Relays rally Patriots

The girls have had more first-place finishes than the boys through the first two dual meets this season.

Maddy Snow got the girls started with a victory in the 1-meter diving.

The boys quickly answered back by claiming the 200-meter medley relay. Two top finishes from Cooper Glentzer and the 400 freestyle relay would give the boys all they would need to beat out the girls, but neither Patriot team could overcome the Knights.

The Jay County High School boys and girls swim teams fell to the Norwell Knights on Thursday, with the boys falling 169-109 and the girls coming up short 183-112.

“I think the boys stepped up a lot against a strong Norwell team,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik. “They’re showing their effort’s playing off. Every single boy dropped time in their events they swam tonight. The relays looked stronger.

“I’m super stoked with where they’re at right now and where their potential is going to take them. As we get further into the season, they’re training harder and they’re doing a great job.”

The Patriot boys (0-3) started on a good note with the 200 medley relay. Matthew Fisher led off with the backstroke, while freshmen Carson Westgerdes and Glentzer gained an advantage swimming the breaststroke and butterfly.

By the time it got to Peyton Yowell in the freestyle, he just needed to hold a sizable lead. The senior flew to the best time split of the freestylers, earning the Patriots a time of 1 minute, 52.08 seconds, to beat the Knights’ top team by 3.1 seconds.

“I knew my teammates could get me in a good position where I can go and finish the relay for my team,” Yowell said. “We’ve been getting a lot better at practice and all of our team has been getting a lot faster, so really good for our team.”

The boys also found success in the 400 freestyle relay. Glentzer led off and got Jay County an early lead. Lincoln Clamme, who replaced Fisher in the relay, held the advantage before Westgerdes built it up even more as the third leg. Again, Yowell just had to finish it off to earn the first-place finish with a time of 3:49.63. The closest relay team from Norwell trailed by 6.1 seconds.

Along with his key roles in the relay, Glentzer picked up a pair of individual victories. His first win came in the 50 freestyle, where he sprinted out to a 1.26 victory with a time of 24.21 seconds.

The JCHS freshman also competed in the 500 freestyle, with the goal of staying under 15:16.00 time to qualify for midstates. (The midstates meet is significant for his club team, Jay County Winter Swim, but not to the varsity or IHSAA.)

He achieved his goal, hitting the wall in 5:15.48 to dominate the field —  Norwell’s Ethan Williamson finished as the runner up with a 5:48.82 — leading to his teammates running over to the edge of the pool to congratulate him.

“My goal was to get a 5:16 (in the 500 freestyle) and it was my last chance to get a cut for a meet called midstates,” Glentzer said. “I just kept my head down, focusing on the little things and kept plowing through the water.”

Avery Wentz of the Jay County girls swim team swims the 100-yard freestyle in the meet against Norwell that it lost 183-112 on Thursday. Wentz finished fourth in the event in 1 minute, 10.39 seconds. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko) 

Along with the top finishes, the Patriots earned the runner-up spot in three events. The first came from Yowell in the 100 butterfly (1:03.47), followed by Westgerdes in the 100 freestyle (55.88). The final second-place finish came in the 200 freestyle relay (1:51.56).

The sole victory for the girls team (2-1) came from Snow in the diving. Her score of 173.8 beat out Norwell’s Emerson Meredith (164.8) by just shy of 10 points.

Outside of Snow, Brooklyn Byrum had the best day for the girls with a pair of second-place finishes. Her time of 1:08.57 came up 1.26 seconds short of Annalise Cornett of the top spot in the 100 butterfly. While she wasn’t in contention to win the 100 breaststroke, a 1:21.55 earned the spot as the  runner-up.

“Brooklynn is coming in as a freshman and able to compete across different events,” Slavik said, “Kaitlyn Fisher is the same way and some of our older girls swam faster than they were swimming at this point last year. Just at a quick glance, we were 90% over where we were at this time last year.”

The only other second-place finish for the Patriots came from Lauren Fisher in the 100 freestyle (1:04.95).

Slavik said he’s been impressed with the way his team is gelling and the attitudes they’ve brought to meets and practices this year. Jay County will have three more meets — at South Adams on Monday, against Delta on Tuesday and against Adams Central on Dec. 23 — to make any tweaks before their 15-day midseason break.

“The hardest two weeks and the best two weeks to shape your season comes over Christmas break, when you’re able to come in and refine what you’ve seen over the first half of the season,” Slavik said. “There are a number of things we’ve got to address, but again, we are ahead of where we were last year at this time with the core group of kids.”