Area swimmers compete at sectional swim prelims

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- Detrimental weather leading up to secitonal didn't do too much to deter the spirits and times of the three county swim teams at Thursday's Sectional Preliminaries at Crawfordsville High School.

All three county coaches were excited and pleased with the performances turned in by their squads on a night where the Montgomery County schools were breaking school records and the field was deep. The Saturday finals should bring out the best in all the competitors, something that Greencastle coach Luke Beasley will be expecting.

"Overall, we had a good night and we're happy about the way things went," Beasley said. "It started off well in the 200 medley relay. Mitchell Ball had a great split in the breaststroke at 24.20 seconds that got us going."

"We had good swims in the 200 free from Walter Chiarella and Joey Kass. Mitchell Ball dropped six seconds in the 200 IM. He's right in the thick of things and we're excited to see him compete on Saturday. Cody Watson also placed well."

"In the 50 and 100 free, Jay Guffey, Luke Smith and Chris Pierce all had good swims. Chris moved up from about 15th or 16th to 9th in the 50, so we're happy to see good times."

"Joey Kass had an awesome swim in the 500 free. He dropped 15 seconds to get into the finals. Alex Asbell also did well in the 500. Jesse Elkins positioned himself well in the 100 backstroke, as did Walter in the 100 breaststroke."

"We had guys who needed to have good times in the prelims to get to the finals and they got them. We also had guys who needed to get into the finals, where they will be ready to compete in them, and we got those too," Beasley pointed out.

"We're going to have guys battling for places on Saturday. All the relays are in the finals, and we'll swim like we can win them. We expect to win events and it'll be a fun day."

North Putnam coach Wesley Richardson continued the positive vibe.

"Everyone did great today. A lot of guys improved on times," Richardson said. "We're happy with everyone, considering that the weather complicated our practice schedule. It was an excellent day."

The man of the hour for North Putnam was junior Jeremiah Ban, who qualified for the finals in both the 50 and 100 free.

"We're not sure, but we think Jeremiah might have broken a school record," Richardson pointed out. "It's great that he is in two finals for Saturday. Our relays will be in the consolation finals, but we're happy with that. Everyone has got a lot to be proud of tonight."

South Putnam also had a solid night with the weather plaguing the practice schedule.

"Overall, I thought we did very well with a few surprises thrown in," said Eagles coach Emily Coers. "The 200 medley relay swam right with Greencastle for a while in the race and made it to the finals, which is awesome. Derrick Grundlock will come back for all of his events Saturday, while Trent Vickery is an alternate in the 50 free."

"The other two relays swam well and will be in the consolation finals. I'm also happy that the brothers (Jake & Sam Gould) will swim in the consolation finals in the 100 breaststroke. Sam swam a personal best and Jake did really well. I was also happy with Avery Dotson in the 50 and 100 free. He's a sophomore but it's only his first year, and I'm excited to have another sprinter to work with."

"We'll be happy going back on Saturday. I thought we fought hard tonight, having not competed in a competitive meet in a couple of weeks. In spite of that, we did well."

The sectional finals are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. with the diving preliminaries and the finals at 1:30 p.m. at Crawfordsville.

At Crawfordsville

IHSAA Section Preliminary Results

200 Medley Relay -- Finals -- 1. Southmont (Huckstep, Line, Wheeler, Clauser) 1:34.12, 2. Crawfordsville (Dieruf, Wolf, Strum, Largent) 1:45.73, 3. North Montgomery (Mellish, Miller, Amstutz, Gates) 1:46.81, 4. Greencastle (Asbell, Watson, Ball, Pierce) 1:49.47, 5. South Putnam (Grundlock, J. Gould, Lund, Vickery) 1:55.18, 6. Seeger (Hegg, Hitchcock, Tarter, Osborne) 1:58.00

Consolation -- 7. South Vermillion (Sudduth, Emery, Junker, Hines) 1:58.41, 8. Western Boone (Borders, Olsen, Boone, Jarrett) 1:59.69, 9. North Putnam (Lehr, Hendershot, James, Ban) 1:59.72, 10. Fountain Central (Key, Sherrill, Bowlus, Butler) 2:02.09, 11. North Vermillion (Hatcher, Harper, Strubringer, Scott) 2:13.48

200 Freestyle -- Finals -- 1. Clauser (SM) 1:52.66, 2. Furr (C) 1:52.84, 3. Chiarella (G) 1:56.51, 4. Servies (C) 1:56.70, 5. Ford (WB) 1:57.31, 6. Ridge (C) 1:57.53

Consolation -- 7. Michael (NM) 2:04.80, 8. Johnson (SM) 2:05.71, 9. Kass (G) 2:05.86, 10. Philpott (SM) 2:06.33, 11. Cook (WB) 2:09.12, 12. Swift (NM) 2:09.78

200 IM -- Finals -- 1. Fairfield (C) 2:07.78, 2. Amstutz (NM) 2:09.21, 3. Ball (G) 2:13.84, 4. Wheeler (SM) 2:14.28, 5. Wolf (C) 2:15.15, 6. Huckstep (SM) 2:16.50

Consolation -- 7. Richmond (C) 2:18.98, 8. Armbruster (SM) 2:22.26, 9. Watson (G) 2:23.17, 10. Riley (NM) 2:27.00, 11. Grundlock (SP) 2:28.17, 12. Boone (WB) 2:29.58

