5 Tiger Cub swimmers advance

Monday, February 22, 2010
Walter Chiarella, Jesse Elkins, Luke Smith and Jay Guffey stand proudly on the podium following their 400 freestyle relay win at Saturday's sectional.

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CRAWFORDSVILLE -- When sectional season rolls around, so much of swimming is really between the ears. There's no controlling the opponent, just racing your own race.

On that front, all three Putnam County coaches were proud of their teams coming out of Saturday's sectional. Greencastle finished second to the host Athenians, while South Putnam was sixth and North Putnam was 10th.

For Greencastle coach Luke Beasley, who saw his 200 and 400 relay teams claim victory, it wasn't simply about the wins.

"Mitchell Ball had an incredible day," Beasley said. "He was right in the thick of that IM race all the way into the freestyle leg. He's someone with tremendous potential. Alex Asbell dropped 20 seconds in the 500.

"It's guys like that -- young guys -- who stepped up on Saturday. You don't always expect that because they might be a little nervous. That makes me really excited, already, for next year," he added.

The list goes on. Distance swimmer Joey Kass was sick Saturday morning, but went out and earned the team points. There were good performances from Chris Pierce, Cody Watson, Walter Chiarella and Jesse Elkins.

Coming into Saturday, the writing was on the wall that Crawfordsville would break the Tiger Sharks' three-year reign as sectional champions. Beasley told his team to still go out and compete.

"It was just a great day for us in terms of competing and racing," the coach said. "I talked to the guys before the meet about being a great competitor. It's not necessarily about winning the race, but it's having the mentality that you belong, that you need to give everything you have every single race. And I thought the guys did that."

North Putnam coach Wesley Richardson watches Jeremy Ban explode off the starting block while practicing prior to the 100 freestyle final.

Winning and advancing is also nice, though. By winning both the 200 freestyle relay in 1:31.30 and the 400 freestyle relay in 3:23.36, the team of Smith, Elkins, Chiarella and Guffey are on to Friday's state meet.

"Our guys stepped up on those freestyle relays. We wanted those bad. We knew that Crawfordsville was going to be a tough challenge, so we're extremely happy to win both of those."

The races were especially tough for Chiarella and Elkins, who had individual races in between the two relays.

"You have guys like Jesse and Walter, who had backstroke and breaststroke in there. But they were able to get rid of that and both split 51s, which is faster than they've ever split before. That was awesome."

The Tiger Sharks also have a diver moving on in Matt Sims. The freshman finished fourth behind three seniors with a total score of 307.25. The top four divers all move on to Tuesday's diving regional.

"Matt did incredibly well today. We're extremely proud of him," Beasley said. "I think it's been a while since we've had a diver go to regionals. That's a testament to what Matt and Angie Kaufman, our dive coach, has done.

"We think he's only going to continue to get better and better," he added.

For South Putnam, the day's highlight came early, as the medley relay team came home fifth.

"I thought they did awesome. Our medley relay finished fifth place, which they had all their personal bests," coach Emily Coers said.

The Eagles also had nice individual performances from Darrick Grundlock (11th in the IM, ninth in backstroke) and brothers Jake and Sam Gould (eighth and 12th, respectively, in the breaststroke).

Sam Gould also came home sixth in diving, followed by teammate Thomas Butts, who was 11th.

The Eagles' 200 free relay team dropped three seconds, with everyone setting personal bests. Likewise, the 400 free relay dropped six seconds with some nice times.

"They all went under a minute -- something that we haven't done all season. They were really pumped and excited about their times," Coers said.

"I'm just really happy for my boys. They're a young team, but they really pulled it off well here today. I'm proud," she concluded.

North Putnam had Jeremy Ban as their only finalist. The junior placed fifth in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free. Coach Wesley Richardson had good things to say about all his boys, though.

"Jeremy did excellent today, but I'm pretty proud of everyone. We bettered our times again, so I was pretty proud of that," Richardson said.

"I know that they're definitely looking forward to next year. Jeremy's already setting his goals. Divers are already setting their goals. I'm happy with everyone."

