Patriots split with Norwell

OSSIAN — The Patriots claimed victories in 17 of the 24 events.

Yet only one of the teams walked away with a win on their record.

The Jay County Junior High School boys swim team took down the Norwell Knights 99-84, while the girls team fell just short in a 96-89 loss on Monday.

Jay County’s boys team (3-1) won 75% of the competitions (9-of-12) and the girls (3-1) matched that mark despite falling.

The Knights depth carried the Norwell girls to victory, as they placed second in every event they didn’t win, and swept second through fourth in four events. The Patriot boys bolstered their win by having swimmers secure second in four of the events Jay County won to prevent Norwell from getting extra points.

Six Patriots – three boys and three girls – were dual event winners.

Cooper Gentzer dominated the 200-yard freestyle (2 minutes, 6.99 seconds) and 400 freestyle (4:41.63).

Raif and Rockland Beiswanger both won a freestyle event with the former winning the 50 freestyle (27.42 seconds) and the latter the 100 freestyle (1:03.45). Raif Beiswanger also earned the top spot in the 100 breaststroke (1:19.59) while Rockland Beiswanger handled the 100 backstroke (1:15.45).

Maria Laux swam a 28.55 to top the 50 freestyle and a 1:26.23 time in the breaststroke.

Elly and Brooklynn Byrum were dual winners as well. The former won the 200 freestyle (2:25.91) and 100 backstroke (1:13.67) while the latter championed the 100 individual medley (1:12.92) and 100 freestyle (1:02.07).

Other individual victories came from Carson Westgerdes (100 individual medley), Kali Wendel (400 freestyle), and four relays.

Both the girls 200 medley relay and 300 freestyle relay were made up of Wendel, Laux, Elly Byrum and Brooklynn Byrum. The boys took both freestyle relays with lineups that featured Westgerdes, Glentzer, Raif Beiswanger and Rockland Beiswanger.

Norwell swept the 1-meter diving, and the boys team took the 200 medley relay and the 50 butterfly. The girls team complimented the early win with victories in the 50 butterfly and the 200 freestyle relay.