3-Time Champions

Sunday, February 22, 2009
Luke Crimmins launches off the wall at the start of the 100-yard backstroke in the finals of the Crawfordsville Sectional Saturday.

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- After winning back-to-back sectional championships, one thing was expected of the Tiger Sharks all season long -- go three-in-a-row.

Mission accomplished.

On Saturday, Greencastle High School boys' swim team set a new school precedent, winning its third straight sectional title.

"You never take a sectional title for granted and this one feels great," GHS Coach Daniel Bretscher said. "I told them (the team) before the meet, you never know what's going to happen next year or the year after, so you have to stay in the moment and, that's what we did."

This marks the second title that Bretscher has won as a head coach; he also won a title as an assistant coach under his father.

From the beginning to the end, it was Greencastle that controlled the tempo and the atmosphere of the meet.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Luke Crimmins, Ryan Payne, Jesse Elkins and Nick Stevens set the mood for the day when they won the event with the time of 1:40.20, setting a school record. Then as a follow up act, Stevens broke a 22-year old school record with his first place time of 1:46.27 in the 200-yard freestyle.

"That 200 freestyle record was one that I spent my whole career trying to break, so it was fun watching someone that I coached break it," Bretscher said about Stevens.

Along with all the 200 medley relay, Greencastle is sending the other two relay teams, the 200-yard freestyle consisting of Jay Guffey, Payne, Elkins and Luke Smith and the 400-yard freestyle that consists of Stevens, Austin Woodall, Guffey and Crimmins. Crimmins is also going in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke, and Stevens will be swimming in the 500-yard freestyle event as well.

Greencastle won the sectional with a score of 302 points, but the event that decided the championship wasn't the 400-yard relay, it was the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Smith touched the wall .11 seconds faster than Southmont's Andreas Winn-Turner for the win. If Greencastle had placed second in that race, the pressure for them to beat Crawfordsville in the last race would have been greater than it was. At the start of the 400-yard freestyle relay, all Greencastle had to do was finish the race to ensure its third straight sectional title.

"The 200 relay caught me off guard," Bretscher said. "I didn't count on winning that race and that was a close race. The race decided this meet."

But it was more than the relays finishing first and the other first place finishes that the Tiger Sharks had.

It was events like the 200 freestyle where Greencastle had third and fourth-place finishes from Walter Chiarella and Austin Woodall or when Jay Guffey and Ryan Payne finished third and fifth in the 100-yard freestyle that scored the little points that helped secure the schools third sectional championship.

Along with his second sectional championship, Bretscher was bestowed another honor -- Coach of the Year.

Bretscher was named the Crawfordsville Sectional Coach of the Year by the Indiana High School Swimming Coaches Association.

"I don't honestly believe that I am the best coach in the sectional," Bretscher said. "But the award does reflect on the team that I have been allowed to coach and this team is what makes me look good."

Greencastle will be swimming in seven total events, one more than last year, at the state prelims on Friday and Bretscher is convinced that this year's squad is ready.

"We have a very experienced group going this year, unlike last year," Bretscher noted. "We have a real solid group of seniors up front that want to do some big things next week.

"Winning three in a row feels great and it's different than the first two. The first two were goals and this one was more of an expectation of us this year, so our goals are really for next week," Bretscher said.

For the North and South Putnam, the day wasn't as exciting as it was for Greencastle, but it was still good day.

North Putnam's 400-relay team broke the school's record with its time of 3:46.73 and that was something that made NPHS Coach Wesley Richardson proud.

"I think today went really well for us," Richardson said. "I am pleased with the team and group effort here."

The Cougars did have one top six finisher in Jeremy Ban who finished sixth in the 50 freestyle with a time of 24.17.

The Eagles had two top six finishes Saturday.

Wes Albright placed sixth in the 500 freestyle event with a time of 5:40.77 and the 400 relay team of Loren Ashcraft, Albright, Trent Vickery and Chris Smiley finished fourth with a time of 3:41.10.