The Cougars' 200 free relay team came home in ninth, while the medley and 400 free relays were each 10th. Diver Lance Clodfelter finished 12th.

The 2010 season hasn't been an easy one for any of the three Putnam County schools. North Putnam and South Putnam had trouble getting practices in with all the tough weather. Greencastle had to adjust to a new coach in Beasley.

Good performances at sectional are a reward for the long season, though.

"It's been a long year, a tough year, a challenging year -- my first with the boys. But seeing these guys compete makes it all worth it," Beasley said. "I can't wait to get started for next year."

Greencastle's Matt Sims will compete at the Plainfield diving regional at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The GHS relays of Luke Smith, Jesse Elkins, Walter Chiarella and Jay Guffey will be in action at 6 p.m. Friday at the IHSAA State Finals at the IUPUI Natatorium.

At Crawfordsville

IHSAA Boys' Swimming Sectional

Crawfordsville 343, Greencastle 257, Southmont 223, North Montgomery 176, Western Boone 99, South Putnam 67, Fountain Central 67, Seeger 50, South Vermillion 43, North Putnam 40, North Vermillion 20

200 Medley Relay -- 1. Southmont 1:42.47, 2. Crawfordsville 1:43.24, 3. North Montgomery 1:46.24, 4. Greencastle (Asbell, Watson, Ball, Pierce) 1:48.77, 5. South Putnam (Grundlock, J. Gould, Lund, Vickrey) 1:53.53, 6. Seeger 1:57.36. Cons. -- 7. South Vermillion 1:58.01, 8. Fountain Central 1:59.68, 9. Western Boone 1:59.74, 10. North Putnam (Smith, Hendershot, James, Lehr) 2:07.29, 11. North Vermillion 2:09.87.

200 Freestyle -- 1. Clauser (Sm) 1:49.95, 2. Furr (Cr) 1:50.16, 3. Chiarella (GHS) 1:53.83, 4. Servies (Cr) 1:57.38, 5. Ridge (Cr) 1:57.56, 6. Ford (WB) 1:58.57. Cons. -- 7. Michael (NM) 2:01.87, 8. Johnson (Sm) 2:03.68, 9. Philpott (Sm) 2:05.58, 10. Kass (GHS) 2:07.56, 11. Cook (WB) 2:08.05, 12. Swift (NM) 2:11.73.

200 IM -- 1. Fairfield (Cr) 2;08.54, 2. Amstutz (NM) 2:09.18, 3. Ball (GHS) 2:12.19, 4. Wolf (Cr) 2:12.78, 5. Huckstep (Sm) 2:13.57, 6. Wheeler (Sm) 2:13.70. Cons. -- 7. Richmond (Cr) 2:19.12, 8. Watson (GHS) 2:19.34, 9. Armbruster (Sm) 2:21.38, 10. Riley (NM) 2:27.17, 11. Grundlock (SP) 2:27.71, 12. Boone (WB) 2:29.61.

50 Freestyle -- 1. Smoll (Cr) 21.81, 2. Guffey (GHS) 22.33, 3. Smith (GHS) 23.20, 4. Line (Sm) 23.49, 5. Ban (NP) 23.73, 6. Hieston (WB) 24.05. Cons. -- 7. Jones (FC) 23.49, 8. Pierce (GHS) 24.08, 9. Bohlander (NM) 24.11, 10. Gates (NM) 24.25, 11. Jarvis (Sm) 24.43, 12. Largent (Cr) 24.47.

Diving -- 1. Totheroh (Cr) 351.25, 2. Hieston (WB) 344.30, 3. Julick (NV) 310.75, 4. Sims (GHS) 307.25, 5. Catterson (SV) 286.75, 6. S. Gould (SP) 271.25, 7. Ridell (NM) 247.60, 8. Davis (Sm) 238.75, 9. McCarthy (FC) 234.75, 10. Allen (Se) 211.90, 11. Butts (SP) 201.85, 12. Clodfelter (NP) 147.90.

