Girls take title; boys set records

The Patriot girls ran the table to reclaim the conference title.

The boys could only muster a second-place finish, but had some promising swims to get excited about.

The Jay County High School swim team had a lot to be excited about as it hosted the Allen County Athletic Conference Championship Meet on Saturday.

The Patriot girls claimed the top spot in nine events, had five runners-up and five third-place finishes to rack up 452 points for the victory. Bluffton took second with 343 while defending ACAC champion South Adams fell to third with 171 points.

“The girls had an amazing day today,” said JCHS coach Matt Slavik. “If we were to look across the board, I think we’d find 95% best times. Between winning events and placing deep in events, the girls had a phenomenal day. Everybody swam as good as we could have hoped. … I’m pretty happy for them.”

The boys won three events en route to 352 points for second place. Bluffton dominated with eight wins and 473 points for the ACAC crown, while the only other victory went to third-place Adams Central (273).

“The boys were phenomenal today,” Slavik said. “Two of the five records broken today came from our boys. … I told the boys, I couldn’t have scripted it any better than what they swam. They outperformed what my expectations were and anytime that happens, you know something’s clicking.”

The boys set a pair of ACAC meet records. It started with the 200-yard medley relay.

Cooper Glentzer led off with the backstroke and gave the Patriots an early lead against Bluffton. Carson Westgerdes and Grady Warvel held a small lead over the Tigers during the breaststroke and butterfly legs of the race and Peyton Yowell finished off the freestyle portion.

All four Patriots dropped time in the event for a swim of 1 minute, 43.83 seconds. Bluffton’s 200 medley relay team from 2020 held the previous record, which was 0.4 slower. Westgerdes and Yowell dropped the most time, shaving nearly two seconds off of their respective legs.

“I think we just came together as a team,” Westgerdes said. “Especially during practice, we really put the work in and we were hyping each other up. I feel like that led to the big time drops.”

Glentzer wasn’t done as he broke the ACAC record in the 500 freestyle. Daniel Burson of South Adams previously set the record of 5:14.89 in 2015. Glentzer shaved over four seconds off that time with a 5:10.13.

Glentzer was tied with Bluffton’s Graham Linderwell 175 yards into the race, but by the next time down the pool he had a 10-yard lead he’d never give up.

“He did scare me, I’ll admit that,” Glentzer said about realizing Linderwell was gaining on him. “Then I realized he’ll just be pushing me harder, so I could hopefully go faster and hopefully get the ACAC record by even more than what I was hoping.”

The only other win for the boys came from Warvel in the 100 butterfly with a time of 55.11.

The 100 butterfly was a big race for the girls as well. While the Patriots claimed nine of 12 victories, their depth supported the team championship effort. Jay County swept the top three spots with Elly Bryum winning with a time of 1:05.18, Brooklynn Byrum, her sister, took second in 1:07.66 and Kaitlyn Fisher placed third in 1:07.90.

“It was great,” Brooklynn Byrum said. “Slavik went through and looked at everyone’s times and found ways to get the most points, so he decided all three of us, we could sweep it. … It helps tremendously because if you win every single event, but your next-placed person in fifth you aren’t going to win. Having multiple people that are good, or at least decent, in an event helps rack up more points.”

The Byrum sisters claimed wins in their other events as well. A strong breaststroke leg helped Brooklynn Byrum grit out a victory in the 200 individual medley with a 2:34.31. A 26.48-second swim had Elly Byrum sitting atop the 50 freestyle field.

Joining Elly Byrum with multiple first-place finishes was Maria Laux. The JCHS freshman grabbed her first victory in the 100 freestyle with a time of 57.64 seconds. Three events later, Laux swam a 1:06.32 in the 100 backstroke to hit the wall first.

The only other individual victory came from Lauren Fisher in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:19.62.

Jay County also claimed all three relays. Laux, Lauren Fisher, Brooklynn Byrum and Elly Bryum combined for the 200 medley relay (2:00.58), Sophia Hoevel replaced Brooklynn Byrum for the 200 freestyle relay (1:48.44) and the winning squad for the 400 freestyle relay (4:13.02) consisted of Brooklynn Byrum, Kali Wendel, Ariel Beiswanger and Hoevel.

The success at the ACAC tournament came despite a disruption to the normal mid-year training for Jay County. Due to a problem with the pool’s heater, the Patriots didn’t swim as much yardage as previous seasons during winter break and even had to cancel a few dual meets.

“Our first conversation we had this year was about resilience,” Slavik said. “What are you going to do to overcome? We’ve spent time focusing on the mental side of things. … With high school kids, they can physically do this stuff, but it’s a matter of what they’re going to tell themselves to do it. I think that’s a big aspect of staying as consistent as possible.”