And even though neither of her swimmers were sectional champions, SPHS Coach Emily Coers was happy with the results.

"Overall I thought we did very will," she said. "We had a lot of season and personal bests. It's nice to see at the sectional everyone pull out their best and I can't wait for next year."

Those going to the state meet will be back in action on Friday starting a 6 p.m. in the prelim round.

Boys swimming

IHSAA Crawfordsville Sectional

Saturday

At Crawfordsville HS

Team scores: Greencastle 302, Crawfordsville 262, Southmont 197, North Montgomery 189, Western Boone 122, South Vermillion 104, South Putnam 74, North Putnam 50, Seeger 30, North Vermillion 27, Fountain Central 25, Attica 3

**The top team and individual swimming winners advance to the IHSAA State finals and the top four divers advance to the IHSAA Brownsburg Diving Regional**

200 medley relay: 1:40.52 Greencastle; 2. 1:44.97 Southmont; 3. 1:45.17* North Montgomery; 4. 1:46.42 Crawfordsville; 5. 1:50.66 South Vermillion; 6. 1:50.96 Western Boone.

Consolation: 7. 1:57.64 North Putnam; 8. 1:59.12 South Putnam; 9. 2:06.87 Seeger; 10. 2:13.32 North Vermillion; 11. 2:13.68 Fountain Central.

* = school record

200 freestyle: 1:46.27 Nick Stevens G; 2. 1:53.14 Alex Clauser SM; 3. 1:54.90 Walter Chiarella G; 4. 1:55.33 Austin Woodall G; 5. 1:56.34 Tony Sturm CR; 6. 1:59.29 Clayton Servies CR.

Consolation: 7. 2:02.61 Cody Ford WB; 8. 2:03.52 Dakota Michael NM; 9. 2:05.28 C.J. Olin NM; 10. 2:07.19 Jacob Gibson SV; 11. 2:07.40 Jason Hook NM; 12. 2:07.61 A.J. Ehrlich CR.

200 IM: 2:03.02 Andreas Winn-Turner SM; 2. 2:11.53 Kevin Amstutz NM; 3. 2:11.59 J.D. Furr CR; 4. 2:13.08 Jay Guffey G; 5. 2:13.85 Joel Hobson CR; 6. 2:15.86 Blake Mohler WB.

Consolation: 7. 2:16.04 Gabe Wolf CR; 8. 2:17.15 Wade Miller NM: 9. 2:18.34 Aaron Wheeler SM; 10. 2:20.38 Jordan Moody WB; 11. 2:24.29 Thomas Ball G; 12. 2:24.51 Dakota Watson G.

50 freestyle: :22.13 Luke Crimmins G; 2. :22.72 Eric Spencer NM; 3. :23.09 Sam Abriani SV; 4. :23.19 Luke Smith G; 5. :23.65 Chris Lewis SM; 6. :24.17 Jeremiah Ban G.

Consolation: 7. :23.84 Sam Hatcher SM: 8. :24.50 Christopher Pierce G: 9. :24.61 Charles Hegg SE; 10. :24.66 Chris Smiley SP; 11. :24.83 Brandon Largent CR; 12. :24.92 Jacob Bohlander NM.

Diving: 425.90 Brett Linn CR: 2. 341.00 Eric Totheroh CR; 3. 297.05 Jason Hieston WB; 4. 284.30 Cole Julick NV; 5. 270.40 Bart Powell NM; 6. 230.75 Max Catterson SV: 7. 224.90 Jeremy Swenson FC: 8. 220.75 Sam Gould SP; 9. 205.45 Zach Naylor SV; 10. 197.55 Seth Cunningham A; 11. 191.90 Kenneth Buchanan G; 12. 184.00 A.J. Wendall NM.

