Girls get back right

On Friday, the Patriots only boasted one individual victory at the Allen County Athletic Conference meet.

By Tuesday, they flipped that as they took the top spot in all but one event in a double dual.

The Jay County High School girls swim team claimed first place in 11 out of 12 events as it took down the Blackford Bruins and the Muncie Burris Owls in a double dual on Tuesday, while the boys team split.

The Patriots girls scored the same amount of points against both teams to take down the Bruins 167-87 and the Owls 167-39. The boys claimed two individual victories as they beat Muncie Burris by over 20 points (128-103), while falling in a close competition with Blackford 130-124.

Most of the Jay County lineup was mixed up to give the swimmers a break from their typical events with the sectional nine days away.

“The lineups at the end of the night was lined up to do some different things and build some confidence as we get into it and give them a break from their normal events,” JCHS coach Matt Slavik said. “They just needed a break to just go out and compete. They did and they all came through with flying colors. Competing in their off events we had some great time drops which helps me change up relays a little bit I think and to set us up to be as successful as possible in a couple weeks.”

Maddy Snow and Morgan DeHoff won multiple events for the Patriots (9-4). Snow opened the meet with a victory in the 1-meter diving by scoring 181.45 points. Second place went to Karlie Pitts of Blackford with 131 points. Later, she swam a 1 minute, 26.91 second, 100-yard breaststroke to capture the top spot over teammate Sophia Hoevel (1:32.08).

DeHoff’s first victory came in the 50 freestyle, in which she posted a career-best time of 28.1 seconds. Slavik noted that DeHoff swimming in the sprint freestyle may be one of the only positions that stays from this meet for the sectional. DeHoff claimed her other first-place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:19.57, 4.08 seconds faster than Blackford’s Catalina Velasquez.

“It was great for Maddy to come out and be able to swim 100 breaststroke and capitalize on that as well as her diving,” Slavik said. “She had a really good night and trying to see where she's gonna fit in next week.

“Morgan came out and had a best time in her 50 freestyle, she needed that confidence booster. She hadn't swung backstroke in a little while so it’s good to see her come out and swim good with that. She looked really good tonight.”

Kenzie Huey swims the backstroke leg of the 200 medley relay team on Tuesday. The team that also included Maddy Snow, Kenzie Clayton and Emma Ransom took second, falling to the other JCHS team. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

The Jay County girls took the top spot in seven other events as well:

•100 freestyle — Aubrey Millspaugh in 1:03.46

•200 freestyle — Zion Beiswanger in 2:27.91

•200 individual medley — Lauren Fisher in 2:40.33

•500 freestyle — Ariel Beiswanger in 6:29.95

•200 freestyle relay — DeHoff, Fisher, Hoevel and Zion Beiswanger in 1:55.4

•200 medley relay — Avery Wentz, DeHoff, Fisher and Zion Beiswanger in 2:07.68

•400 freestyle relay — Maisey Keller, Ariel Beiswanger, Millspaugh and Hoevel in 4:28.9

“I think it’s good for us to see so many victories going into sectionals,” Zion Beiswanger said. “Just a good feeling of accomplishment.

“Everyone’s had a lot of time drops. Everyone’s worked really hard in practice – we’ve had a different strategy for practice (since winter break) and I think that’s worked really well.”

Jolin Fang of Muncie Burris snuck away with the 100 butterfly (1:16.77) to steal the only individual victory that didn’t go to the Patriots, as Kenzie Clayton of Jay County finished second.

The Owls ran away with first place in eight of the 12 boys events as Blackford and Jay County (3-10) each had two.

The first Jay County victory came from Brason Glassford in the diving. After setting a career-best score of 148.15 points at the ACAC meet, the sophomore smashed that number with a 167-point performance on Tuesday.

“(Assistant coach Sawyer Weitzel) has got him to believe in himself a little bit more,” Slavik said. “He’s strengthened his (degree of difficulty) a little bit and scoring higher. We’ll hope to have everything cleaned up by the time we get to sectionals for him.

“He’s definitely moving in the right direction.”

After starting with a victory, Jay County ended the meet with a win in the 400 freestyle relay as Lincoln Clamme, Hugo Gutierrez, Matthew Fisher and Joseph Dow put together a time of 4:24.31.

JCHS took second in three of the 10 remaining events. Its depth powered it past Muncie Burris, but Slavik took blame for the loss to Blackford, saying that with some lineup adjustments he believes they could have pulled out the win.

Despite the loss, he was pleased with the day that the boys and girls had as the regular season winds down.

“I’m proud of this team and where they’ve come,” Slavik said. “They’ve been a fun team to coach and are very coachable. Trying to compare this team to teams in the past, you've got to compare as far as the attitudes of the kids and willingness to put the effort in and this team does a great job with that.”