Greencastle takes county swim title

Friday, February 13, 2009
Greencastle swimmer Nick Stevens comes up for air during the 500-yard freestyle event during the Putnam County meet Thursday at South Putnam.

Even with two of their best swimmers out due to sickness, the Greencastle Tiger Sharks dominated the Putnam County swim meet at South Putnam Thursday night.

Greencastle finished first in 11 of 12 events, earning them a team score of 165 points, while South Putnam took home the silver with a score of 92 and North Putnam finished third with 50 points.

With the sectional just a week away, GHS Coach Daniel Bretscher said his team is not letting up.

"We were pushing hard tonight, but to be completely honest I thought we looked bad," Bretscher said. "Our goal every year is to come here and win and we did that, but we didn't look good doing it."

The two missing from the Tiger Sharks lineup were Austin Woodall and Jesse Elkins. Elkins is the No. 1 swimmer for Greencastle in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke.

"They were out with the flu, so that hurt us because they are two of our top dogs," Bretscher said. "Plus a couple other guys were swimming sick tonight.

"We need to get healthy before next week," Bretscher continued. "Because this is not a performance that will hold up in the sectional."

Bretscher found himself impressed by some of his other swimmers.

"Kenny Buchanan was a first-year diver and he won the county tonight, so that was impressive," Bretscher said. "And Jordan Phillips shaved over 18 seconds off his time in the backstroke. He was fired up with this being his last meet, so he was peaking for tonight."

Phillips' seed-time in the backstroke was 1:40.61, and he swam a 1:22.06 in the finals.

Two of the Tiger Sharks, Luke Crimmins and Nick Stevens, had multiple wins in the individual events.

Stevens smoked the competition in 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:01.63, nearly 45 seconds faster than the second place finisher, and won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:49.13.

Crimmins won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.10 and the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.55.

Even though Greencastle dominated the meet, they didn't sweep it.

The one who spoiled that for the Tiger Sharks was Darrick Grundlock of South Putnam, who won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:07.87.

That was the only event in which the South Putnam Eagles placed first, but they had several second-place finishes, and that sat well with Coach Emily Coers.

"I thought we did well," Coers said. "We haven't had a meet in a couple of weeks, so I was interested to see how they would do in competition.

"I thought they did well," Coers continued. "Their times were consistent and I was glad we got some competition in before the sectional to get the guys back into the groove of things."

For the Cougars of North Putnam, Thursday's county meet was an indicator of what they need to improve on before the sectional.

Nearly all North Putnam's swimmers' finals times were slower than their seed times.

"I think we have some things to work on before the sectional next week," NPHS Coach Wesley Richardson said. "Again, we have not had much practice so things haven't gone the way we wanted them too, but we will get there."

All three County Schools will be back in action on Thursday as they travel to Crawfordsville High School for the IHSAA sectional.

At South Putnam

Boys Putnam County Meet

Team Scores

Greencastle 165, South Putnam 92, North Putnam 50.

200 Medley Relay -- 1. Greencastle 1:50.18, 2. North Putnam 1:59.98, 3. South Putnam 2:01.15, 4. Greencastle 2:15.18

200 Freestyle -- 1. Stevens (GHS) 1:49.13, 2. Wes Albright (SPHS) 2:10.98, 3. Smith (NPHS) 2:15.65, 4. Kelly (SPHS) 2:18.49, 5. Whitman (SPHS) 2:20.29, 6. Taggart (NPHS) 2:24.86

200 IM -- 1. Chiarella (GHS) 2:19.83, 2. Grundlock (SPHS) 2:30.28, 3. Watson (GHS) 2:32.79, 4. Gould (SPHS) 2:40.52, 5. Ball (GHS) 2:50.35

50 Freestyle -- 1. Crimmins (GHS) 23.10, 2. Smith (GHS) 24.20, Guffey (GHS) 24.38, 4. Ban (NPHS) 24.65, 5. Smiley (SPHS) 24.7, 6. Payne (GHS) 25.0

1 Meter Diving -- 1. Buchanan (GHS) 159.05, 2. Gould (SPHS) 158.90, 3. Butts (SPHS) 138.40

100 Butterfly -- 1. Ball (GHS) 1:06.33, 2. Wilson (GHS) 1:27.47, 3. Lee (GHS) 1:43.14

100 Freestyle -- 1. Crimmins (GHS) 50.55, 2. Guffey (GHS) 52.98, 3. Smiley (SPHS) 54.21, 4. Smith (SPHS) 56.84, 5. Taggart (NPHS) 57.02, 6. Vickery (SPHS) 59.39

500 Freestyle -- 1. Stevens (GHS) 5:01.63, 2. Albright (SPHS) 5:46.13, 3. Kass (GHS) 5:57.35, 4. Pierce (GHS) 6:14.79, 5. Whitman (SPHS) 6:23.41, 6. Kelly (SPHS) 6:27.99

200 Freestyle Relay -- 1. Greencastle 1:34.96, 2. South Putnam 1;41.85, 3. North Putnam 1:44.62, 4. Greencastle 1:45.72, 5. South Putnam 2:08.79

100 Backstroke -- 1. Grundlock (SPHS) 1:07.87, 2. Smith (NPHS) 1:16.78, 3. Taggart (NPHS) 1:21.23, 4. Phiilips (GHS) 1:22.06, 5. Paul (NPHS) 1:29.35, 6. Arnold (SPHS)

100 Breaststroke -- 1. Payne (GHS) 1:09.54, 2. Chiarella (GHS) 1:10.51, 3. Gould (SPHS) 1:13.21, 4. Zurawski (NPHS) 1:14.86, 5. Watson (GHS) 1:15.40, 6. Kass (GHS) 1:16.72

400 Freestyle Relay -- 1. Greencastle 3:41.48, 2. South Putnam 3:54.05, 3. North Putnam 4:24.14, 4. Greencastle 4:30.01, 5. South Putnam 4:50.78

Next Meet -- All three county schools will take part in the Crawfordsville Sectional with the Prelims beginning at 6 p.m. on Thursday.