Going against themselves

Morgan DeHoff had a strong start to her junior season. She earned first place finishes in her first four events during dual meets.

Since mid-November, DeHoff has only claimed the top spot once, coming in third four times, and second three as well.

To start off the new year, DeHoff broke through again.

DeHoff provided one of the Jay County High School girls swim team’s two individual victories as it swept the Celina Bulldogs and Coldwater Cavaliers on Thursday afternoon.

The girls team dominated Celina 157-88 while winning a closer meet against Coldwater 129-104. The boys team split, taking down Coldwater 118-82 while falling to Celina 115-109.

“Tonight we saw a lot of improvements,” Patriots coach Matt Slavik said. “The puzzle pieces are coming together. I was really happy with our performance across the board.

“Everyone had a really good meet in the events they swam, super stoked about that. … Playing things around and swimming in different events and it was a nice fit tonight the way it came together.”

DeHoff cruised to a first-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 28.5 seconds. Teammate Avery Wentz was the next closest with a 29.53.

It felt really good,” DeHoff said. “Having my 50 free time down to a low 28 was really nice. We’ve been working a lot on technique during practice, so we saw improvement with that and that’s good.”

It was the Patriot’s first individual victory since Dec. 11 against South Adams when she won the backstroke.

Along with her 50 freestyle win, she was the first leg of the 200 freestyle relay team that placed first for Jay County (7-3). Zion Beiswanger, Sophia Hoevel and Lauren Fisher joined DeHoff for the race, finishing in 1 minute, 54.2 seconds, which was over two seconds better from the Coldwater team.

Zion Beiswanger, a sophomore at Jay County High School, swims the backstroke leg of the 200-yard individual medley in a double-dual meet against Coldwater and Celina on Thursday. Beiswanger had a pair of second-place finishes to help the Patriots sweep the meet. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

The only other victory for the girls came from Naroa Zugasti on the diving board with a score of 106.65.

Outside of those three top finishes, the Patriots were powered by their depth, earning second in nine events and third in seven.

“(Having depth) definitely helps,” DeHoff said. “Especially with our mindset coming in knowing we have a strong team that can get not just the first place finishes, but can follow in with the rest of the places. It really helps.

“And not just me, but a bunch of us are dropping time which definitely helps.”

Beiswanger also had a solid night, snagging a pair of second-place finishes for Jay County in the 200 individual medley and the 100 freestyle.

The boys (2-8) only had two first-place finishes. It also took the diving with Brasen Glassford’s score of 139.05. The other came from Lincoln Clamme in the 50 free with a time of 26.42. He beat Matthew Fisher by 1.27 seconds.

Clamme narrowly lost the 100 breaststroke to Coldwater’s Quinn Brandon. Clamme clocked in at 1:15.87 while Brandon finished 1:15.72.

“The (boys) highlight of the night was Lincoln Clamme having a solid 50 and 100 breaststroke,” Slavik said. “Anytime you can get career best times at a mid-season dual meet, you’re doing well.”

Matthew Fisher also finished second in the 100 backstroke to go along with the 50 freestyle.

The JCHS tankers combined for 14 career bests and 25 season best times. The improvements have Slavik excited for the direction the Patriots are moving in as sectional draws near.

He plans to utilize the Patriot Invite on Saturday to place swimmers where he could foresee them competing in the postseason as a trial run.

“Individual wins would be great for their own psyche, but more or less, all of them know there’s only one person they’re swimming against right now and that’s themselves and where they were at this time last year,” Slavik said. “Right now, most of them are ahead of where they were at this time last year.”