Patriots advance a dozen

The Patriots will have at least two athletes competing in every individual event.

Based on preliminary results, though, they’re not contenders to win any of them.

Host Jay County High School qualified a dozen swimmers through Thursday’s sectional preliminaries to swim in the consolation and championship finals Saturday, though the highest seed any earned was No. 4.

The top eight finishers in each event from the preliminaries advance to the championship heat while the next eight will compete in consolation races. The meet continues with diving preliminaries at 9 a.m. Saturday, followed by swimming and diving finals at 1 p.m.

The Patriots are projected for a fourth-place finish in the 11-team field — diving has a chance to bump them into contention for third — based on the preliminary results. Delta, which took the No. 1 seed in eight events including all three relays, is the favorite to repeat as the sectional champion followed by Norwell, Huntington North and host JCHS.

There’s a fairly wide gap from the rest of the sectional teams, with South Adams, Adams Central and Muncie Central in the mix for fifth place.

Junior Morgan DeHoff earned the highest individual seed for the Patriots as she finished fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke. Her time of 1 minute, 15.94 seconds, put her behind sectional favorite Gabriella Coyne (1:12.47) of Bluffton, Haleigh Reinhard (1:15.24) of Norwell and Jordan Bunch (1:15.66) of Delta and just seven hundredths of a second in front of teammate Zion Beiswanger.

Sophia Hoevel, a sophomore, was the only Jay County swimmer to earn championship berths in both of her individual races. She took the No. 7 seed in both, posting times of 2:12.41 in the 200 freestyle and 59.6 in the 100 freestyle.

In addition to DeHoff’s effort, the Patriots picked up the No. 4 seed in a pair of relays. Lauren Fisher, Beiswanger, Hoevel and DeHoff were fourth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:49.73 while Avery Wentz, Fisher, Beiswanger and DeHoff posted a time of 2:01.8 for fourth in the 200 medley relay. (Both were about five seconds off of Delta’s winning pace.)

Kenzie Huey, a junior, recorded the No. 5 seed in the 100 backstroke with Wentz following in eighth at 1:09.78.

Fisher picked up the No. 7 seed with a time of 1:08.24 in the 100 butterfly and junior Aubrey Millspaugh took seventh in the 500 freestyle in 6:04.42.

Maisey Keller, Ariel Beiswanger, Hoevel and Millspaugh posted a time of 4:12.16 in the 400 freestyle relay for the No. 6 seed.

Advancing to the consolation finals for the Patriots were: Millspaugh (ninth – 200 freestyle), Ariel Beiswanger (10th – 200 freestyle, 11th – 500 freestyle), Maddy Snow (11th – 100 breaststroke), Hannah Laux (11th - 100 butterfly, 12th – 100 individual medley), Zion Beiswanger (11th – 200 individual medley), Fisher (11th – 50 freestyle), Kenzie Clayton (14th – 100 butterfly), DeHoff (14th – 50 freestyle), Wentz (14th – 200 individual medley) and Keller (16th – 100 freestyle).