100 butterfly: :56.21 Andreas Winn-Turner SM; 2. :56.73 Aaron Wheeler SM; 3. :57.11 Jesse Elkins G; 4. :57.92 Cody Ford WB; 5. :58.55 Kevin Amstutz NM; 6. :59.80 Tony Sturm CR.

Consolation: 7. 1:01.79 Chris Sills CR; 8. 1:02.37 Thomas Ball G; 9. 1:02.83 Garrett Gates NM; 10. 1:03.20 Zach Hines SV; 11. 1:03.99 Ryne Clark WB: 12. 1:06.92 Ryan Richmond CR.

100 freestyle: :48.98 Eric Spencer NM; 2. :49.03 Dakota Smoll CR: 3. :50.58 Jay Guffey G; 4. :51.67 Chris Lewis SM; 5. :52.45 Ryan Payne G; 6. :53.12 Sam Hatcher SM.

Consolation: 7. :52.38 Sam Abriani SV: 8. :53.62 Jeremiah Ban NP; 9. :53.82 Chris Smiley SP; 10. :53.90 Luke Smith G; 11. :55.34 Brandon Largent CR; 12. :55.44 Jordan Moody WB.

500 freestyle: 4:55.23 Nick Stevens G; 2. 5:20.51 Clayton Servies CR; 3. 5:24.10 Austin Woodall G; 4. 5:26.63 Kyle Dieruf CR; 5. 5:31.24 Chris Coakes NM; 6. 5:40.77 Wes Albright SP.

Consolation: 7. 5:45.99 Ryne Clark WB; 8. 5:46.55 Chris Sills CR: 9. 5:52.06 Jacob Jarvis SM; 10. 5:54.70 Joseph Kass G; 11. 5:59.92 Luke Walker NM; 12. 6:13.07 Craig Corwin WB.

200 freestyle relay: 1:32.37 Greencastle; 2. 1:32.71 Southmont; 3. 1:35.78 North Montgomery; 4. 1:36.13 South Vermillion; 5. 1:36.91 Crawfordsville; 6. 1:38.51 Western Boone.

Consolation: 7. 1:37.96 South Putnam; 8. 1:39.87 North Putnam; 9. 1:49.80 Fountain Central; 10. 2:06.20 North Vermillion.

100 backstroke: :54.54 Luke Crimmins G; 2. :55.42 Dakota Smoll CR; 3. :59.05 Todd Mellish NM; 4. :59.91 Kyle Dieruf CR: 5. 1:00.49 Charles Hegg SE; 6. 1:03.65 Jesse Elkins G.

Consolation: 7. 1:01.37 Joel Hobson CR; 8. 1:02.86 Chris Coakes NM; 9. 1:02.95 Sean Richardson WB; 10. 1:04.84 Jordan Urbain SV; 11. 1:06.25 Darrick Grundlock SP; 12. 1:16.42 Jacob Gibson SV.

100 breaststroke: 1:04.11 Ian Line SM; 2. 1:04.36 Ryan Payne G; 3. 1:05.69 Gabe Wolf CR: 4. 1:06.28 Blake Mohler WB; 5. 1:07.18 Wade Miller NM; 6. 1:07.43 J.D. Furr CR.

Consolation: 7. 1:06.14 Walter Chiarella G: 8. 1:09. 20 Jake Gould SP; 9. 1:09.84 Bryan Swift NM; 10. 1:10.66 Ryan Richmond CR: 11. 1:11.69 Justin Zurawski NP; 12. 1:12.30 Joseph Kass G.

400 freestyle relay: 3:20.95 Greencastle; 2. 3:22.57 Southmont; 3. 3:33.37 Crawfordsville; 4. 3:41.10 South Putnam; 5. 3:44.71 South Vermillion; 6. 3:47.88 Western Boone.

Consolation: 7. 3:45.99 North Montgomery; 8. 3:46.73 North Putnam; 9. 4:05.19 Seeger; 10. 4:16.86 Fountain Central; 11. 4:41.39 North Vermillion.