2024-25 Jay County girls swim preview

Matches to watch

Tuesday, Dec. 17, vs. Delta

Delta claimed the top spot in the sectional last year, beating Norwell by 70 points and the Patriot by 203. This regular season matchup can give JCHS an idea of where they can place swimmers to try and steal points.

Friday-Saturday, Jan. 10-11, in JCHS Invite

The Jay County High School Invitational provides the Patriots with an opportunity to compete against a group of talent and see how they would fare in a bigger field.

2023-24 season

After losing Mara Bader, a state contender in the 2022-23 season, the Patriots worked a 9-4 record in dual meets and their third consecutive season where they finished third in the sectional. While they didn’t have a girl who dominated in the pool, they found a way to claim the Allen County Athletic Conference title by over 100 points. The only victory in the ACAC meet came from Maddy Snow in the diving, while multiple second, third and fourth-place finishes carried them to the victory. JCHS had seven competitors in each of the sectional finals and consolation races from last season to help fuel the third-place finish.

Fast facts

•The Patriots have been dominant in the sectional meet, finishing third or higher every year since the 2009-2010 season. Their most recent sectional title came in the 2020-21 season, which was the final of four straight titles. 

•Jay County returns every swimmer that made the final last year other than Zion Beiswanger, who competed in the 100-yard breaststroke, 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay and Morgan DeHoff, who swam in the 100 breaststroke, 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay.

Projected events

Ariel Beiswanger – Distance freestyle

Brooklynn Byrum – Freestyle/butterfly

Kaylynn Clark – freestyle

Kaitlyn Fisher – breaststroke/butterfly

Lauren Fisher – breaststroke/butterfly

Sophia Hoevel – Sprint freestyle

Kenzie Huey – Backstroke

Maisey Keller– Freestyle

Aubrey Millspaugh – Distance freestyle

Alyvia Muhlenkamp – Freestyle

Kali Newell – Freestyle

Emma Ransom – Distance freestyle

Maddy Snow – Diving 

Avery Wentz – Backstroke

Top returners

Maddy Snow

14th at diving regional

Lauren Fisher

Fifth in sectional 100-yard butterfly

Kenzie Huey

Fifth in sectional 100-yard backstroke

Avery Wentz

Sixth in sectional 100-yard backstroke

Sophia Hoevel

Eighth in sectional 100-yard and 200 freestyle

Aubrey Millspaugh

Eighth in sectional 500-yard freestyle

Top departures

Zion Beiswanger

Fourth in sectional 100-yard breaststroke

Morgan DeHoff

Sixth in sectional 100-yard breaststroke

Coach Matt Slavik says

“I think that our No. 1 goal is to come together as a team to find out where everyone can fit, whether it be in particular events, whether it be the hype person, whatever it is, everybody’s got a spot on this team to help provide us success. What success looks like for us is to have everybody on the team contributing, scoring points, dropping enough time to earn letters. This year, we’ve got some young kids that are going to come in that are going to provide some support for us along with a very large junior class. The seniors are strong and down through the whole rank, we’re looking pretty strong. We’re just trying to find out where everybody fits on the team to provide us a winning season and do well at the end of the year.”