Greencastle swims past Eagles for victory

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

By TRENT SCOTT

For the Banner Graphic

GREENCASTLE -- An early season county clash between the Greencastle and South Putnam girls' swim teams turned into a one-sided event at South Putnam High School.

Greencastle swept all 12 events Tuesday evening en route to a 126-57 victory over the host Eagles.

South Putnam was able to put more bodies into the pool but it was the quality of the Tiger Cubs that showed event after event, with Greencastle able to go 1-2 in five of the events.

The Eagles came closest to breaking the sweep in the 100-yard backstroke, where Sydney Cassida nipped Sarah New by .53 of a second in claiming the 10th event for the Tiger Cubs.

Cassida also won the 200-yard freestyle and was part of the winning 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams. Rachel Custis, Emily Wheeler and Sydney Terry also won multiple events for the Tiger Cubs.

It was the kind of performance that Greencastle head coach Luke Beasley had wanted from his squad.

"In the past, I think we have had a tendency to swim down at this meet, not swim up to our ability and that's the number one thing we didn't want to do tonight. We wanted to make sure that we swam with the best effort and the best enthusiasm possible, and I think they did that," Beasley said.

"A lot of times I don't walk away very happy with the meet, but tonight I'm satisfied with what they did."

With a smaller than usual squad, Beasley was impressed with the squad's performance.

"This is one of our best team-wide efforts. The girls have been working pretty hard in practice. We swam them this morning and I challenged them," Beasley said.

"I give a lot of credit to our seniors. They challenged their teammates to swim really well tonight regardless of feeling tired or any of that type of stuff which are really just excuses. I think the girls really responded.

"A lot of great swims, particularly from our freshmen. We had a lot of great swims from Emily Wheeler, Sydney Cassida and Rachel Custis," Beasley added.

South Putnam head coach Emily Coers was slightly disappointed with the meet.

"Well, the evening did not go as we had hoped. However, we did have some really good swims. Our medley relay went in at 2:11.96, three seconds off of our record, our best time last year," Coers said.

"Morgan Deszi broke seven minutes in the 500 free for the first time ever. She had a personal best of about three seconds and I'm really proud of her for that performance. Sarah New performed well again in the 100 backstroke with an 1:12.42."

"It's early in the season and these kind of meets show us what we need to work on. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season and competing with Greencastle. They're a great team we'll see again at county and we'll hopefully come in swimming with even better times, starting at Tri-West next week," Coers added.

For Beasley and the Tiger Cubs, it doesn't get easier any time soon.

"We enter a tough stretch. We've gotten the freshmen some experience but we enter a stretch where we've got Terre Haute South coming to Greencastle and Bloomington North coming up, so we've got some big, very good swim teams next," Beasley said.

"Our girls are going to have to respond to that challenge and not be intimidated by it but embrace it and rise up to the level of competition."

At South Putnam

Greencastle 126, S. Putnam 57

Results

200 Medley Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Cassida, Wheeler, Gomez, Custis) 2:10.55; 2. South Putnam (New, York, Sherwood, Farmer) 2:11.96; 3. Greencastle (Terry, Romer, Bittles, Howard) 2:14.62; 4. South Putnam (Arnold, McHugh, Spencer, Boetjer) 2:31.40

200 Freestyle-- 1. Cassida (G) 2:28.14; 2. Terry (G) 2:32.31; 3. Deszi (SP) 2:32.56; 4. New (SP) 2:38.86; 5. Howard (G) 2:47.42; 6. Wilson (SP) 2:48.99

200 IM -- 1. Wheeler (G) 2:39.97; 2. Bittles (G) 2:46.78; 3. Gomez (SP) 2:55.28; 4. Spencer (SP) 3:16.65

50 Freestyle -- 1. Custis (G) 28.61; 2. Beams (G) 30.28; 3. Beasley (SP) 31.10; 4. Hedge (G) 33.66; 5. Trisler (SP) 35.55; 6. Johnson (SP) 38.05

Diving -- 1. Gilbert (G) 130.70; 2. Fauvergue (G) 115.35; 3. Williams (G) 80.40; 4. Marstellar (SP) 80.35

100 Fly -- 1. Bittles (G) 1:11.15; 2. Sherwood (G) 1:16.39; 3. Gomez (G) 1:18.55; 4. Beams (G) 1:22.63

100 Freestyle -- 1. Custis (G) 1:03.75; 2. Romer (G) 1:07.24; 3. Cox (SP) 1:08.72; 4. Farmer (SP) 1:10.45; 5. Dohmhardt (SP) 1:16.29; 6. Mason (G) 1:20.31

500 Freestyle -- 1. Terry (G) 6:45.35; 2. Deszi (SP) 6:57.41; 3. Howard (G) 7:15.79; 4. Wilson (SP) 7:30.64; 5. Spencer (SP) 7:36.44

200 Freestyle Relay-- 1. Greencastle (Custis, Wheeler, Romer, Bittles) 1:57.36; 2. South Putnam (Cox, Arnold, Beasley, Farmer) 2:06.25; 3. Greencastle (Gomez, Hedge, Seahorn, Beams) 2:14.36; 4. South Putnam (Dohmhardt, Johnson, Boetjer, Trisler) 2:23.71; 5. South Putnam (Kusontammarat, Marstellar, Tanner, Perry) 2:42.96

100 Backstroke -- 1. Cassida (G) 1:11.89; 2. New (SP) 1:12.42; 3. Arnold (SP) 1:25.59; 4. Mason (G) 1:35.81; 5. Boetjer (SP) 1:51.33

100 Breaststroke -- 1. Wheeler (G) 1:20.22; 2. York (SP) 1:24.34; 3. Romer (G) 1:28.85; 4. Hedge (G) 1:32.51; 5. McHugh (SP) 1:33.52; 6. Kusontammarat (SP) 1:53.27

400 Freestyle Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Terry, Howard, Beams, Cassida) 4:29.50; 2. South Putnam (Beasley, Sherwood, Cox, Farmer) 4:43.55; 3. South Putnam (Johnson, Perry, Tanner, Trisler) 6:22.88

Next meet -- South Putnam travels to Tri-West for a three-way meet with Ritter next Tuesday. Greencastle is at home with Terre Haute South next Tuesday.