Jay sweeps invitational

Jay County High School girls swim coach Matt Slavik had no idea how close his team was with Celina on Saturday at the Jay County Invitational.
Few teams this season have challenged his squad, and he didn’t expect the Bulldogs to be as close as they were heading into the 400-yard freestyle relay.
But as the Patriots’ relay team of Ashley Mark, Laurann Schoenlein, Elizabeth McDowell and Jamie Valentine finished second to Fort Recovery — ahead of both of Celina’s relay teams — Jay County hung on to win its invitational with 572.5 points.
Celina placed second with 544.5 points, and Fort Recovery was third with 326.
“Celina came to swim,” said Slavik, whose team won its second invitational of the season. “Despite the fact of winning (eight) out of 12 events, that’s a big thing where their depth was just a little bit better than ours.”
On the boys’ side, however, Jay County’s depth propelled it to a commanding victory. The Patriots scored 615 to take the invite crown. Again, Celina was second, this time with 545 points, and Marion Local was third with 295.
It was only the second time the Jay boys have won the invitational it hosts. The last time was 1983, which was the first year it was held.
Fort Recovery finished fourth with 141 points.
“It’s a good win, and doing it without a couple of our stronger swimmers is hopefully going to show those younger guys … how important they are,” said JCHS boys swim coach Barry Weaver, whose team took first in only three events. “It’s not the first-place guy — it’s not whoever gets first, second or third in every event — it takes a team to do this.”
Senior Cody White and junior Sok Vormohr picked up the only two individual victories for Jay County. White, who also took second in the 200 freestyle, beat teammate Christopher McDowell to win the 500 freestyle in 5 minutes, 37.55 seconds.
Vormohr won the 200 individual medley in 2:19.62, and then later finished second in the 100 butterfly behind Celina’s Jared Fleagle.
They teamed up with Travis Barton and McDowell to win the final event of the day, the 400 freestyle relay, in 3:50.57.
Weaver joked that he always likes to win the final event of a meet to end on a positive note.
“I always have to win the last event to catapult us into the next meet,” said Weaver, who is retiring at the end of the season after more than three decades. “I don’t know that’s necessarily the right way to do it, but if we can be positive at the end, hopefully it carries over into something.”
But in the end, Jay County’s deep roster helped it to victory.
The Patriot boys had two or more athletes score in eight of the 11 swimming events. In three races, Jay County had four swimmers earn points by placing in the top eight.
For the JCHS girls, Anne Vormohr, Sophie Bader and Alex Bader had a hand in every win. They each won two individual events and helped out with the two winning relay teams.
Vormohr cruised to victories in the 100 freestyle (54.61) and the 100 backstroke (59.86), Sophie Bader won the 200 freestyle (2:00.03) and the 100 butterfly (1:00.48) and Alex Bader took first in the 200 IM (2:20.45) and the 100 breaststroke (1:09.23).
They joined Jamie Valentine to start the meet off with a victory in the 200 medley relay in 1:52.92, and then teamed up with Ashley Mark to win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:43.91.
Despite winning eight of the 12 events, the Jay County girls had to come from behind.
In the closest and tightly-contested race for Jay County, Fort Recovery freshman Alexis Bubp edged Elizabeth McDowell in the 500 freestyle by less than a half second.
Bubp, who was also third in the 200 IM, had a slight advantage after the first 50 yards. McDowell, who is also a freshman, passed Bubp at the 100-yard mark and had a lead of nearly three seconds with 200 yards to go. Bubp closed the gap to about half second over the next 50 yards, passing McDowell after 400 yards.
It took all she had left in the tank to hold off McDowell and beat the Patriot by 33-hundredths of a second.
“I just tried to use the rest of the energy that I had,” said Bubp, who added she didn’t realize how close she was with McDowell in the final 150 yards. “I was really tired because it’s a lot of laps.”
FRHS coach Mindy Bubp, Alexis’ mother, said her daughter doesn’t normally swim the 500 but put her in the race based on the rest of the field thinking she would have the stamina to make it through the 20-lap race.
“This is her second time swimming it,” the elder Bubp said. “She did a great job and she hung in there. She really finished hard for us.”
Slavik, who was without senior Katy Smeltzer — the Patriots go-to in the 500 freestyle — was pleased with McDowell’s performance, in which she dropped four seconds from her career best.
“She got out of the water dead-dog tired,” Slavik said. “She was seeded first and had a heck of a race with (Bubp).
“I would have never expected her to be in the hunt as the first seed in that event just given the history of this meet. But it worked out as such. She had a great race (and) she did a great job.”
Scoring points for the JCHS girls were Taylor Campbell (fifth — 200 IM and 100 breaststroke), Cassie Reno (sixth – 100 freestyle), Katie Mast (sixth – 50 freestyle), Abby Saxman (fourth – 100 backstroke), Heather Stinson (sixth – diving), Samantha Link (seventh – diving), Valentine (third – 100 breast, eighth – 200 IM) and Mark (third – 50 freestyle, fifth – 100 butterfly).
Earning top eight finishes for the Jay County boys were Ian James (fifth – 200 freestyle, seventh – 100 freestyle), Will Rowles (seventh – 100 freestyle, eighth – 100 backstroke), Ian Reynolds (fourth – 200 backstroke and 100 butterfly), Jason Minnich (fourth – 100 freestyle, seventh – 50 freestyle), Garrett Campbell (sixth – 100 butterfly, seventh – 100 backstroke), Jacob Nichols (fourth – 100 backstroke, seventh – 100 butterfly), Luke Nichols (fourth – 100 breaststroke, sixth – 100 butterfly), Conner Daniels (third – 50 freestyle), Alex LeMaster (fourth – 500 freestyle), Thomas Boozier (fifth – 100 breaststroke), Luke Rowles (sixth – 100 breastsroke), Christian Phillips (fifth – diving) and Barton (fourth – 200 IM and 100 butterfly).
Cori Stone (second – 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly), Olivia Acheson (seventh – 50 freestyle and 500 freestyle), Payton Thobe (seventh – 100 freestyle), Sophie Timmerman (fourth – 100 breaststroke) and Rachel Kaup (sixth – 100 back) scored points for the Tribe girls.
Scoring for the FRHS boys were Mackinley Timmerman (second – 100 freestyle, third – 100 breaststroke), Dillon Ramirez (fifth – 100 backstroke) and Harrison Kaup (eighth – 100 freestyle).