Jay has big goals (11/14/2008)

For the last two seasons, the Patriots have hovered just above .500 in dual meets. But near the close of the 2007-08 campaign, they began to see their potential come to life.

Cori Vormohr and April Acker, now both seniors, combined for three Olympic Athletic Conference titles last season. Vormohr won two of the Jay County High School girls swim team's three sectional championships, leading it to a third-place finish in the 10-team field.

Those successes have led the Patriots, who open their season Saturday at the Norwell Invitational, to setting some lofty goals for the coming year.

They include an undefeated dual-meet season after going 8-6 and 8-6-1 in the last two years, an OAC championship and a top-two finish in the sectional meet. And the Patriots also target at least one individual and one relay making the state finals.

"These girls have some big goals this year," said first-year coach Matt Slavik. "It think we can hit them, but it's going to be a lot."

It'll start with Vormohr, a senior, who holds more than half of the individual JCHS records and broke her own school mark in the 100-yard breaststroke at the state meet. She finished 25th in that event in 1-minute, 8.66 seconds and was 26th in the 100 butterfly.

But Vormohr will have plenty of help from a roster that sports 31 athletes, including 10 seniors.

"In our senior class we've got a lot of strong leadership," said Slavik, who took over the program when Bev Arnold became the assistant athletics director at JCHS. "The biggest thing that I have is you can look out through the pool and in every lane there is a girl that's leading by example ... and that's huge. I'm a firm believer in that."

The captains are Vormohr and classmate Briann Saxman, both of whom were on the JCHS 400 and 200 freestyle relay teams that finished third and fourth respectively in the sectional. Acker, also a senior, was second in diving a year ago to earn a trip to the regional, and Michelle Landfair, a junior, finished fifth in both the 50 and 100 freestyle.

Other Patriots making the top 12 were Saxman and sophomore Aly Miller, each in two events, and senior Maddie Fennig and sophomores Elaine Hemmelgarn and Megan Taylor in one event apiece.

Slavik, who helped get the swimming program started at Coldwater (Ohio) High School and has been coaching either school or club teams since 1995, said he expects all of those swimmers to be contributors once again. But they will also have some help.

"We've got some freshmen coming in who I think will be able to contribute right away," he said. "There's three freshmen who are bucking for A relay spots right now.

"I would say that this freshman class is every bit as talented the senior class was at this time. It's nice to know when you've got one big class leaving you've got another one coming in."

Mary Hudson leads the group of 11 swimmers as she looks to make an immediate contribution in both the breaststroke and freestyle. Michaela Long could fill a hole at backstroke, and Eme Miller is expected to contribute in a variety of events.

Again the events most likely to get Vormohr back to the state meet are the butterfly and breaststroke. Landfair looks to be a force again in the sprints, and Saxman will help give strong chances at one-two finishes as she swims both the butterfly and freestyle along with those teammates.

But Slavik said he plans on mixing up his lineup quite a bit before focusing on specialty events at the close of the year. He said he will occassionally sacrifice team points in order to get a better idea of what each swimmer is capable of in prepartion for the conference and sectional meets.

"I like to mix things up a little bit," Slavik said. "It keeps you fresh to come back towards the end of the year and focus on what you're doing. Your events aren't getting old.

"We're extremely deep as far as the team goes, which is a nice position to be in."

In addition to the swimmers, the Patriots bring back a strong diving core of Acker, Taylor and Tricia Skiver. They will be joined by first-year senior Dannie Grant, and all but Skiver will focus exclusively on diving.

Slavik also said he's excited about relay opportunities, and that he expects to break at least on school relay record if not more. And, he said, he thinks the 400 freestyle relay can make it to the state meet.

Working toward that and all of the other huge goals set by the Patriots, Slavik said he's expecting the mental aspect to be a key. While he's been working heavily on technique as well as putting in a lot of yards early in practice, he said he believes 90 to 95 percent of success is about mental toughness and preparation.

"My number one thing is the athletes have to be having fun doing what they're doing," said Slavik. "If we're having fun and getting the yards that we need, that's a good thing.

"I try to keep it light while still pressuring them to excel. There's a fine line there ... If you can get your athletes to buy in to what you're doing and become part of the family, they'll take the extra steps ..."

"I'm pretty excited to be head coach here. I've been given certainly a good opportunity. This is an exceptional bunch of girls."

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