Jay finishes second at conference meet

Rain ended the day before the final five relays could be held. As a result, Jay County came up short. 

The Jay County Summer Swim team finished second in the Wabash Valley Conference Championship at Portland Waterpark on Saturday after the meet was called with five relays remaining due to multiple lightning delays.

Jay County finished with 2,120.5 points, only trailing conference champion Wells Community, which racked up 2,658.5. The Jay County girls carried a bulk of the load, earning 1,449.5 points to Wells Community’s 1,163.5, but the boys couldn’t keep up as they trailed 1,405-671.

Jay County claimed victories in 33 of the 62 individual events and seven of the 15 relays. Wells Community only picked up wins in 26 individual events – the remaining three first-place finishers were from South Adams – but they won the other eight relays.

Jay County swept the top three spots in five different races. Those races were the 11-12-year-old girls 100-meter freestyle (Addisyn Champ won in 39.91 seconds), 11-12-year-old girls 50 butterfly (Carsyn Guggenbiller, 37.40), 9-10-year-old girls 50 backstroke (Jaley Knapschafer, 22.57), 9-10-year-old girls 100 individual medley (Emme Theurer, 1 minute, 41.79 seconds) and 8-and-younger 25 butterfly (Hayden Guggenbiller, 21.71).

In general, the Jay County girls dominated, resulting in sweeps of the 8-and-younger, 9-10-year-old, 11-12-year-old and 13-14-year-old age groups.

Individually, Jay County had eight triple-event winners. They were Hayden Guggenbiller, Maddie Theurer, Emme Theurer, Champ, Elly Byrum, Maria Laux, Grant Glentzer and Cooper Glentzer. Champ went undefeated for the fifth season in a row and Cooper Glentzer joined her this year as neither lost a single race.

Laynie Mann was the only double-event winner, while Graham Peterson, Knapschafer, Carsyn Guggenbiller, Isabelle Byrum, Anna Fisher, Sam Benirschke and Brooklyn Byrum each claimed one victory.