Jay sweeps Starfires (12/26/2008)

BERNE - Justin Klopp was the king of the evening. But the Patriot teams were celebrating at the end.

The Jay County High School boys swim team scored a 103-80 victory over host South Adams despite Klopp breaking a pair of Starfire records. The margin in the girls competition was razor-thin, with the Patriots eking out a 93-92 win.

The girls half of the meet turned in the second-to-last event thanks to a pair of freshmen and a sophomore.

Mary Hudson, a freshman, dominated the 100-yard breaststroke for Jay County, winning easily in 1-minute, 15.77 seconds.

And then the other two Patriots in the race - freshman Katie Simmons and sophomore Elaine Hemmelgarn - beat the South Adams swimmers to the wall as well. Simmons took the runner-up slot just 14 hundredths of a second ahead of Hemmelgarn in 1:20.8.

"The sweep in the breaststroke was the turning point of the meet," said Slavik, whose team trailed by three prior to the event. "Elaine and Katie stepped it up nicely to give us second and third and put us up by seven points."

That advantage allowed Jay County to clinch the meet with a second-place finish from Cori Vormohr, Eme Miller, Briann Saxman and Mary Hudson at 4:06.44 in the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay.

Klopp and the Patriots' Sam Miller turned in several tremendous battles in the boys competition, but it was the JCHS depth that lifted it to victory. While winning just four of the nine individual events, the visitors took a pair of relays and had more second-, third- and fourth-place efforts than South Adams.

"We got touched out in some real close races in several places, but the swims were good," said Jay County coach Barry Weaver. "We had good, solid finishes in a lot of places by our second and third swimmers. Definitely depth was a key. That made us get over the hump."

Klopp was far-and-away the highlight of the evening for the Starfires.

The senior set the tone for his mammoth meet in his first event, holding a slight lead over Miller in the first two legs of the individual medley before pulling away for a seven-second win. He destroyed his own school record in the event (2:03.95) by reaching the wall in a blazing 1:56.85.

The duel in the 100 freestyle was closer, but again Klopp turned in a record-breaking effort to beat Miller by just under two seconds in 47.91. That time erased the previous SAHS record mark of 48.88 set by Chris Beymer in 2001.

"It was a good meet across the board," said Starfire coach Janelle Gresla. "We had two new school records and almost a third one go down tonight.

"We had some really good races. Justin took down two. He's coming off of a taper for junior nationals, so I would expect him to come in and be able to take down those records. He took down two solid records by more than just a little bit tonight."

Miller fought off Klopp to complete a win with Lance VanSkyock, Aaron Hudson and Chance Milligan in the 200 freestyle relay by three tenths of a second in 1:37.13. Klopp returned the favor as he joined Caleb Wurster, Eric Feeney and Alex Habegger to take the top slot in the 400 freestyle relay by just over a second in 3:37.22.

Cori Vormohr and Hudson powered the Patriot girls victory as they each won two individual events and led winning relays.

Vormohr, a senior, won the 200 individual medley with a time of 2-minutes, 23.98 seconds. And with distance swimmer Aly Miller out because of an illness, she switched events to the 500 freestyle and fought off the Starfires' Erika Waugh by four seconds in 5:39.73.

She also teamed with Maddie Fennig, Michelle Landfair and Eme Miller for first place in 2:06.11.

In addition to her breaststroke win, Hudson took care of the other long-distance events. She won the 200 freestyle in 2:12.42, and later anchored the winning 200 freestyle relay team of Landfair, Saxman and Ruchgy to a time of 1:53.66.

Jay County also got a big one-two finish in the 50 freestyle with Eme Miller first in 27.67 and Landfair as the runner-up in 27.8.

"That was a little bit different of a twist on it," said Slavik of the 50 freestyle duo. "I had a lot of girls swimming off events tonight. They all went personal bests.

"All the way through we had a lot of girls step it up again tonight."

April Acker had the other victory for Jay County, taking the diving event with 195.85 points.

While Miller had his hands full with Klopp, other Patriots came through.

Aaron Hudson cruised to victory in the 100 butterfly with a time of 58.85 seconds. He also teamed with Neal Fennig, Wiley Young and Derik Lucas to win the 200 medley relay in 1:52.97.

The divers turned in a big one-two finish. Steven Kelly totaled 215.8 points, and Donny McCowan also broke the 200-point barrier as the runner-up at 207.9.

Nathan Cain edged Eric Feeney by 15 hundredths of a second to win the 200 freestyle in 2:04.09, and Neal Fennig cruised to a win in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.62.

"Neal has dropped two seconds in the last week or so," said Weaver. "That was a good solid swim for him."

Alex Habegger was the only other double winner for South Adams. He took the 50 freestyle in 23.63 and won the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:04.74.

Wurster finished the 500 freestyle in 5:30.03 for the other Starfire victory.

Jessica Sharp won the 100 butterfly for the SAHS girls in 1:07.58, Allison Beitler took the 100 freestyle at 1:00.84 and Waugh picked up the victory in the 100 backstroke in 1:06.64. Sharp, Waugh, Beitler and Jansen Yoder made up the winning 400 freestyle relay team, which finished in 4:06.09.

"My kids swam well tonight, better than I expected them to," said Gresla. "Jay creamed us at (the Norwell Invitational) in both boys and girls. So for us to be this close to the girls gives us a lot more hope."

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