Area swimmers take aim at sectional finals

Saturday, February 5, 2011
Greencastle's Emily Wheeler finished first in the 200-yard IM prelims Friday at the Crawfordsville Sectional. She posted a time of 2:28.62.

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- There was a big crowd on hand as the girls swimming sectional got under way. Greencastle, North Putnam and South Putnam all competed in in the prelims of the Crawfordsville Sectional Friday.

The Tiger Cubs got off to a strong start as they took the top qualifying position in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:00.6. The Eagles were also off to a good start as their team placed fifth, allowing them a spot in the finals.

The next event following the 200-yard medley relay -- the 200-yard freestyle -- would prove to be successful for GHS as well. Freshman Sydney Cassida and Junior Alison Howard were both able to qualify for the finals.

However, The following event -- the 200-yard IM -- would overshadow the first two performances of the evening, in what would arguably be the best race of the night. It was the fourth and final heat of the event and freshman Emily Wheeler, of Greencastle, found herself in a tight race against Kelly Menzel, a senior from Crawfordsville.

The race was close as soon as the gun sounded off, but it got even closer within the last 25-meters. It was neck and neck, and it was difficult to tell who was going to win the race. Sure enough, with about 10 meters left Wheeler pulled ahead and won by a narrow margin.

The gutsy performance from the freshman earned her the top qualifying spot in the finals. She finished in a time of 2:28.62, which was an 11 second drop from her previous best time.

"I thought she'd go fast, but I didn't know she'd go that fast," GHS head coach Luke Beasley said.

The success for the Tiger Cubs would continue for the rest of the night, as they had eight different individuals -- including three top qualifying spots -- advance to the finals.

It would prove to be a slightly different story for the Eagles and Cougars. Despite South Putnam's strong start in the 200-yard medley relay, they were only able to have one other individual qualify for the finals -- Jessica York, in the 100-yard breaststroke.

South Putnam head coach, Emily Karas, spoke about her team's performance.

"I am extremely pleased with our performance considering the four day taper we unexpectedly had," Karas said. "To my surprise, the four days without practice didn't seem to affect our team negatively. I'm exceptionally pleased with my seniors' performance. All three are on the medley relay team, and they placed fifth overall tonight, ahead of Southmont, North Mont and Crawfordsville.

"I couldn't believe that they beat Crawfordsville, but it just shows how much heart and determination these girls have," she added.

Karas also gushed about her seniors making to the finals in their events. One of her seniors, Kate Sherwood, broke the school record in her 100-yard butterfly event by posting a time of 1:10.08. Fellow seniors Jessica York and Sarah New posted solid times and Karas expects to see some big things from them making it to the finals.

As for the Cougars, they failed to qualify anyone for the finals. But even though it was a rough night, the efforts that were given by the athletes were unquestionable. In fact, there were many heartbreaking races that landed NPHS in places just outside of qualifying them for the finals.

After the meet GHS head coach, Luke Beasley, was pumped about his 200 medley relay team's chances.

"The medley seed is good, I think we can win that event," he said.

The Crawfordsville Sectional finals will begin with diving at 9 a.m., with swimming to resume at 1 p.m.

At Crawfordsville High School

Individual Results

200 MR -- 1. Greencastle (Terry, Wheeler, Gomez, Bittles) 2:00.60, 2. South Vermillion (Smith, Roberts, Millikan, Thomas) 2:06.76, 3. Fountain Central (Shumaker, Ireland, B. McGrady, Gibbs) 2:06.91, 4. Seeger (Leonard, Tarter, Kay, Haddock) 2:07.63, 5. South Putnam (New, Sherwood, York, Farmer) 2:08.78, 6. Southmont (Burkhart, Kinkead, Parker, Cloncs) 2:09.52, 7. North Montgomery (Riley, Amstutz, Harper, Simpson) 2:09.86, 8. Crawfordsville (Evans, Horner, Conrad, Wolf) 2:11.00, 9. Western Boone (Lowe, Ragsdale, Zimmerman, Riegel) 2:13.35, 10. North Vermillion (Byrum, Dilts, Hall, Julian) 2:28.98

200 freestyle -- 1. Hunt (C) 2:12.25, 2. Sheldon (FC) 2:13.53, 3. Gulley (FC) 2:14.80, 4. Cassida (GHS) 2:16.03, 5. Howard (GHS) 2:16.61, 6. Warner (C) 2:18.30, 7. Haddock (SEEG) 2:18.46, 8. Zachary (S) 2:18.98, 9. Henry (WB) 2:21.76, 10. Mathison (NM) 2:22.66, 11. McGee (WB) 2:22.68, 12 Beams (G) 2:25.15, 15. Harper (NP) 2:27.11, 17. Cox (SP) 2:29.83, 18. Dezsi (SP) 2:30.63, 25. Wilson (SP) 2:43.99

200 IM -- 1. Wheeler (G) 2:28.62, 2. Menzel (C) 2:28.96, 3. Burkhart (S) 2:31.08, 4. Millikan (SV) 2:36.29, 5. Gibbs (FC) 2:36.51, 6. B. McGrady (FC) 2:37.53, 7. Servies (C) 2:38.84, 8. Custis (GHS) 2:39.70, 9. Lewis (C) 2:40.32, 10. Gomez (GHS) 2:40.65, 11. Dorwart (WB) 2:43.92, 12. Leonard (SE) 2:43.94, 22. Spencer (SP) 3:02.42, 25. Perry (SP) 3:51.17

