Starfires beat Indians, Wildcats

BERNE — The Indians and Wildcats picked up a win here and there.

But the pool belonged to the Indiana team.

And it made sure to win in commanding fashion.

The South Adams High School swim teams both earned double-digit wins on Tuesday in beating the Fort Recovery Indians and Minster Wildcats.

“Overall we swam really well,” said SAHS coach Andy Lehman, whose girls team won 10 events to score 109 points and move to 9-0 on the season. Minster was second with 61 points and Fort Recovery was third with 42 points.

“In a tri-meet it is interesting because we get two entries versus three,” Lehman said. “That changed around some of our lineup, especially some of those races where we have three solid swimmers.”

South Adams’ boys took first in 11 of the 12 events in totaling 120 points. Fort Recovery scored 55 points for second while Minster was third with 26 points.

“South Adams is really strong and Minster is probably going to be the strongest coming out of the (Midwest Athletic Conference) this year,” FRHS coach Mindy Bubp said of the girls’ squads. “They have a lot of strong girls and they are pretty deep this year.”

Ashley LeFever and twins Ashton and Brette Klopp all picked up a pair of wins for the SAHS girls. After teaming with her sister, Audrey Burson and Caroline Kloepper to win the 200-yard medley relay, Brette Klopp won the 200 freestyle in 2 minutes, 7.11 seconds. She beat FRHS sophomore Cassy Martin’s season-best time of 2:08.5. Brette then won the 100 backstroke in 1:04.12 by more than 10 seconds.

LeFever nabbed first place in the 50 and 100 freestyle races. Her time of 26.13 seconds edged Martin’s 26.88, and she won the 100 freestyle in 57.02 seconds ahead of Alexis Bubp’s 58.88. LeFever also swam the first leg of the winning 200 freestyle relay (1:47.01) along with Olivia Von Gunten, Isabel Von Gunten and Kloepper.

Isabel Von Gunten also set a career best in diving by scoring 147.9 points. She was uncontested.

Despite getting wins in all three relay races, Lehman said he is still unsure the exact combination of swimmers he’ll use in each event.

“We’re still trying to find the fastest three relays that we’re gonna have,” he said. “I’m not sure we’re going to find that any time soon. We’re just going to keep switching that around until we find it.”

The lone win for Fort Recovery’s girls came from Sophie Timmerman in the 100 breaststroke. The junior bested Audrey Burson of South Adams with a time of 1:13.43.

Zach Teeple and Zach Colpaert were each dual winners for the SAHS boys. Teeple won the 200 freestyle in 2:02.85, and followed it with a 100 backstroke victory in 1:00.17.

“Teeple has just done a tremendous job for us,” Lehman said.

Colpaert held down the freestyle sprints, winning the 50 in 22.99 seconds and the 100 in 52.34 seconds. Ethan Duff won the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.26, while Ethan Duff took the 100 butterfly in 1:08.90 and Brayden Collingsworth beat younger brother by more than a minute in the 500 freestyle with a time of 6:19.91.

South Adams’ Tyler Yoder was uncontested in diving and scored 142.7 points.

“The boys are holding their own,” said Lehman, whose team moves to 4-3 on the year. 

Fort Recovery’s Nolan Thobe earned the only victory for the Indians, winning the 200 IM in 2:28.65.

“Boys, they came in relay-wise and swam really well,” Mindy Bubp said. “They came in second. That is an improvement from last year … the boys are working hard. We still have some things we can work on, but swimming agains South Adams lets them really see the things they need to work on.”