Jay County duo seeks state success

Before the season started, all Sok Vormohr wanted to do was swim the 100-yard freestyle faster than 52 seconds.
He reached his goal at the Allen County Athletic Conference meet Jan, 24, becoming the first ACAC champion in the event with a time of 51.09 seconds.
But he still wasn’t satisfied. So he swam faster.
The result?
His time of 49.8 seconds in the sectional preliminaries Feb. 19 at JCHS earned him a top-seed and put him in the Jay County High School record book.
The time enshrined him as the ninth and newest member of the 40-second club.
In the finals two days later, to prove it wasn’t a fluke Vormohr cut more time, finishing in 49.43 seconds and claiming a sectional championship in the process.
“That was really cool for him,” said JCHS coach Barry Weaver, who will coach at the state finals during his final season at the helm of the Patriots. James Keen (100 backstroke) and Vormohr will compete in the IHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships preliminaries at 6 p.m. Friday at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis.
“I don’t know if he didn’t think he could do it or if it was a surprise to him, but those are the kinds of things that you work four months for,” Weaver said.
To earn a state medal, it may seem as if Vormohr will be swimming upriver. The junior is seeded 31st heading into Friday’s prelims, almost a full four seconds behind the top seeded Kyle DeCoursey of Zionsville. The senior was runner-up at the state finals last season, and is the favorite this year with a time of 45.44.
Brian Niebuhr (47.0) of Carroll is seeded 16th and North Central’s Andrew Couchon (46.56) is seeded eighth. The top eight seeds from the preliminaries will swim in the championship heat on Saturday, with seeds nine through 16 competing in the consolation finals.
 Although he’s seeded next to last, Vormohr said he isn’t going to let that get to his head.
“I really don’t care about where I’m seeded,” said Vormohr, who swam in the state finals in each of the last two seasons as part of the Patriots’ 400 freestyle relay. “I’m just going to go there and give it my best.”

Weaver is confident he’ll do well also.
“We just have to keep him focused on what he knows how to do,” Weaver said. “I’d like to see him drop some more time. I’d love to see him get under that 48 (seconds), but you just never know.
“You hope things are going to go well but it’s hard to say how far you can go with it. It’s just a matter of what they do with that excitement (of the atmosphere), how they handle it and go from there.”
This season, Keen is on a mission.
The senior missed the consolation heat as a junior by nine hundredths of a second, finishing 17th with a time of 52.74. Hamilton Southeastern’s Noah Brenner edged him in 52.65 seconds for the final consolation spot.
Keen’s career-best time of 51.9 seconds Saturday earned him the ninth seed, 0.37 seconds behind eighth-seeded Dalton Mitchell of Terre Haute South Vigo.
“It isn’t eighth,” Keen joked when asked about how it feels to be seeded ninth. “It still feels good to be seeded in the top 16. I definitely know I can make the top 16.”
This weekend he’s searching for redemption.
But he’s also aiming higher.
“The ultimate goal this year was to make the top eight. I’m still pushing for that,” he added. “The sky is the limit because I honestly did not see that swim in me last weekend.”
When Keen earned the sectional title in back-to-back seasons on Saturday, no one was happier for him than Weaver.
“I was really excited for him,” he said, noting Keen — who missed two weeks of competitions for a violation of team rules — hadn’t been consistent with his times. “All the things that feel good about winning a race and doing your best are what he was feeling on Saturday.
“And we hope that’s what happens again on Friday.”
Joe Young of Hamilton Southeastern is the top seed Friday with his time of 49.37 seconds. Young finished third last season behind Munster’s Wilson Beckman, who is seeded second. Young and Beckman are two of four returning medalists from last year, including Jeffersonville’s Evan Shive (seventh) and Tyler Harmon (eighth) of Zionsville. They are seeded fifth and third respectively.
Keen is in position to secure a medal, something he’s been chasing for four years. Should he stand on the podium with hardware around his neck on Saturday, he said it won’t be just for him.
“I definitely want to give (Weaver) a medal for his last year,” Keen said. “He’s definitely earned it. Forty years, and I want him to go out with a good one.”