Tiger Sharks win county clash

GREENCASTLE -- They finally got one.

The Lady Tiger Sharks captured their first win of the season Tuesday night, defeating the Lady Eagles, 119-65.

"The nice thing about tonight is that in our first two meets, we lost some close races that I thought we should have won and tonight the reverse was true," GHS coach Luke Beasley said.

One of the close races that the Lady Tiger Sharks won was the 100-meter breaststroke. Late in the third length, Jessica York had a surge of energy and closed the gap between her and Melissa Ball and they were neck and neck until the finish, but Ball came out on top.

"She had a good race," SPHS coach Emily Coers said about York. "She wanted it and hopefully when we swim at the county meet she can have a rematch."

One close race that didn't go Greencastle's way was the first one of the night -- the 200-yard Medley Relay.

"We out touched them and that made us happy," Coers said.

The final leg between South's Amanda Lund and Greencastle's Natasha Aring was a nail biter, with both girls fighting for that one fingertip length. It was Lund who reached the wall first, but not by much. Only .21 seconds seperated Lund and Airing.

That was the last swimming event South Putnam would win. The Lady Eagles did win the diving competition, with Allysia Lollar taking the highest score with 155.10 points.

"We had a meet last night and we are swimming a little tired tonight," Coers said. "But the girls did exceptionally well tonight and I think they're improving every time.

"And I really don't mind swimming tired," Coers said. "I think swimmers do better when they are tired. They seem to want it more because they have to fight for it more, so times are typically quicker."

South Putnam wasn't the only team that was tired. Some people might think that the Lady Tiger Sharks were sick after looking at the times from Tuesday, but Beasley says that's typical.

"Looking at some of the times tonight that the girls swam, they're not the fastest," Beasley said. "But this is the part of the season when you won't see a lot of personal records because they are in such a heavy training routine.

"Both schools are tired, and rightly so, but we did have some good times from some of our support swimmers," Beasley added. "They competed for us and really came through for us tonight."

One event that made Beasley smile was diving. True, South Putnam did win the event, but Riley Seahorn coming in second shows that Greencastle is improving in the area where they struggled the most last year.

"It's excellent for us to be scoring points in diving this early in the season," Beasley said. "And it's not like they haven't scored for us in the past, it's just nice to know that we can count on our divers and that we can build on it as the season goes on."

At Greencastle

Greencastle 119, South Putnam 65

200 Medley Relay -- 1. South Putnam (New, York, Sherwood Lund) 2:11.66, 2. Greencastle (Terry, Ball, Culler, Aring) 2:11.87, 3. Greencastle (Dory, Good, Beams, Bittles) 2:20.04, 4. South Putnam (Cox, Friesenborg, Tomasino, Farmer) 2:30.77

200 Freestyle -- 1. Ball (GC) 2:14.05, 2. Romer (GC) 2:39.06, 3. Hedge (GC) 2:39.59, 4. Deszi (SP) 2:51.12, 5. Spencer (SP) 2:53.23, 6. Wilson (SP) 3:10.50.

200 IM -- 1. Aring (GC) 2:47.88, 2. Culler (GC) 2:55.12, 3. Tomasino (SP) 2:59.22, 4. Beams (GHS) 3:00.25

50 Freestyle -- 1. Bittles (GC) 28.44, 2. Lund (SP) 30.21, 3. Cox (SP) 30.36, 4. St. Marie (GC) 34.79, 5. Mason (GC) 37.16, 6. Johnson (SP) 40.51

Diving -- 1. Lollar (SP) 155.10, 2. Seahorn (GC) 141.30, 3. Like (GC) 141.00, 4. Good (GC) 124.40, 5. Beasley (SP) 105.85, 6. Terry (SP) 103.05

100 Butterfly -- 1. Bittles (GC) 1:09.21, Aring (GC) 1:16.15, 3. Sherwood (SP) 1:16.51, 4. Beams (GC) 1:20.58

100 Free -- 1. Terry (GC) 1:06.14, 2. Dory (GC) 1:10.44, 3. Beasley (SP) 1:13.43, 4. St. Marie (GC) 1:15.75, 5. Arnold (SP) 1:17.30, 6. Cline (SP) 1:38.25

500 Freestyle -- 1. Culler (GC) 6:46.20, 2. Liveoak (GC) 7:33.26, 3. Deszi (SP) 7:39.19, 4. Spencer (SP) 7:45.59, 5. Wilson (SP) 8:22.46

200 Freestyle Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Ball, Bittles, Beams, Romer) 1:57.13, 2. South Putnam (Tomasino, Cox, Sherwood, Lund) 2:04.01, 3. South Putnam (Farmer, Arnold, McKean, Beasley) 2:13.09, 4. Greencastle (A. Mason, K, Mason, Hedge, Liveoak) 2:31.42

100 Backstroke -- 1. Terry 1:14.29, 2. New (SP) 1:17.20, 3. Dory (GHS) 1:20.81, 4. McKean (SP) 1:32.64, 5. Cox (SP) 1:34.99, 6. Mason (GC) 136.64

100 Breaststroke -- 1. Ball (GC) 1:18.15, 2. York (SP) 1:19.95, 3. Friesenborg (SP) 1:31.25, 4. Hedge (GC) 1:32.78, 5. Romer (GC) 1:33.45

400 Freestyle Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Aring, Romer, Culler, Terry) 4:35.89, 2. South Putnam (Tomasino, Beasley, Farmer, Lund) 4:44.33, 3. Greencastle (Dory, Hedge, Mason, St. Marie) 5:19.48, 4. South Putnam (McKean, Cox, Arnold, Spencer) 5:29.06, 5. South Putnam (Cline, Johnson, Wilson, Deszi) 6:05.64