Starfires sweep JCHS

Teams were left looking at varying scenarios after Monday's meet.

The South Adams High School swim teams swept Jay County Monday, taking a pair of well-contested victories. The Starfires girls remained undefeated at 6-0 with a 157-137 win over JCHS while the boys team ran its perfect mark to 4-0 with a 199-140 win.

Jay County's girls saw their record slip to .500 at 4-4 while the Patriot boys (0-5) are still looking for their first win of the season.

"That was a good swim meet tonight," said JCHS girls coach Matt Slavik, who was without Elaine Hemmelgarn and Jocelyn Mann because of illnesses. "I knew it was going to be a close one, and it certainly was. We hung right in there, except for the 500 freestyle.

"Give South Adams all the credit in the world. They put together a fantastic meet tonight. ... But I also see a lot of positives from our girls out of it."

The Jay County boys were close to even with the visiting Starfires in the swimming events, but gave up an uncontested top-four sweep in diving.

"We lost by 29 points and they outscored us by 23 points in diving," said Patriot boys coach Barry Weaver. "Giving up 23 points to start is not necessarily conducive to getting over the hump. Overall, we swam pretty well even with them."

Alex Habegger, Caleb Wurster and Erika Waugh paced South Adams in its victories, each finishing with two individual wins while contributing to one relay victory.

Habegger turned in perhaps the biggest victory for the Starfires, out-dueling Aaron Hudson of JCHS in the 100-yard breaststroke. Hudson led the race by 14 hundredths of a second after 50 yards, but Habegger pulled ahead at the final turn and won by nearly a second in 1 minute 4.05 seconds.

The senior's other victory came in the 50 freestyle in 24.02.

Wurster added wins for South Adams in the 200 freestyle at 2:04.78 and the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:40.73.

Habegger, Wurster, Cole Farlow and Joel Schmidt teamed to win the 400 freestyle relay at 3:55.94.

"Alex Habegger always has good races down here," said SAHS coach Janelle Gresla. "He likes to swim down here. He's looking really strong."

Waugh set the tone with a couple of big wins for the Starfire girls. She led the Patriots' Mary Hudson the entire way in the 200 individual medley on the way to a win in 2:22.98, and cruised to a nine-second win in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:05.03.

Allison Beitler powered the biggest South Adams win of the evening, a top-three sweep of the 500 freestyle. Her time of 6:02.78 won the race in front of teammates Alyssa Sharp and Kenzie Rupp.

Waugh and Beitler teamed with Alyssa Sharp and Rachel Simon to take the 400 freestyle relay in 4:07.85, and Beitler also led SAHS to victory in the 200 freestyle relay.

"They've been very, very successful," said Gresla of Beitler and Waugh. "Allison is basically a freestyler, except I tried her in fly the other night and she looked pretty good in that. She is becoming more versatile.

"Erika is just a dedicated swimmer. I can put her in just about anything ..."

Cole Farlow added a first-place finish for SAHS with a time of 57.41 in the 100 freestyle, and Lance Hummer picked up the uncontested diving win with 163.8 points.

Sophomore Eme Miller was the top Jay County swimmer for the evening, earning a pair of victories.

Miller trailed Beitler most of the way in the 200 freestyle, but pulled even with 25 yards to go and then controlled the final stretch to win in 2:11.52. She also won a tight race in the 50 freestyle, fighting off Jansen Yoder of SAHS by four tenths of a second in 27.62.

Although his team dropped a tight decision in the 200 freestyle relay, Slavik said the Patriots are getting better in close races.

"I think it's one of the areas of improvement ... being able to fight the person you're swimming against and having good pool awareness," said Slavik. "We had struggled with that a little bit up to this point. Tonight was a lot better. ... We're coming strong into the walls."

Wiley Young and Aaron Hudson paced the Jay County boys, with Young first in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.86 and Hudson first in the 200 individual medley in 2:18.83. They also teamed with Neal Fennig and Jared Valentine to win the 200 medley relay in 1:50.81, and joined Charles Burress and Lucas Holcomb for a first-place time of 1:45.7 in the 200 freestyle relay.

Fennig added a victory in the 100 backstroke in 1:03.05, and Burress broke the 1-minute mark in the 100 freestyle for the first time in his career at 59.84 to place third in the event.

"He's been knocking on the door for about three meets now," said Weaver. "He's been really hitting it in practice. ... If he gets the little things down he could improve even more.

"We had some good swims in the middle distance and distance freestyles. Zach James dropped 20 seconds from his best in the 500. That was great. ...

"Jake Sutton in the last relay had his best time by a few seconds. ... Caleb Hummel had a nice night.

"Some of the kids who haven't had a chance to shine much are really starting to get better and get in there and score some points and drop some time."

Mary Hudson won the 100 butterfly for JCHS in 1:05.31, and Michelle Landfair took the 100 freestyle at 1:00.96. They also teamed with Caitlin Ruchgy and Martyna Gajewska to take the 200 medley relay in 2:04.79.

Katie Simmons led the Patriots' most successful event, leading a top-three sweep in the 100 breaststroke ahead of Michaela Long and Julie Valentine in 1:18.78. Megan Taylor posted 195.35 points to take the uncontested victory in diving.

"We're blessed at Jay County to have a lot of breaststrokers for some reason," said Slavik, whose team accomplished the sweep in the event despite being without Hemmelgarn. "We put in a replacement and we still ended up sweeping the event. ...

"Marissa Murrell really impressed me with some of her time drops tonight," he added of the sophomore, who was third in the 200 freestyle and fourth in the 100 freestyle. "Eme Miller, in the 200 freestyle, dropped a couple seconds. Mary Hudson had a couple of wonderful swims with personal bests in both of her events. Caitlin Ruchgy dropped five seconds in the 500. We had a lot of really good swims, it just wasn't quite enough."[[In-content Ad]]