Back home again

The Patriots hadn’t hosted a meet in over a month. Even their training routine was derailed as their home pool received maintenance.

The recent tribulations didn’t show in the results.

The Jay County High School girls swim team stomped the Muncie Central Bearcats 219-53 while the Patriot boys lost a razor-thin 150-147 decision on Tuesday.

“I’m super pleased with where we’re at, given the circumstances and not having a pool and bouncing around trying to train at other schools and things like that,” said Jay County coach Matt Slavik. “… All the way across the board, kids showed a lot of improvement. We showed a lot of determination tonight.”

Despite the suboptimal circumstances, both the Jay County girls (5-3) and boys (3-5) produced a bevy of time decreases in the Patriots’ first home event of 2026. Jay County stayed prepared by continuing its regular routine in the weight room and training at different facilities while awaiting a return.

“We just adjusted some things so that we could get more out of less, I guess,” Slavik said. “And they responded well. Unfortunately, our distance swimmers probably didn’t get the yardage they needed, but we’ll get there.”

If Jay County’s Grady Warvel wasn’t able to log enough buildup, it wasn’t evident in his performance. The freshman, who hasn’t always competed in the distance events this season, earned victories with new career bests in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyles. His time of 5:34.38 in the 500 marked a career low by nearly five seconds.

“I’ve been doing high school and club swim, so I feel like both of those have really helped condition me for such a long race like that,” Warvel said.

Despite the Jay County boys losing by five points or less for the third time of the season, Warvel was one of two Patriot boys to win multiple individual events. Cooper Glentzer earned victories in the 100-yard freestyle and backstroke.

On the girls’ side, Elly Byrum mirrored Warvel’s freestyle prowess but did her best work in the shorter races. The freshman won the 100- and 200-yard freestyle, with her time of 59.58 marking her first sub-one-minute result in the 100 of her freshman season.

“I just tried to do strong underwaters and then fast turns, and then I tried to minimize my breathing to a minimum and just went a strong last 25,” Elly Byrum said.

Elly Byrum was joined by Maria Laux (200 individual medley, 100 butterfly) and sister Brooklynn Byrum (500 freestyle, 100 breaststroke) with multiple non-relay triumphs.

In total, the Byrums accounted for four of Jay County’s nine individual victories, with their success fueled by a symbiotic relationship.

“She is a year older than me, and so she’s had a little more experience,” Elly Byrum said. “And she just helps me, before my race, she just helps me feel prepared and kind of comforts me, so when I just overwhelm myself with everything, she calms me down and helps me out.”

Now, the Patriots’ focus will shift toward preparing for the most important meets of the season. They’ll continue to ramp up for Saturday’s Allen County Athletic Conference meet before finishing off the regular season with two more meets prior to sectionals.

“We’ve got to get the intensity up again for about another week, week-and-a-half, and then be able to taper down and rest going into those big meets,” Slavik said. “I think they’re there. I think our prospect of both boys and girls doing well at conference and sectionals is good. I like the direction we’re heading as a whole. There wasn’t a single kid tonight that I could look at with disappointment.”