Jay County swimmers nearly perfect in 1st two (11/21/03)

PORTLAND — Through two meets the Jay County girls swim team is not only 2-0, it’s 23-1.

The Patriots continued their early domination Thursday with a 134-45 destruction of the Elwood Panthers.

Jay County has won the first two meets by a combined scored of 272-86, but perhaps more impressive is the overall event record. It has lost just one event in the first two meets, winning the first 22 before Elwood’s Farrin Gregg managed to earn a victory in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Undeterred, the Patriots owned the final event, taking first and second in the 400-yard freestyle relay to end the meet.

“I thought it was nice,” said senior Rachel McKee. “Not all of them were easy wins. A lot of us had to work for our wins.”

McKee was including herself in that category, as she held off Gregg in the most exciting race of the evening.

The pair took to the water in the 50-yard freestyle for a rematch of last season’s closest contest. They were in a dead heat as they completed their first length of the pool, but Gregg seemed to push slightly ahead on her flip turn.

However, McKee rallied in the final 20 yards, pushing just ahead for the win in a personal-best time of 27.5 seconds. She won by nearly three tenths, a much larger margin of victory than last season’s eight hundredths.

McKee added a second individual win, leading a sweep of the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1-minute, 17.63 seconds. Amber Kelly was second, and Brittany Laux placed third.

McKee also teamed with Kelly, Ashley Imel and Julie Sours to take first in the 200-yard medley relay in 2:13.40, and joined Sours, Sarah Miller and Vanessa Wilkins to win the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 4:51.22.

Joining McKee with personal bests on the evening were Natalie Huston in the 200-yard individual medley (3:13.49) and Laux in the 100-yard butterfly (1:27.33).

“We definitely can not let these two wins mess with our minds,” McKee said, remembering last season. A year ago Jay County was 2-0 and slipped to 4-7 before bouncing back to finish at .500. “The rest of the season is not going to be as easy as these first two meets. We’re definitely going to have to work for everything we get.”

It’ll start Monday when the Patriots visit Adams Central at 6 p.m.

“These were two nice wins to start the season,” said Jay County coach Bev Arnold. “Next week the competition is going to pick up. We’ll be challenged a little more.”

Wilkins took part in the other particularly tight race on the evening in the 100-yard freestyle. She pulled into the lead during the second 25 yards and held a slim lead over Elwood’s Danielle Miller the rest of the way as she took the victory in 1:09.06.

Imel had some unexpected extra work in the 500-yard freestyle to take one of her two individual wins. During the longest race she felt her shoulder pop, but continued to swim for her first-place finish in 6:44.97.

She had also won the 200-yard freestyle earlier in the meet with a time of 2:13.40.

“It kind of hurt, but you’ve got to go on,” she said with an ice bag strapped to her shoulder after the meet. “You’ve got to give the team the effort.”

Sours added a win in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:19.42. Miller continued her long undefeated streak in dual meet diving, taking first by more than 50 points with a score of 232.60.

The Patriots also got a great effort from Kelly, who gave the team a first-time winner for the second straight meet.

Kelly powered her way through the butterfly and backstroke to get a big lead. She was visibly tiring during the second 100 yards, but still dominated the race for her first career win with a time of 2:57.80.

“I was really excited for Brittany (Laux) the other night,” said Arnold. “I was kind of hoping tonight would work out that way. Any time that happens I’m tickled.”

“I feel I put forth my best effort,” Kelly said. “It paid of in the end by finishing in first place, and being exhausted.”[[In-content Ad]]