Splitting with Starfires

BERNE — Brooklynn Byrum and Julia Arnold were in a heated battle as the 500-yard freestyle came down to the wire.

With one final push, the Patriot freshman took down the Starfire senior. But while the Patriot girls won a close battle, they could not take the meet.

The Patriot boys however, walked away with their first victory of the season.

The Jay County High School boys swim team picked up its first win of the season over the South Adams Starfires 89-55, while the girls fell 93-85.

“I thought the boys had a great night tonight,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik. “Everybody is swimming off events and came through and dropping time again. The boys are looking really good, so they had an outstanding night tonight and should be very proud.”

The Patriots (1-3, 1-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) have struggled to beat teams due to low numbers this season, but with South Adams only carrying six boy swimmers, Jay County actually had an advantage.

With neither boys team having a diver available for the meet, Jay County’s six victories finished one ahead of the Starfires. It got three victories from freshman as Cooper Glentzer took the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 22.01 seconds and the 100 butterfly in 1:01.67, while Carson Westgerdes finished first in the 100 backstroke with a 1:08.75.

JCHS picked up first-place finishes in two of the three relays as Matthew Fisher, Westgerdes, Glentzer and Peyton Yowell combined to take the 200 medley relay in 1:56.22 and the 400 freestyle relay in 3:56.08.

Yowell also claimed the 500 freestyle event over teammate Lincoln Clamme. The two stayed nearly even throughout the race with Clamme (6:20.34) pulling ahead with about 75 yards left and Yowell (6:19.61) reclaiming the lead at the wall. The race was one of two events the Patriots claimed the top two spots and one of seven events in which they earned two of the top three spots.

“Us boys just work super good as a team with the new boys we’ve got in,” said Clamme. “I feel like this year, in my high school career so far, the best team we’ve had. … It’s awesome how we’ve come together. Even like when Peyton beat me by a couple of strokes, I mean, we’re still a team you know? So it feels good that we’re working together and getting these points for the boys team and trying our hardest.”

The girls team (2-2, 1-1 ACAC) only managed to win five of the 12 events, the most dramatic of which came from Byrum in the 500 freestyle.

    David Keen swims the 200-yard freestyle for the Jay County boys as part of the 89-55 win at South Adams on Monday. Keen took second in the event with a time of 2 minutes, 21.52 seconds, and added a third-place finish in the 100 freestyle as well. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

The JCHS freshman, who normally swims in the sprint freestyle events and the butterfly, stayed nearly even with Arnold of South Adams, but trailed by about five feet with just 50 yards remaining. Byrum worked her way up to the SAHS senior and even regained the lead before the final turn, but Arnold reclaimed the lead coming off the wall. With just 25 yards remaining, Byrum got to work, pulling even with only half the pool left and just beating Arnold to the touch pad.

Byrum finished with a time of 6:04.38 to beat Arnold by 0.63 seconds.

“I just tried to keep a consistent pace the whole time and my counter, Carson Westgerdes, told me I did, so that was a good thing,” Byrum said. “I just kept my head down like they told us during practice, just did not breathe and moved my arms as fast as I could.”

The other four victories for the girls came from Maddy Snow in the diving (207.25), Kaitlyn Fisher in the 100 butterfly (1:14.01), Avery Wentz in the backstroke (1:12.23) and the 200 medley relay team (2:09.62) of Wentz, Lauren Fisher, Byrum and Sophia Hoevel.

The Starfires pulled off two extra wins to total seven first-place finishes. Two key victories for South Adams came in the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay.

Both teams took the top two spots in one event each, the 100 backstroke for Jay County and the 100 freestyle for the Starfires, making the extra two first-place finishes and the relays all the more important for SAHS.

“Relays we came up a bit short on,” Slavik said. “I didn’t anticipate the one, but that’s the way it goes. All-in-all, I’m happy with our performance. Coming up on the short end of the final score wasn’t what I anticipated, but that’s why they have to come out every meet and to try and score the points as a team. But individually, we did fine and I’m happy with our performances all the way around.”