Fisher makes finals

The Patriots will spend almost all of today competing in consolation races.

Matthew Fisher was the lone member of the host Jay County High School’s boys swim team to qualify for a sectional championship race during the preliminaries Thursday.

The top eight swimmers in each event from Thursday’s preliminaries will compete in championship races beginning at 1 p.m. today. The next eight will swim in the consolation finals. (Diving preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. today.)

Based on preliminary results, which do not include diving, JCHS is projected to finish last in the 11-team field behind South Adams and Blackford. Bluffton is heavily favored to win its first sectional title, with Delta about 100 points behind in the runner-up spot.

Fisher saved the Patriots from getting shut out of the finals in the third-to-last race of the evening. He earned the No. 7 seed in the 100-yard backstroke, posting a time of 1 minute, 5.66 seconds.

The sophomore was also the No. 13 seed for the 200 individual medley.

Jay County came up one spot short of a berth in the championship race in both the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay. The team of Peyton Yowell, Lincoln Clamme, David Keen and Fisher was ninth in 1:55.83 in the medley while Blackford claimed the last spot in the finals at 1:55.24. The gap was wider in the 400 freestyle, with Joseph Dow, Yowell, Fisher and Clamme finishing almost 13 seconds behind eighth-seeded Muncie Central in 4:06.34.

In the 200 freestyle relay, Hugo Gutierrez, Kamdyn Carter, Keen and Dow had a time of 1:51.2 for 10th.

Dow, Yowell, Clamme and Keen all claimed spots in two consolation races. Dow is the No. 11 seed for both the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle while Yowell is 13th in the 50 freestyle and 14th in the 100 freestyle. Clamme picked up the No. 14 seed in the 100 breaststroke and No. 16 seed in the 100 freestyle, and Keen is the No. 15 seed in the 100 butterfly and No. 16 seed in the 200 freestyle.