqualification of two Tiger swimmers.

Miller and Lee teamed with Johnston and Fisher for a time of 1:57.52 to win the 200-yard medley relay. Miller, Fisher, Joseph Vormohr and Matt Peterson were first in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:13.56, and Lee, Johnston, Peterson and Josh Hawn won the 400-yard freestyle relay in 4:03.35.

Johnston and Fisher added the other wins, finishing the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard breaststroke respectively in almost identical times. Johnston reached the wall in 1:13.56, and Fisher finished in 1:13.63.

Peterson scored 20 points better in diving than he did in last season’s opening meet, taking first with 173.70 points.

“Josh Hawn has really come a long way,” said Weaver of the sophomore who took on the 500-yard freestyle. In fact, he had praise for all of his younger swimmers for their efforts behind the first-place finishers. “In the past we’ve had four or five guys who could do just about anything. Now we’ve got less of them, but we’ve still got guys who can compete.”

Oswalt said girls coach Bev Arnold thought her team might have trouble finding wins outside of diving, but the Patriots (2-2) took first place in half of Tuesday’s events. As with last week’s meet against Adams Central, they held the lead much of the way before fading in the final three events.

Miller did come through with her diving victory as usual, pulling solid scores on all of her six dives. She finished with 246.10 points as she tries to chase down Dawn Ogden’s school record of 269.30.

Senior co-captain Rachel McKee again turned in a good performance, as did junior Julie Sours.

McKee picked up her individual victory in the 100-yard freestyle in 1:02.15. But, she was beaten in the 50-yard freestyle for the first time this year by Bluffton’s Kristyn Spera.

Sours earned her victory in the 200-yard individual medley, easily topping the rest of the field in 2:40.78. Ashley Imel added the other individual win for the Patriots, finishing first in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:15.24.

Jay County truly closed the gap with the Tigers by taking a pair of relay victories with McKee and Sours leading the charge.

McKee held even with Spera on her backstroke leg to start the 200-yard medley relay, and Sours built a small lead for the team on the breaststroke. Freshman Amber Kelly kept the Patriots even on the butterfly, and sophomore Lindsey Vesperry held off the Tigers for a one-second win in 2:12.76.

Sours, Kelly and Vesperry stayed close enough with their Bluffton foes in the 200-yard freestyle relay for McKee to pull away in her final 25 yards for a victorious time of 1:55.69.

“It was pretty much across the board,” said Oswalt of her team’s effort to make the tigers sweat. “They girls really turned in some nice swims.”

Jay County will go on the road Thursday to take on Anderson Highland at 6 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]