Jay tops in eight races

Jay County has been swimming for four decades and has yet to taste the success of a girls sectional championship.
The Patriot girls swimmers put themselves in prime position to earn the program’s first title during Thursday’s sectional preliminaries, picking up the top seed in eight events.
They set two new records in the process.
“I think our girls did a great job,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik, whose team is projected to score a sectional-best 366 points Saturday based on seedings from prelims. “They did exactly what they had to do tonight. There are a couple races I was hoping we’d move up into the top 16.
“I’m proud of every single one of them. They tried as hard as they possibly could.”
The sectional meet resumes at 9 a.m. Saturday with the diving prelims, with the swimming and diving finals to begin at 1 p.m.
Jay County’s 200-yard freestyle relay of Katy Smeltzer, Anne Vormohr and sisters Alex and Sophie Bader set a new school, pool and sectional record with a time of 1 minute, 40.95 seconds.
“We’ve never really tried that relay out,” he said of the quartet who also earned the top seed in the 200 medley relay. “We typically are a 400 free relay team. I went back and forth about it, looking at who (other teams) put where. I can’t second-guess it because I think we have a shot to win the 200 or 400 (freestyle relay).
“Barring mishaps, we’ll be back the following weekend and hopefully finish in the top 16 in the state.”
Based on preliminary times from sectionals across the state Thursday night, Jay County’s 200 medley relay turned in the third-best time in the state. It trailed only Crown Point (1:47.21) and Munster (1:49.15), both of which competed at the Munster sectional. The Patriots’ 200 freestyle relay is sixth in the state, with Crown Point (1:36.97) having the fastest time.
Vormohr, who earned the top seed in both the 100 backstroke and 50 freestyle, set a sectional record in the latter that had been unbroken since 2002. The junior’s time of 24.41 seconds broke Norwell’s Kym Cossairt’s time by two hundredths of a second.
In the 100 backstroke, she swam to a time of 58.38 seconds, more than four seconds faster than No. 2 seed Brett Klopp of South Adams.
Alex and Sophie Bader also swam to top seeds in a pair of individual events. Sophie, a junior, will be seeded first in the 200 individual medley (2:11.18) and the 100 butterfly (58.49), and freshman Alex posted the fastest times in the 200 freestyle (2:01.65), and beat out returning sectional champion Cady Farlow by one hundredth of a second in the 100 breaststroke.
Swimming in different heats, Alex Bader saw Farlow’s time of 1:07.28, and set her sights on hanging with the Starfire senior.
“I knew I wanted to be right there with her or ahead of her,” said Alex, who set the school record in the event in the first meet of the season. “I wanted to get a good song to walk out to (for the finals Saturday). That was my main motivation, I wanted two (events) to go out.”
What she didn’t expect, however, was how close their two times would be.
As her time — 1:07.27 — flashed across the board, her eyes got wide, she grinned ear to ear and slapped the water a few times in excitement.
“I never saw that coming,” she added. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be ahead by a little bit, or if she was going to beat me out, but I never saw that coming.”
Farlow, who has committed to swim at Purdue University next season, earned one of two top seeds for South Adams, which is projected to finish runner up to the Patriots based on its seeds for Saturday. Farlow is the No. 1 seed in the 100 freestyle, and joined Ashton Klopp, Olivia VonGunten and Brette Klopp as the top seed in the 400 freestyle. Their time of 3:48.13 set a new school record that has stood for two decades.
Elizabeth McDowell, Ashley Mark, Valentine and Smeltzer all advanced to the finals on Saturday in a pair of events. McDowell is fourth and sixth respectively in the 200 and 500 freestyle and Mark is sixth in the 200 IM and seventh in the 500 freestyle. Smeltzer is seeded third in the 100 freestyle and fourth in the 500 freestyle, and Valentine is fourth in the 100 breaststroke and eighth in the 100 butterfly.
For South Adams, VonGunten is third in both the 200 IM and 500 freestyle, Ashton Klopp is seeded second in the 100 fly and third in the 50 freestyle and Brett Klopp is second in the 200 IM. The Starfire 200 freestyle relay is seeded seventh.
Swimming in the consolation finals for Jay County are Cassie Reno (11th – 100 backstroke, 12th – 100 butterfly), Abby Saxman (12th – 100 backstroke) and Taylor Campbell (15th – 200 IM).
Caroline Kloepper (11th – 100 butterfly, 12th – 50 freestyle), Victoria Richardson (13th – 100 breaststroke, 16th – 500 freestyle), Riley Thompson (10th – 200 freestyle), Audrey Burson (14th – 200 IM), Hadi Hawbaker (15th – 100 freestyle), Olivia Mason (16th – 100 freestyle) and Mayia Curtis (16th – 100 backstroke) will all swim in the consolation for the Starfires.
Former Patriot swimmer Emi Minnich, now of Muncie Burris, will be the 11th seed in both the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle on Saturday. She will also compete in the finals of the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays for the Owls.
Sydney Mathias, another former Jay County Patriot, earned a pair of top eight seeds for Vincennes Lincoln at the Jasper sectional. She is seeded second in the 100 freestyle and third in the 50 freestyle. She swam the third leg of the Alices’ top-seeded 200 freestyle relay, and is also part of the 400 freestyle relay, which is the No. 2 seed.