Starfire girls remain perfect (12/16/03)

PORTLAND — The South Adams girls swim team entered Monday night’s swim meet against Jay County with a perfect record. There was nothing the Patriots could do to change that.

The Starfires won every event they competed in on the way to a 113-70 victory over Jay County.

There were some tight races on the night, but South Adams took all of them with Chelsea Yoder and Haleigh Lehman leading the charge.

Yoder, a junior, squeaked by the Patriots’ Rachel McKee in the 100-yard freestyle by less than a second in a time of 1-minute, 1.51 seconds. She dominated the 200-yard individual medley, winning by nearly nine seconds in 2:35.88.

Lehman held off McKee in the 50-yard freestyle by about .25 seconds in a time of 27.93. The freshman added a big victory by more than half a minute in the 500-yard freestyle.

Yoder and Lehman teamed with Ashley Gresla and Talitha Maven to win the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:55.08. Yoder also was on the winning 200-yard medley relay team while Lehman led the winning 400-yard freestyle relay team.

Starfire coach Janelle Gresla, who was concerned early on about having no seniors on the squad, said she’s been proud of the way her team has started the year.

“This year has been really interesting,” she said. “We’ve focused on personal bests, we’ve swam well at the meets and we tend to win.

“I think that’s part of coaching a young team is getting them to focus in a different way.”

In other individual victories for South Adams, Ashley Gresla held off Lindsey Vesperry to take the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:26.26, and Channing Yoder got by Julie Sours in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:19.36. Both of those races were decided by less than two seconds.

Whitney Liechty picked up a fairly easy win for the Starfires in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:10.67, and Robyn Habegger dominated the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:12.97.

Two freshman, Lehman and Channing Yoder, have been huge keys to the South Adams success thus far.

“Both of those have come up through the summer club,” said Gresla. “That makes a big difference. They’re both very athletic girls. Now we’re just trying to get them some maturity so they can do something good at sectional.”

Sarah Miller picked up the lone victory for the Patriots in the meet, finishing fewer than 15 points short of Dawn Ogden’s team record for six dives.

She continued her three-year unbeaten streak in dual meet diving with a score of 255.65.

Jay County also got personal best swims from Amber Kelly, Andrea Collins, Linsy Wilson, Katey Kohler and Samantha DeWitt.

“Our third swimmers did well,” said Jay County coach Bev Arnold. “Our people in that spot had personal best times.”

Arnold illustrated that fact, pointing out Kelly’s personal bests in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard butterfly.

“She’s not dropping great big chunks (of time) off, but a little bit each meet,” Arnold said.

Jay County will compete at Delta Thursday at 5:15 p.m. South Adams will host Norwell Thursday at 5:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]