Starfish clobber Jay Co. (12/13/05)

The Starfish took the top two places seven times Monday night, including a pair of sweeps, as they rolled to a pair of victories over Jay County.

Visiting South Adams scored a one-two finish in the opening relay of the girls competition on the way to a 115-68 win. The Starfish boys won all but one contested event in a 117-66 victory.

“The boys meet went pretty much the way I expected,” said SAHS coach Janelle Gresla, whose boys also finished well ahead of the Patriots at Saturday’s Norwell Invitational. “The girls meet I figured we would be nip-and-tuck clear to the end ... I figured it would be a lot closer meet. I’ll take a win with a young team like this.”

Her teams have gotten off to an excellent start, with the boys still undefeated at 5-0 and the girls sitting at 7-2. Jay County’s girls fell to 3-4 with their fourth straight defeat, and coach Bev Arnold said she thought the team lost its chance to make the meet interesting by getting outscored 12-2 in the opening race.

“... they slapped us with a first-second and I thought, oh man, this night is not going to go as anticipated,” said Arnold of the Starfish taking the top two spots in the 200-yard medley relay.

“I’m just kind of bummed because we can’t come back and swim at the end of the meet as fast as we did in the middle and the beginning.

“I’ve got to get across to them, ‘Every race is important, every meet counts. Go out there and attempt to do your best every meet.’ And you’re not always going to have a (best time), I know that, but our time differences tonight were too big.”

The Patriots went winless in the final five races, with South Adams taking three of the top four spots in four of those events.

Jay County’s boys managed just one swimming victory, again from Tom McCord. McCord was the lone Patriot swimmer to finish in the top 10 at Norwell, and won the 100 breaststroke by more than five seconds against South Adams in 1-minute, 4.46 seconds.

“After Saturday I guess that’s not as bad as I thought it might be,” said JCHS boys coach Barry Weaver of the final score. “We had some relatively good times this evening. Tom keeps getting better in backstroke, and the relays are starting to come around a little bit. If we can continue to get better, that’s what we’re interested in. ... Overall I think tonight was probably our best set of results up and down the line.

“Saturday if (McCord) wasn’t there we wouldn’t have scored. He’s been the highlight as far as scoring points in meets.”

The swimming victories for the Jay County girls came from the usual suspects — freshman Cori Vormohr and senior Lindsey Vesperry.

Vormohr was in control in both of her races, taking first in the 200 individual medley in 2:27.85 and the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:04.67. Vesperry finished just behind Haleigh Lehman in the 50 freestyle, but came back to top Margaret Beymer in the 100 freestyle in a season-best 1:01.97.

Freshman April Acker scored the other Jay County win in diving. She posted a career-best 156.20.

“She’s just plugging away, (adding) a few points every meet, but she’s getting there,” said Arnold, who was also impressed by Ashley Horn’s effort as she chased after a personal-best time in the 500 freestyle. “Ashley Horn came in tonight with the most positive attitude that I’ve ever seen. And she got (her best time), by three seconds.”

Other personal bests came from Christa Castillo in the 50 freestyle, Amber Kelly in the 100 backstroke and Molly Sutton in the 100 breaststroke.

South Adams’ young team was led by freshman Jessica Sharp, who led a pair of sweeps in the 200 and 500 freestyle. Sharp was first in front of Talitha Maven and Bethany Maven in the 200 in 2:16.07, and finished ahead of Bethany Maven and Kirsten Wurster in the 500 as she reached the wall 6:07.

Lehman (50 freestyle), Courtney Hewitt (100 backstroke) and Lacy Rhoades (100 breaststroke also scored victories for the Starfish, who added wins in all three relays.

Gresla said her team’s mindset was probably what allowed them to make the scoring gap wider than she expected.

“Whenever there’s a feeling that you don’t want to get beat by a rival I think you can always step up and swim to what you need to win,” she said. “That was what we did tonight.”

Justin Klopp powered two of the four one-two finishes for the Starfish boys, who also took first place in all three relays. Klopp was first in the from of Shane Swygart in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:06.75, and finished ahead of Taylor Sprunger in the 500 freestyle in 5:47.12.

Matt Kruse was first in front of Drew Dull in the 100 freestyle in 51.97, and Kyle Affolder posted a personal-best time of 1:12.75 in finishing ahead of teammate Marcus Hoover in the 100 breaststroke.

Jay County’s Todd McCowan was first in diving with a score of 148.

“... the kids are really battling,” said Weaver of his diving group. “If one of them tries something new, then the other kids have to try it. The competition in practice is where we can make our greatest strides.”[[In-content Ad]]