100 Butterfly -- 1. Wheeler (Sm) 56.03, 2. Elkins (GHS) 56.45, 3. Ball (GHS) 57.18, 4. Hobson (Cr) 57.68, 5. Amstutz (NM) 58.10, 6. Sturm (Cr) 59.15. Cons. -- 7. Ford (WB) 59.28, 8. Mellish (NM) 1:01.08, 9. Gates (NM) 1:01.84, 10. Key (FC) 1:02.86, 11. Sills (Cr) 1:03.05, 12. Junker (SV) 1:06.10.

100 Freestyle -- 1. Smoll (Cr) 48.04, 2. Guffey (GHS) 49.17, 3. Clauser (Sm) 51.28, 4. Smith (GHS) 51.71, 5. Dieruf (Cr) 52.45, 6. Ban (NP) 52.89. Cons. -- 7. Jones (FC) 52.65, 8. Pierce (GHS) 54.58, 9. Evans (Cr) 54.98, 10. Bohlander (NM) 55.15, 10. Michael (NM) 55.15, 12. Johnson (Sm) 55.50.

500 Freestyle -- 1. Furr (Cr) 5:11.48, 2. Servies (Cr) 5:17.72, 3. Ridge (Cr) 5:24.86, 4. Jarvis (Sm) 5:36.72, 5. Miller (NM) 5:38.60, 6. Kass (GHS) 5:58.58. Cons. -- 7. Asbell (GHS) 5:42.95, 8. Corwin (WB) 5:49.70, 9. Cook (WB) 5:55.72, 10. Walker (NM) 6:02.21, 11. Butler (FC) 6:03.94, 12. Ewoldt (Sm) 6:13.39.

200 Freestyle Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Smith, Elkins, Chiarella, Guffey) 1:31.30, 2. Crawfordsville 1:31.85, 3. North Montgomery 1:34.91, 4. Southmont 1:37.25, 5. Fountain Central 1:37.29, 6. Western Boone 1:39.06. Cons. -- 7. South Putnam (Grundlock, Williams, McCammack, Vickrey) 1:41.94, 8. South Vermillion 1:42.45, 9. North Putnam (Lehr, James, Smith, Ban) 1:43.18, 10. Seeger 1:51.95, 11. North Vermillion 1:53.65.

100 Backstroke -- 1. Dieruf (Cr) 55.8, 2. Mellush (NM) 58.21, 3. Hobson (Cr) 59.31, 4. Elkins (GHS) 1:00.00, 5. Fairfield (Cr) 1:00.70, 6. Huckstep (Sm) 1:00.92. Cons. -- 7. Lewis (Sm) 1:02.15, 8. Hegg (Se) 1:02.96, 9. Grundlock (SP) 1:05.26, 10. Hedrick (Sm) 1:07.12, 11. Riley (NM) 1:07.39, 12. Borders (WB) 1:07.66.

100 Breaststroke -- 1. Line (Sm) 1:01.96, 2. Wolf (Cr) 1:03.96, 3. Miller (NM) 1:04.69, 4. Largent (Cr) 1:06.22, 5. Chiarella (GHS) 1:06.22, 6. Richmond (Cr) 1:06.71. Cons. -- 7. Watson (GHS) 1:09.42, 8. J. Gould (SP) 1:10.58, 9. Swift (NM) 1:11.40, 10. Politz (Sm) 1:12.45, 11. Olsen (WB) 1:13.33, 12. S. Gould (SP) 1:14.15.

400 Freestyle Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Smith, Elkins, Chiarella, Guffey) 3:23.36, 2. Crawfordsville 3:24.08, 3. Southmont 3:39.48, 4. North Montgomery 4:43.72, 5. Western Boone 3:44.81, 6. Seeger 3:45.22. Cons. -- 7. Fountain Central 3:47.22, 8. South Putnam (Kelly, Whitman, McCammack, Vickrey) 3:51.48, 9. South Vermillion 4:22.22, 10. North Putnam (E. Volland, B. Volland, G. Zuver, M. Zuver) 5:45.49.

Next meet: Greencastle's Matthew Sims will compete at the Plainfield diving regional at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Greencastle's Luke Smith, Jesse Elkins, Walter Chiarella and Jay Guffey will swim at the IHSAA State Finals preliminaries at 6 p.m. Friday at IUPUI Natatorium.

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