Jay Co. 8th at Norwell (11/13/06)

OSSIAN - Jay County finished in the same place as last season. But that wasn't the focus for coach Bev Arnold.

While the Patriot girls swim team finished eighth out of nine teams for the second straight year with 82 points, Arnold said the individual efforts superseded the team placing.

"We had a lot of career-best times, or, what I'm just as pleased with is the fact that they are better than they were at their first meet a year ago," said Arnold, whose team scored 78 points in 2005. "That says a lot, because we didn't have the preseason opportunity to have open pools and do things like we've done in other years. I'm really excited about the times.

"That final placing doesn't mean as much to me as the fact that the individuals are getting better."

Jessica Sharp was fourth and fifth in her two individual events for the South Adams Starfires, who finished in the middle of the field with 124 points. Bishop Dwenger won with 308, and Columbia City was second with 207.

Sophomore Cori Vormohr was the best local swimmer on the day as she posted a pair of runner-up finishes and led the Patriots' best relay.

Vormohr broke her own school record in the individual medley, which she first set last season at Norwell. She fought Bishop Dwenger's Maggie Kinley for the lead throughout the race and finished second by an arm's length in 2:18.84.

She was also second to Kinley in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.60.

Vormohr, Tina Gingrasso, Christa Castillo and Michelle Landfair teamed for the top Jay County relay effort, finishing fourth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:55.11.

The South Adams team of Sharp, Megan Myers, Jansen Yoder and Shannon Muselman was fifth in 1:56.40.

"Cori started out last year setting a new school record in the first individual event she swam in her career," said Arnold, "and continuing on at that pace in the first individual event she swam this year she breaks the school record by 1.9 seconds."

Sharp led South Adams in the longest and shortest events of the day. She was fourth in the 500 freestyle in 6:01.35, and finished the 50 freestyle in 27.29 for fifth place.

The only Patriots other than Vormohr to finish better than 10th in any event were freshman Michelle Landfair and senior Tina Gingrasso, who traded top efforts in the 50 and 100 freestyle.

Landfair finished in 28.31 to place ninth in the 50 freestyle, edging Cassie Gariess of Columbia City (28.40) and Gingrasso (11th - 28.57). The teammates went back-to-back in the 100 freestyle with Gingrasso ninth in 1:04.57 and Landfair just 28 hundredths of a second behind. Both times were career bests for Gingrasso.

Senior Ashley Horn scored points for the Patriots in both of her events, placing 10th in the 500 freestyle (6:53.73) and 12th in the 200 freestyle (2:32.73). Maddie Fennig added a 12th-place finish with a career-best time of 1:17.85 in the 100 butterfly.

"I think we got some great swims from just about everybody that was in the water," said Arnold. "I think our freshman showed a maturity level. Most of them have been swimming and they came on and they had some best times. ... That was very sweet to me. You would expect them maybe to have some first-meet jitters, but they stepped right up."

South Adams put two more swimmers in the top 12 in the 500 freestyle behind Sharp, with Bethany Maven in sixth (6:28.46) and Shannon Muselman in ninth (6:45.51). Maven was also seventh in the 200 freestyle in 2:27.51, and Channing Yoder finished seventh in the 100 breaststroke at 1:21.65).

Others in the top 12 for the Starfires were Courtney Hewitt in the 100 backstroke (10th - 1:16.60), Lauren Rich in the 100 backstroke (11th - 1:16.88) and Jansen Yoder in the 100 breaststroke (1:23.63).[[In-content Ad]]