Byrums lead junior high swim to victory

OSSIAN — In the season opener, Brooklynn Byrum and Maria Laux put out the top two performances for the Patriots.

One day later, Elly Byrum added her name to that list.

Brooklynn and Elly Byrum both won a pair of events as the Jay County Junior High School girls swim team won the Norwell Invite on Tuesday.

The Patriots took the top spot in six events to gather 496.5 points. Norwell posed a threat to take the top spot, but fell short with 471.5 points. Bluffton also put itself in striking distance with 423, but the other four teams scored less than 300 points.

Elly Byrum started the day strong, earning the first individual victory for Jay County in the 200-yard freestyle. Her time of 2 minutes, 26.08 seconds, beat out Tess Frauigher of Bluffton with 2:38.63. She later took the top spot in 100 backstroke with a time of 1:12.04.

Brooklynn Byrum again won the 50 freestyle, hitting the wall at 27.98 seconds. Her other victory came two events later in the 100 freestyle with a 1:00.49.

Laux couldn’t claim any individual victories, but posted second-place finishes in the 400 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.

Kaitlyn Fisher was the highest finisher for the Patriots in the 50 butterfly (second) and 100 individual medley (third).

With times of 1:56.99 and 2:10.91, the 200 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay teams took first. The 400 freestyle relay team finished sixth for Jay County.