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Tiger Cub swimmers take County Meet
GREENCASTLE -- The Putnam County girls' swim meet was again the domain of the usual suspects.
While not as dominant as in past years, Greencastle still powered past North Putnam and hosts South Putnam Thursday night. With eleven first place finishes and 280 team points, they were 60 points better than South Putnam at 220 and North Putnam's 23.
No wins would come without a challenge as South Putnam showed early on after nearly claiming the opening 200-yard medley relay, edged by .42 seconds by Greencastle. In that same race during the WCC meet, the gap was over nine seconds.
More tight races would follow. Greencastle's Rachel Custis nipped teammate Emily Wheeler in the 50-free by .02 for the win, while teammate Sydney Cassida slid by fellow swimmer Rosio Gomez by half a second in the 100 fly.
Custis was beaten by .33 by teammate Alison Howard in the 100-free while in the evening's most contentious race, Cassida won over South Putnam's Sarah New in the 100-backstroke by .7 seconds.
The race result was in some doubt after New was shown as the winner on the timing board, with third place finisher, Greencastle's Sydney Terry, in second with Cassida third. A review after the meet determined the final order and Cassida's second individual win.
South Putnam's Jessica York thwarted the sweep after winning the 100 back, completing a four-year sweep of the event in the Putnam County swim meet.
All three head coaches, Greencastle's Luke Beasley, South Putnam's Emily Karas and North Putnam's Wes Richardson, weighed in on the meet afterwards.
"I thought it was a good meet. We didn't swim all that fast but I think they had fun and it was a good last competition to set-up for sectionals," Beasley said.
"The girls are done with the regular season competitions and now they get to clear their minds a little bit after county and refocus on their goals for their future. I think they swam pretty well. They've got some things to be proud of," Beasley added.
"Melanie Bittles 500 was pretty cool. That was a great race for Melanie. I don't think she's swam it once this year so it's pretty cool to see her do as well as she did in the 500."
"Sydney Cassida and Rosio Gomez had really nice meets. Cassida in the butterfly was a personal best. In the backstroke we had a close race between Cassida and Sydney Terry and Rosio very quietly had a personal best in that event," Beasley mentioned.
"I thought overall we had a great county meet. Our team had a lot of heart. It's a quick meet. There's not a lot of time to recover but they gave a good performance and we had some good times," Karas said.
"Kaelynn Cox swam her personnal best in the 100 and 200 free, Brooke Boetjer in the 50-free and 100 back had season best times and our 400 free relay dropped time."
"Jessica York swam her season best and also won. She was our only winner and is a four year county champion. We're very proud of her and the performance that she gave tonight," Karas pointed out.
"I thought it went well. I was really proud of them tonight. They tried hard, seemed like they enjoyed themselves tonight and they know what they need to look forward to and what they need to work on for sectionals," Richardson said.
The meet was the final action the county swimmers will see until sectionals start next week. All three coaches had similar messages.
"We need to get the girls confident, relaxed and really focused on what we're doing in practice while not getting too much in their heads. Stay relaxed, stay focused," Karas said.
"Rest. We've got to work on a few stroke things and after that, it's up to them. We'll see how well they take it and see how far they can push themselves," Richardson said.
"I call it the preparation phase. It's peak preparation where you're getting ready to swim at your best. All year long we focus on details of racing and things like that but now we spend a little extra time on the finer points as opposed to the conditioning of the athlete," Beasley said.
"They like it. They say it's easier, but I think mentally it's one of the more stressful times of the season. Everything is done with a lot of focus and intensity. You have to concentrate during the taper if you want to see the results you hope to see next Saturday at the sectional finals."
At South Putnam
Greencastle 280, South Putnam 220, North Putnam 23
200 Medley Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Cassida, Wheeler, Bittles, Custis) 2:09.11; 2. South Putnam (New, York, Sherwood, Farmer) 2:09.53; 3. Greencastle (Hedge, Romer, Gomez, St. Marie) 2:24.92; 4. South Putnam (Arnold, McHugh, Spencer, Boetjer) 2:28.77
200 Free -- 1. Terry (G) 2:22.40; 2. Howard (G) 2:24.69; 3. Harper (N) 2:24.99; 4. Deszi (S) 2:30.09; 5. Cox (S) 2:31.49; 6. Liveoak (G) 2:43.06; 7. Wilson (S) 2:46.48; 8. Mason (G) 2:53.23
200 IM -- 1. Bittles (G) 2:42.89; 2. Romer (G) 2:5725; 3. Spencer (S) 3:02.35; 4. Perry (S) 3:51.93
50 Free -- 1. Custis (G) 29.12; 2. Wheeler (G) 29.14; 3. Beasley (S) 31.71; 4. Boetjer (S) 33.12; 5. St. Marie (G) 33.70; 6. McHugh (S) 33.98; 7. Kusontammarat (S) 36.71; 8. Trisler (S) 38.61; 9. Johnson (S) 39.36; 10. Arnold (S) 40.75
Diving -- 1. Fauvergue (G) 135.25; 2. Seahorn (G) 134.10; 3. Marstellar (S) 86.40
100 Fly -- 1. Cassida (G) 1:10.59; 2. Gomez (G) 1:11.23; 3. Sherwood (S) 1:12.05; 4. Hedge (G) 1:32.36
100 Free -- 1. Howard (G) 1:03.65; 2. Custis (G) 1:03.98; 3. Harper (N) 1:04.49; 4. Farmer (S) 1:06.08; 5. Cox (S) 1:07.19; 6. Trisler (S) 1:17.30; 7. Wolf (N) 1:17.71; 8. Mason (G) 1:18.38; 9. Livesay (N) 1:19.85; 10. Johnson (S) 1:28.48; 11. 1:33.97
500 Free -- 1. Bittles (G) 6:26.65; 2. Deszi (S) 6:49.00; 3. Liveoak (G) 7:04.83; 4. Spencer (S) 7:11.68; 5. St. Marie (G) 7:12.24; 6. Wilson (S) 7:18.61
200 Free Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Custis, Wheeler, Romer, Howard) 1:59.71; 2. South Putnam (Arnold, Cox, Beasley, Farmer) 2:03.29; 3. Greencastle (Mason, Hedge, St. Marie, Liveoak) 2:24.28; 4. South Putnam (Boetjer. Kusontammarat, Johnson, Trisler) 2:30.99
100 Back -- 1. Cassida (G) 1:11.26; 2. New (S) 1:11.94; 3. Terry (G) 1:12.47; 4. Gomez (G) 1:17.03; 5. Arnold (S) 1:24.32; 6. Boetjer (S) 1:25.13; *7 Livesay (N) & Wolf (N) 1:39.13
100 Breast -- 1. York (S) 1:17.76; 2. Wheeler (G) 1:20.25; 3. Romer (G) 1:27.73; 4. McHugh (S) 1:31.40; 5. Hedge (G) 1:33.36; 6. Kusontammarat (S) 1:37.86
400 Free Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Howard, Cassida, Terry, Bittles) 4:23.91; 2. South Putnam (Cox, Sherwood, Beasley, Farmer) 4:31.75; 3. South Putnam (Deszi, Wilson, Spencer, Trisler) 5:12.59
Next Meet -- Greencastle, North Putnam and South Putnam will all be at Crawfordsville for the sectional preliminary round next Thursday starting at 5:30 p.m.