50 Freestyle -- Finals -- 1. Smoll (C) 22.07, 2. Guffey (G) 23.09, 3. Smith (G) 23.34, 4. Ban (NP) 23.42, 5. Line (SM) 23.65, 6. Hieston (WB) 23.87

Consolation -- 7. Bohlander (NM) 23.93, 8. Jones (FC) 24.07, 9. Pierce (G) 24.09, 10. Largent (C) 24.12, 11. Jarvis (SM) 24.46, 12. Gates (NM) 24.48

100 Butterfly -- Finals -- 1. Wheeler (SM) 56.60, 2. Amstutz (NM) 57.98, 3. Ball (G) 58.08, 4. Hobson (C) 58.29, 5. Strum (C) 58.74, 6. Elkins (G) 59.46

Consolation -- 7. Ford (WB) 59.56, 8. Mellish (NM) 1:01.39, 9. Sills (C) 1:02.10, 10. Key (FC) 1:02.69, 11. Gates (NM) 1:03.23, 12. Junker (SV) 1:06.44

100 Freestyle -- Finals -- 1. Smoll (C) 49.30, 2. Guffey (G) 50.92, 3. Clauser (SM) 51.10, 4. Ban (NP) 52.25, 5. Smith (G) 52.35, 6. Dieruf (C) 52.80

Consolation -- 7. Jones (FC) 53.84, 8. Pierce (G) 53.97, 9. Evans (C) 54.48, 10. Bohlander (NM) 55.54, 11. Michael (NM) 55.94, 12. Johnson (SM) 56.03

500 Freestyle -- Finals -- 1. Furr (C) 5:14.42, 2. Ridge (C) 5:17.74, 3. Servies (C) 5:20.46, 4. Miller (NM) 5:35.22, 5. Jarvis (SM) 5:39.22, 6. Kass (G) 5:48.60

Consolation -- 7. Corwin (WB) 5:52.12, 8. Cook (WB) 5:54.43, 9. Asbell (G) 6:01.61, 10. Walker (NM) 6:05.26, 11. Ewoldt (SM) 6:12.50, 12. Butler (FC) 6:13.41

200 Freestyle Relay -- Finals -- 1. Greencastle (Smith, Ball, Pierce, Guffey) 1:34.23, 2. Crawfordsville (Largent, Strum, Furr, Smoll) 1:34.46, 3. North Montgomery (Amstutz, Michael, Bohlander, Gates) 1:35.80, 4. Southmont (Johnson, Philpott, Jarvis, Clauser) 1:39.13, 5. Western Boone (Olsen, Ford, Jarrett, Hieston) 1:39.54, 6. Fountain Central (Buker, Bretney, Key, Jones) 1:40.87

Consolation -- 7. South Putnam (Grundlock, Williams, McCammack, Vickery) 1:44.68, 8. North Putnam (Lehr, Smith, James, Ban) 1:45.33, 9. South Vermillion (Gossett, Readon, Addison, Catterson) 1:46.76, 10. Seeger (Kirby, Briles, Allen, Osborne) 1:56.09, 11. North Vermillion (Julick, Strubinger, Hatcher, Scott) 1:57.55

100 Backstroke -- Finals -- 1. Dieruf (C) 56.77, 2. Mellish (NM) 57.99, 3. Elkins (G) 59.53, 4. Hobson (C) 59.56, 5. Fairfield (C) 59.58, 6. Hukstep (SM) 1:01.33

Consolation -- 7. Lewis (SM) 1:01.62, 8. Hegg (S) 1:02.97, 9. Grundlock (SP) 1:05.49, 10. Hedrick (SM) 1:08.63, 11. Borders (WB) 1:09.05, 12. Riley (NM) 1:09.26

100 Breaststroke -- Finals -- 1. Line (SM) 1:01.31, 2. Wolf (C) 1:03.81, 3. Richmond (C) 1:07.47, 4. Largent (C) 1:07.92, 5. Miller (NM) 1:08.05, 6. Chiarella (G) 1:08.65

Consolation -- 7. J. Gould (SP) 1:08.85, 8. Watson (G) 1:08.98, 9. Swift (NM) 1:12.08, 10. S. Gould (SP) 1:12.97, 11. Politz (SM) 1:14.82, 12. Olsen (WB) 1:14.99

400 Freestyle Relay -- Finals -- 1. Crawfordsville (Hobson, Furr, Strum, Ridge) 3:33.77, 2. Greencastle (Smith, Elkins, Chiarella, Guffey) 3:34.47, 3. Southmont (Jarvis, Johnson, Philpott, Wheeler) 3:44.23, 4. Western Boone (Cook, Ford, Borders, Hieston) 3:27.75, 5. North Montgomery (Michael, Riley, Kolger, Bohlander) 3:51.91, 6. Seeger (Osborne, Tarter, Hitchcock, Hegg) 3:54.26

Consolation -- 7. Fountain Central (Phillipsm Bretney, Key, Jones) 3:55.95, 8. South Putnam (Kelly, Whitman, McCammack, Vickery) 3:57.95, 9. South Vermillion (Gossett, Reardon, Addison, Catterson) 4:29.56, 10. North Putnam (B. Volland, M. Zuver, E. Volland, G. Zuver) 5:02.74