Two qualifiers

Mara Bader admits to being nervous about the 200-yard individual medley.

Her mom Missy was nervous, but she always is.

Even coach Matt Slavik, though, said he’d be lying if he said that midway through the race he wasn’t feeling nervous as well.

All of those nerves turned out to be unnecessary.

Bader dominated the final two legs of the 200 IM to win the first of her two sectional championships Saturday as she led the host Jay County High School girls swim team to a third-place finish.

The senior also won the 100 breaststroke later in the meet and will compete in the state finals in both events. And sophomore Maddy Snow advanced to the diving regional by virtue of her third-place sectional effort.

The Patriots scored 309 points to finish third behind champion Delta (398) and runner-up Norwell (383). Adams Central was a distant third in the 12-team field with 198 points.

“I think me and the girls were the only ones who thought we could finish third,” said Slavik. “A lot of people were surprised with our performance (in preliminaries) on Thursday. We outperformed everybody as far as time drops. …

“From seeding, to prelims, to finals, we made up a lot of points. …

“This team coming together as a team and doing what they did was just a phenomenal experience.”

Bader entered Saturday as a three-time state qualifier in the 200 IM, and she was seeded first in the event by 3.53 seconds after Thursday’s preliminaries. But her lack of confidence in the second leg of the race caused all of those aforementioned nerves.

“I tell everyone, it doesn’t matter who I’m swimming in the IM, that race makes me so nervous all the time,” said the senior. “Before it I was really nervous. … I know that obviously backstroke is not my strong stroke … I was just glad that it ended the way it did.”

Bader was about a half-second behind Delta’s Annie Jackson midway through the race Saturday after that backstroke leg. But she had a more than seven-second advantage over Jackson on the breaststroke leg and continued to pull away in the freestyle.

Her winning time of 2 minutes, 18.95 seconds, was an improvement by about 4.5 seconds over Thursday’s preliminaries and was more than five seconds faster than runner-up Ella Krug of Norwell. (Jackson finished third.)

“I knew that’s the way it was going to go,” said Slavik, “just because she’s got such a strong second half of her IM. … She set goals of where she wanted to be and she swam those today.”

Bader’s dominance in her signature stroke continued later as she won the 100 breaststroke by 6.1 seconds over South Adams’ Julia Arnold in a race that was never close.

Joining Bader in advancing to the state finals in multiple individual events was Eleanor Groves of Delta, who won the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle. (The winner of each swimming event moves on to the state finals while the top four divers qualify for the regional.)

Lauren Fisher, Morgan DeHoff and Bader also teamed with Zion Beiswanger for second behind Delta in the 200 freestyle relay and with Kenzie Huey for third in the 200 medley relay.

Snow worked her way into the No. 3 spot behind Grier Backus and Ava West, both of Delta, with her first five dives during preliminaries Saturday morning and that order held throughout. She was just nine points behind West for second place after the semifinals before slipping a bit in the final three dives, as the one dive that caused her problems was her last — a back dive with one somersault and one twist.

She finished with 339.6 points to trail Backus (391.45) and West (363.95). A third Delta diver, Kadence Rector, took the last regional qualifying spot for tonight’s competition at Hamilton Southeastern with 326.95 points.

Though her last dive faltered, Snow was especially happy with her inward dive in the pike position.

“It was probably the best I could have asked for,” she said after improving her sectional score by 32.75 over last season. “It was really high. I got really into the pike and I stayed over the board.”

The next best individual swimming finish for JCHS came — literally — behind Bader as DeHoff placed third in the 100 breaststroke. Beiswanger was sixth to give the Patriots half of the top six in the event.

Aubrey Millspaugh placed fourth in the 500 freestyle and sixth in the 200 freestyle while Fisher finished sixth in the 100 butterfly and eighth in the 50 freestyle. Huey took fifth place in the 100 backstroke and Hannah Laux placed eighth in the 200 IM.

Sophia Hoevel, Millspaugh, Beiswanger and Laux were fifth in the 400 freestyle relay.

Union City’s Elly O’Connor, who trains with Jay County, finished second in the 100 freestyle and third in the 50 freestyle.

Also competing for the Patriots in consolation finals Saturday were DeHoff (ninth – 100 butterfly), Avery Wentz (ninth – 100 backstroke, 14th – 500 freestyle), Hoevel (10th – 100 freestyle, 11th – 200 freestyle), Stacy Fomina (11th – diving), Laux (11th – 100 butterfly) and Beiswanger (11th - 200 IM).