Cougars swim their way to season's second win

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

BAINBRIDGE -- Monday in front of a standing room only crowd the North Putnam boys' varsity swim team picked up their second straight win defeating Tri-West and South Putnam. Final score, the host 148, Tri West 119 and South Putnam 79. In girls' varsity action, Tri-West took first with a score of 133, North Putnam 2nd with 109 and South Putnam 104.

North Putnam boys' and girls' varsity coach Tony Gray said after the meet that "it was a good win for the boys squad and even though the girls placed second I was also pleased. I really wanted to use this meet as a measuring stick.

I wanted to see where we're at. Last year Tri-West doubled us up and South Putnam almost did that, and I think it's a good statement for our program. Its shows us that we've come a long way in just one year."

The first individual win of the night for, North Putnam boys came with the second event the 200-freestyle. Nicholas Young got a great turn on the third leg of the race to win with a time of 1:56.40. South Putnam's Ben Albright took third place.

The Lady Cougars got off to a great start winning the 200 medley relay with a time of 2:19.90. Hannah Gray led off with a good leg and her team never looked back. Joining Gray on the winning relay was Lauren Freije, Krisara Dill and Spencer Abby. South Putnam took second with a time of 2:20.18. Swimming was Katie Beasley, Olivia Arnold, Megan Arnold and Katie Hansel.

When asked what race he thought turned the tide for North Putnam, Gray added, "we were good from top to bottom tonight. I swam them really hard this morning so I knew they were going to be tired, I wanted to see how both teams responded and I thought they responded well."

The diving program for the boys had what was the closest finish of the night. With just two divers, both from North Putnam, the final score came down to the final dive and just .075 or three quarters of a point separated first and second place. Chase Ruble took first place with a score of 163.75 just ahead of team mate Kavyn Williams with a score of 163.

When asked about his diving duo the coach said "less than one point, that's just going to fuel their competition during the week and make them both better." When asked how difficult is it with so few divers the coach added, "it's difficult, we have to try and build our diving program through the junior high program because they differently help the varsity team when they get here. Lot of the teams don't have divers and that's an advantage for us, it's points we can't afford to give away"

The host boys' squad won the 200 freestyle, Bailey Allen won the 50 free and teammate Andy Rodgers took second, Zane Crosby won the 100-free; Nicholas Young won the 500 free. The-200-free relay. Team of Baily Allen, Joseph Davis, Jonah Creamean and Nicholas Young won with a time of 2:03.25.

The North Putnam girls' swim team after winning the opening relay Abby Spencer won the 200-IM with a time of 2:39.59. In the girls diving program Tri -West Madison Warden took first with a score of 184.05 and Savannah Couch took second with a score of 108.15.

For South Putnam the girls got a first in the 200-freestyle from Katie Jo Beasley with a time of 2:24.45. Beasley also won the 500 free with a time of 5:11.39. Megan Arnold won the 100-butterfly with a time of 1:16.91. Katie Hansel won the 100 free at 1:03.18, North Putnam's Elizabeth Alford took second.

When asked who stood out for the Gray finished, "I don't want to point anyone swimmer out as I felt this was a great team effort and as I said we were tough from top to the bottom." Next up for North Putnam is South Vermillion and Edgewood at home.

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