Star tankers clobber JC (12/14/04)

BERNE — South Adams was just too good.

There were several close races Monday night, but the final scores were anything but close as the Starfire swim teams stomped Jay County. They won the girls competition 129-39, and took the boys victory 104-66.

South Adams, which has a girls record of 6-2 while the boys are 4-1, won 18 out of 22 races at the meet. The girls team swept four events, including a relay, and finished one-two in four others.

“I think we put forth a very good effort,” said Starfire coach Janelle Gresla, who has a full roster of 20 for the boys team for the first time in a decade. “It’s been a very long time since the boys have beaten Jay ... Each meet with the team being so young you always see improvement. That’s what’s getting exciting.”

Jay County (0-4) had to take first and second place in the final relay last season to eke out a win against South Adams last year. It would have no such chance this time around.

The Patriots took the opening relay, but managed just two more victories the rest of the way as Matt Kruse and Heath Lehman led the Starfires.

Kruse was involved in one of the many close boys races on the night, falling behind Jay County’s Derick Lee in the 100-yard butterfly. But, he rallied in the second half of the race for the victory in 59.92 seconds.

Lee remained just short of his early-season goal of breaking the 1-minute mark as he finished in 1-minute, 0.38 seconds.

Kruse grabbed a second win as he dominated the 200-yard freestyle by nearly 20 seconds in 1:59.71.

Lehman’s close race came in the 50-yard freestyle against Matt Peterson. They were almost dead even at the turn, but Lehman out-touched his fellow senior at the wall 25.29 to 25.43.

He easily won the 500-yard freestyle in 5:54.12.

Kruse and Lehman were part of the Starfires’ two relay victories, as was freshman John Gresla. Gresla added an individual win as he fought off Joseph Vormohr in the individual medley, and Carson Sprunger earned the other South Adams win in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:12.76.

Despite their tight losses to Kruse and Lehman, Lee and Peterson did pick up the only individual wins for Jay County.

Peterson won the 100-yard freestyle in 56.25, and Lee took the 100-yard backstroke by more than four seconds with a time of 1:06.56.

They also joined Vormohr and Josh Hawn to win the 200-yard medley relay.

“We scored more in this meet than we have in any other dual meet this year,” said Jay County boys coach Barry Weaver. “We had some pretty good swims.”

Weaver pointed to Joseph Vormohr especially, who sliced nine seconds off his 100-yard breaststroke time.

“We’re just getting better,” he added. “We keep getting personal bests and try to get better each meet. Hopefully the scores keep getting closer and closer and then we can be on top.”

The South Adams girls team got individual wins from five different swimmers, including two apiece from Chelsea Yoder and Haleigh Lehman.

Yoder led a pair of Starfire sweeps, first finishing ahead of Margaret Beymer and Whitney Liechty with a time of 2:35.41 in the 200-yard individual medley. She finished the 500-yard freestyle in 6:14.46, ahead of teammates Ashley Gresla and Bethany Maven.

Lehman won back-to-back events, opening by squeaking by Lindsey Vesperry in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 28.21. She dived right back in for an easy win in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:08.84.

Gresla added a victory in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:26.00. Margaret Beymer was first in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:03.30, and Whitney Liechty took the 100-yard backstroke in 1:15.73.

Even with all those wins, Janelle Gresla said her team has been pushed by its overall team depth.

“That seems to carry us through a lot of our meets,” she said. “I think that’s what is making South Adams go. Now we need a couple of good weeks of distancing to really make them go.”

Gresla said she hopes that can come with some heavy practice during the Christmas break from school. She said she plans to hold two-a-days twice a week.

She also said she still has hopes of getting some swimmers to the state meet, despite having to deal with Homestead. The Spartans, who will host the sectional, have the No. 4 boys team in the state and the seventh-ranked girls team.

Both Jay County coaches also pointed to the holiday break as a time which will be crucial to their teams’ improvement.

“We need to remember the little things — finishes into the wall, reaction time for starts, not breathing every stroke,” said Patriot girls coach Bev Arnold. “(It’s) the things that they’ve known for a long time.

“We’re going to work on little things. We also have to work on the second half of the race. ... If it’s a 100, we swim the first 50 pretty well, then we don’t have much left for the second 50.”

Arnold pointed to senior Julie Sours, who picked up the team’s only win, as the bright spot of the night. She not only won the 100-yard breaststroke, but dominated the race to finish in 1:22.88.

Vesperry added a pair of second-place finishes.[[In-content Ad]]