JCHS, Stars in the middle

The Patriots and Starfires will be swimming in the middle of the pack.

The Jay County and South Adams high school boys swim teams each had just two swimmers qualify for sectional championship races during Thursday's preliminary round at JCHS. Aaron Hudson and Neal Fennig will swim in the finals for the Patriots, and Alex Habegger and Caleb Wurster will lead the Starfires.

The meet will continue Saturday with diving preliminaries at 9 a.m. and swimming and diving finals at 1 p.m. The sectional champion in each event earns a berth in the state finals, as well as any swimmer meeting the state-qualifying standard (the average time of the 16th place finisher in the state over the last three seasons).

Based on preliminary times, South Adams is slotted for a fifth-place finish just a few points ahead of Jay County.

Muncie Central earned No. 1 seeds in seven out of 11 events and is favored to win a third straight title.

Bellmont picked up three No. 1 seeds, including two in relays, and looks to be Muncie Central's only potential challenger. Bluffton is likely to finish third, followed by Delta.

Jay County and South Adams could both have opportunities at a state berth in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Hudson earned the No. 2 seed in the event Thursday in 1 minute, 2.88 seconds with Habegger less than a second behind in third place. In order to earn a state berth one of them would have to upset Muncie Central junior Daniel Proctor (1:02.16) for the sectional title or surpass the state-qualifying standard of 1:00.29.

Neal Fennig will also have a chance to reach the state finals in the 100 freestyle. He had the third-best time of 51.85 Thursday, less than a half-second behind top-seeded Hunter Copeland of Bluffton.

Both schools had state qualifiers last year, with Sam Miller reaching the state meet in the 200-yard freestyle for Jay County and Justin Klopp advancing in a pair of events for the Starfires.

Hudson is also seeded third for Saturday's finals in the 100 butterfly after posting a time of 57.14 Thursday. Fennig added a No. 3 seed in the 100 backstroke in 1:00.96.

The best finish for the Patriots in a relay came as Hudson and Fennig joined Wiley Young and Luke Holcomb for a runner-up time of 1:48.41 in the 200 medley.

Along with his third-place effort in the breaststroke, Habegger also earned the No. 3 seed in the 200 individual medley in 2:11.91.

Caleb Wurster turned in a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle in 1:57.2. He also picked up the No. 4 seed with a time of 5:19.89 in the 500 freestyle.

Habegger, Wurster, Cole Farlow and Derek Kirchhofer teamed to place third behind JCHS in the 200 medley relay in 1:49.09.

The only other championship race Jay County will compete in is the 400 freestyle relay. Fennig, Holcomb, Charles Burress and Alex Sutton finished as the No. 6 seed in 3:47.55.

The South Adams 400 freestyle relay team of Habegger, Wurster, Farlow and Joel Schmidt was fourth in 3:44.57.

The only other Patriot swimmers who reached the top 12 and will compete Saturday are Jared Valentine (seventh - 100 breaststroke) and Caleb Hummel (12th - 500 freestyle).

Swimming in consolation finals for the Starfires will be Farlow (eighth - 50 freestyle, 11th - 100 freestyle), Jacob Werst (ninth - 200 individual medley, 10th - 100 butterfly), Schmidt (12th - 200 individual medley, 12th - 100 backstroke), Derek Kirchhofer (10th - 500 freestyle) and Johnny Everidge (12th - 100 butterfly).

Jay County qualified seventh in the 200 freestyle relay, and South Adams was eighth.[[In-content Ad]]