Top 10 finishes

Typically, there is only one 50-yard event at swim meets. It’s a rare day to have a butterfly, breaststroke or backstroke race at that length.

It didn’t matter for the Indians’ top swimmers, who both had strong days.

Teigen Fortkamp won two events and Sage Wendel finished in the top 10 in four to lead the way for the Fort Recovery High School swim team in the Celina Sprints held at Jay County High School on Thursday.

“They both had a lot of good swims today and had some good place finishes,” said assistant coach Ava Bubp, who was filling in for coach Mindy Bubp who missed the meet because of an illness. “A lot of the swimmers had some good races and shaved some time off their 50 times, which they don’t get to do very often. It’s a neat meet to come to and we got to see some fast swimming.”

The Fort Recovery girls team tallied 110 points to secure third place while the boys had 55 to capture fourth.

The Jay County boys finished eighth with eight points while the girls gathered six points to tie Celina for ninth place.

St. Marys Memorial won both the boys and girls with 257.5 points and 149 points, respectively.

Fortkamp had the best day of the lot. She came in as the top seed in two out of the four events and didn’t disappoint.

Her time of 25.27 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle was enough to dominate the field. Elise Oldiges of Minster claimed the second-best time of 26.08 seconds.

Fortkamp also took the top spot in the 50 backstroke with a time of 28.46 seconds. Finishing second was Ava Shardo of Versailles with a 29.08 time.

“We had the (Bowling Green) meet this past Saturday and I didn’t perform the way I wanted to,” Fortkamp said. “This meet really brought my spirits back up, especially with how the rest of the season will go.

“I’m a very competitive person. I don’t like finishing second. I want to be first.”

Fortkamp came up short of the top spot in the 50 backstroke. Her time of 33.93 seconds just wasn’t enough to beat Oldiges, who swam a 33.10.

The FRHS senior also had a third-place finish in the 50 butterfly with a career-best 28.48 seconds (which shaved off 1.73 seconds).

Following up Fortkamp in three of the four events was Joelle Kaup.

The FRHS junior was the second best finisher in the freestyle, butterfly and backstroke finishing in the top-10 twice. Times of 26.99 seconds and 29.51 seconds led Kaup to eighth-place finishes in the freestyle and butterfly, while her time of 32.04 was 0.3 seconds short of 10th in the backstroke.

Paige Guggenbiller had the next-best placement in the breaststroke, earning 10th in 35.63 seconds.

Just as Fortkamp had the best finish for the Indians in all four events, Wendel had the top time for the boys in all four. The senior made a statement early right away, as he exceeded his seed time. Wendel came in as the 10th seed for the 50 freestyle, but dropped 0.71 seconds to swim a 23.98 and capture a tie for third place with St. Marys Memorial’s Marcus McClain.

Wendel had another top-five finish in the 50 butterfly, grabbing fourth place with a 26.01.

He recorded career bests in all four events, placing seventh in the backstroke (28.75) and ninth in the breaststroke (32.67).

“I just go into every meet and say, ‘As long as I can PR, I did everything I can,’” Wendel said. “So, I can’t really complain anytime I PR.

“I did well with my pullouts of the blocks where I am able to kick and not start my swim yet. That usually helps in the long run.”

Jay County’s top swimmer from the girls side was Lauren Fisher. Her highest finish came in the 50 butterfly in which she placed 11th with a career-best time of 30.17 seconds.

“Butterfly has always been my stroke,” Fisher said. “We were all neck-and-neck and we all finished with a (30-second time), so it’s just working at that.”

Fisher also earned the top spots for the Patriots in the 50 freestyle and 50 breaststroke. Her 36.95-second finish took 17th in the breaststroke while she placed 21st in the freestyle with a time of 28.44 seconds.

Avery Wentz had the best finish for the Patriot girls in the 50 backstroke, earning 23rd.

Matthew Fisher earned the best finish in two of the four events for the Patriot boys. Fisher placed 13th in the 50 backstroke (30.6 seconds) and 20th in the 50 butterfly (29.41 seconds).

The Patriots had another 13th-place finish from Lincoln Clamme in the 50 breaststroke, clocking in at 38.39 seconds. Joseph Dow had the best finish in the 50 freestyle, taking 20th place in 26.42 seconds.

“As far as placement, I’m happy with where they’re at,” JCHS coach Matt Slavik said. “Some of those events have over 80 kids and putting a majority of our kids in the top half is nice, refreshing and a good mental boost.”