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Sout Putnam Eagles have successful swimming meet at holiday Relays
South Putnam's boys' and girls' swimmers returned to pool-action Friday morning in the Eagle Relays against Cascade, Owen Valley and West Vigo.
The Relays, a series of non-traditional events including coed races, were a chance for all four schools to get back in the pool after a quick Christmas break.
The Eagles captured eight relay wins on the day, with the girls' squad of Madison Plunkett, Katie Jo Beasley, Ashley Wilson and Morgan Deszi winning the 200-backstroke relay.
The boys' squad of Dakota Kiste, Zane Crosby, Zach Rayce and Taylor Arnold also won the 200-backstroke relay, while the team of Zeke Evens, Taylor Fields, Caleb Evens and Tyler Neumann won the 200-breaststroke relay.
The team of Rayce, Arnold, Matt Lund and Wyatt Nees won the 400-medley relay and a squad of Nees, Lund, Ben Albright and Blaine Pitts won the 200-butterfly relay.
In addition, the coed squad of Rayce, Lund, Katie McHugh and Joslyn Farmer won the 200-medley relay, the combination of Neumann, Plunkett and Courtney Sullivan won the diving relay and the squad of Farmer, Beasley, Katie Hansel, Crosby, Albright and Arnold won the 450-sprint crescendo relay.
South Putnam head coach Matthew Edwards said the event was a chance for the bulk of the squad to finally get back in the pool.
"With the weather and such, it's been hard to get kids here. We had most of the team here today and it's nice to have as many people here for once," Edwards said. "Even though this is a fun meet, an alternative meet, they really take it seriously. They worked hard for the medals and they've been doing that every day.
"We hadn't seen Cascade until today and it was important for the swimmers and the divers to get a scope at what their competition will be like at the WCC meet. It's a good introduction," Edwards added.
South Putnam will next be involved in the WCC meet at DePauw's Erdmann Natatorium on Jan. 5.
Edwards said that seeing another conference squad would be helpful for the team to gauge their levels heading into the first major meet of the season.
"It's nice to touch base with Cascade, talk to their coaches and at least see them. Even though the meet is not a regular meet, it will help us prepare for the WCC," Edwards said.
"It reminds us that Cascade is a great team. We need to play our cards right but we're expecting really good things."
"We've got swimmers from both squads that we think can be in the running for all-conference places. I think we'll be more competitive this year than we were in past years," Edwards added.
"That's all we can say for now. We hope that this will be our best WCC meet for a few years."