50 freestyle -- 1. Terry (G) 26.37, 2. Thomas (SV) 26.45, 3. Franke (C) 26.56, 4. Simpson(NM) 26.75, 5. Campbell (FC) 26.88, 6. Gregory (C) 27.04, 7. Bittles (GHS) 27.07, 8. Tarter (SEEG) 27.94, 9. Zimmerman (WB) 28.49, 10. Cloncs (S) 28.64, 11. Parker (S) 28.68, 12. Kay (SE) 29.67, 20. Beasley (SP) 31.17, 22. St. Marie (GHS) 31.76, 23. Arnold (SP) 32.53, 24. Trisler (SP) 32.81

100 Butterfly -- 1. Menzel (C) 1:05.54, 2. Amstutz (NM) 1:06.67, 3. Bittles (G) 1:06.89, 4. Campbell (FC) 1:07.15, 5. Millikan (SV) 1:07.28, 6. Gomez (GHS) 1:08.50, 7. Gregory (C) 1:09.16, 8. Zimmerman (WB) 1:09.77, 9. Sherwood (SP) 1:10.08, 10. Warner (C) 1:12.23, 11. Parker (S) 1:14.43, 12. Lowe (WB) 1:15.03, 19. Hedge (GHS) 1:26.55

100 freestyle -- 1. Franke (C) 57.42, 2. Simpson (NM) 58.67, 3. Thomas (SV) 59.57, 4. Sheldon (FC) 1:00.86, 5. Howard (GHS) 1:00.89, 6. Horner (C) 1:01.01, 7. Custis (GHS) 1:01.98, 8. Romer (GHS) 102.52, 9. Haddock (SEEG) 1:02.74, 10. Chavez (FC) 1:04.13, 11. Cloncs (S) 1:04.64, 12. Lewis (C) 1:05.21, 17. Cox (SP) 1:08.68, 26. Wolf (NP) 1:17.69, 27. Livesay (NP) 1:18.84, 33. Johnson (SP) 1:29.15

500 freestyle -- 1. Conrad (C) 5:50.42, 2. Zachary (S) 6:09.77, 3, Gulley (FC) 6:12.28, 4. Cassida (GHS) 6:13.27, 5. B. McGrady (FC) 6:17.67, 6. Evans (C) 6:22.99, 7. Carver (FC) 6:25.74, 8. Riegel (WB) 6:27.07, 9. Byrum (NV) 6:27.13, 10. Beams (GHS) 6:29.79, 11. Hayden (WB) 6:32.66, 12. Stanley (C) 6:33.90, 17. Livesay (NP) 6:45.65, 18. Dezsi (SP) 6:48.90, 24. Wilson (SP) 7:21.00

200 FR -- 1. Crawfordsville (Warner, Hunt, Franke, Gregory) 1:48.00, 2. Fountain Central (Sheldon, Gibbs, Gulley, Campbell) 1:52.16, 3. Seeger (Leonard, Haddock, Key, Tarter) 1:52.62, 4. GHS (Howard, Beams, Custis, Bittles) 1:52.62, 5. North Montgomery (Amstutz, Mathison, Priebe, Simpson) 1:55.09, 6. South Vermillion (Hamke, Millikan, Roberts, Thomas) 1:55.46, 7. Southmont (Witherspoon, Cloncs, Richards, Parker) 1:56.82, 8. Western Boone (Ragsdale, Henry, McGee, Zimmerman) 1:57.67, 9. South Putnam (Arnold, Beasley, Cox, Farmer) 2:02.21

100 Backstroke -- 1. Conrad (C) 1:04.76, 2. Terry (G) 1:06.29, 3. Hunt (C) 1:08.71, 4. Burkhart (S) 1:10.59, 5. Gibbs (FC) 1:12.69, 6. Byrum (NV) 1:13.29, 7. New (SP) 1:13.42, 8. Ward (S) 1:13.62, 9. Lowe (WB) 1:14.47, 10. Sheldon (FC) 1:14.85, 11. Evans (C) 1:15.62, 12. Chavez (FC) 1:15.80, 19. St. Marie (GHS) 1:21.19, 21. Boetjer (SP) 1:23.90, 23. Mason (GHS) 1:24.91, 24. Arnold (SP) 1:25.14, 27. Wolf (NP) 1:29.14, 29. Livesay (NP) 1:34.34

100 Breaststroke -- 1. Horner (C) 1:14.62, 2. Amstutz (NM) 1:14.77, 3. Ireland (FC) 1:14.89, 4. Wheeler (G) 1:15.04, 5. York (SP) 1:17.26, 6. Servies (C) 1:19.36, 7. Wolf (C) 1:19.58, 8. Romer (GHS) 1:20.60, 9. Kay SEEG), 1:21.94, 10. Roberts (SV) 1:21.94, 11. Ragsdale (WB) 1:23.70, 12. Ordway (WB) 1:24.21, 22. McHugh (SP) 1:29.09, 23. Hedge (GHS) 1:29.59, 28. Kusontammara (SP) 1:38.04

400 FR -- 1. Crawforsdville (Warner, Hunt, Franke, Conrad) 4:01.47, 2. Fountain Central (Sheldon, Gulley, Chavez, Campbell) 4:09.03, 3. Greencastle (Cassida, Beams, Curtis, Howard) 4:15.52, 4. Western Boone (Dorwart, Henry, McGee, Riegel) 4:25.27, 5. Southmont (Witherspoon, Ward, Zachary, Burkhart) 4:28.61, 6. North Montgomery (Mathison, Bohlander, Redmaster, Priebe) 4:30.56, 7. South Putnam (Cox, Farmer, Beasley, Sherwood) 4:30.63, 8. South Vermillion (Foltz, Vitaniemi, Hamke, Smith) 4:41.45, 9. Seeger (Million, Hensley, Martin, Hultquist) 4:43.13, 10. North Vermillion (Dilts, Little, Dewlen, Julian) 5:44.78