Terry shines, local swimmers advance to finals

Friday, February 6, 2009
Caitlin Gannaway of Greencastle comes up for a breath during her lap in the 200-yard IM during the Crawfordsville Sectional Thursday night.

By DAN SHELTON

Sports Writer

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- It must be the weather.

Or maybe it's just the atmosphere of the sectional, but either way you look at it, it's a pretty amazing feat for Sydney Terry to go from being seeded 19th to be sitting in the fifth slot in the 50-yard freestyle for the finals on Saturday.

She tore her ACL back in the fall during soccer season and has been injured since then.

"She has been dealing with that injury all year and hasn't been able to push off the walls and that is were your power comes from in the turns or being able launch off the blocks right," Greencastle coach Luke Beasley said. "So her seed times didn't really show her potential and tonight I think she made a statement."

Terry's seed time for the 50 freestyle was 28.92 and she swam a 27.21 -- over a second-and-half better.

"In the 50 I just kept my head down and didn't pay attention to anybody around me," Terry said. "The taper has just been really awesome for me. With me coming back from being injured, the energy and adrenaline is just flowing through me right now.

Greencaslte's Sarah Beams launches off the plateform Thursday night during the 200-yard IM race at the Crawfordsville Sectional.

"I just feel really healed right now and usually my knee hurts, but I'm just not thinking about it with all the excitement around me," Terry said.

The 50 freestyle wasn't the only event that Terry surprised people in. She also pulled this little stunt in the 100-yard freestyle.

She went from being seeded 16th with a time of 1:05.46, to finishing with a time of 1:00.58, seeding herself sixth for Saturday's finals.

"She scored a ton of points for us for Saturday when on paper there were no points coming from Sydney Terry, so we are extremely happy right now," Beasley said.

Terry had an impressive night, but she isn't the only one that Greencastle is sending to the finals Saturday. The Lady Tiger Cubs are in the finals in 11 of the 12 events.

The 200-yard Medley Relay team is seeded second with a time of 2:00.91 while Morgan Terry and Erika Collins are in the finals of the 200-yard freestyle event. Terry is seeded third with a time of 2:10.63, while Collins is seeded second with a time of 2:06.99.

In the 200-yard IM, it's Caitlin Gannaway who will be representing Greencastle. She swam a 2:30.24 in the prelims, seeding herself sixth for Saturday. In the 100-yard Butterfly, it's Melanie Bittles in the finals for the Lady Tiger Sharks. She swam a 1:07.01 in the prelims, seeding her in the third slot of Saturdays' finals, while Melissa Ball and Kelsey Murtagh will join Sydney Terry in the finals for the 100 freestyle. Ball is seeded second with a 57.38 while Murtagh is third with a 58.60.

Kate Sherwood from South Putnam, tears through the water in the fourth heat of the 100-yard butterfly event during the prelims of the Crawfordsville Sectional Thursday night.

In the 500- yard freestyle, its Terry for GHS who swam a 5:45.14, seeded herself second on Saturday. Greencastle is seeded second in the 200-yard freestyle relay and Murtagh and Collins will be representing Greencastle in the 100-yard backstroke. Murtagh has No. 2 seed with a time of 1:01.22, while Collins is seeded fourth with a time of 1:05.74.

Gannaway will representing Greencastle in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:16.95, seeding her fifth in Saturday's finals.

The only event that Greencastle is not in the finals for is the 400-yard freestyle relay as they were disqualified in the end along with Crawfordsville.

"This was great meet," Beasley said. "Obviously the way it ended with Greencastle and Crawfordsville both getting DQ'd in the 400-yard relay because a couple of girls jumped back into the pool before one of the lanes were finished.

"The two biggest surprise's earlier this meet was Sara Culler Was seeded 11th or 12th in the 200-yard freestyle and she moved all the way up to seventh.

"Obviously we would have liked to get her into the finals, but that was a nice improvement and we were extremely pleased to see that," Beasley said. "But the story of the meet was Sydney Terry in the 50-yard freestyle. She was seeded 19th and moved all the way up to the fifth seed which is just massive and that was a big move. Again in the 100-yard freestyle she was again seeded outside the top 12 and is now seeded sixth for Saturday's finals."

Beasley also noted the Terry wasn't the only one that was shedding time off their times tonight.

"I think that performances we had in the distance events, the 200 and 500-yard freestyle events from Mandy Poor and Sara Culler were great. They beat their best times by over 10 seconds. I mean that's a lot of time. Anything over 10 seconds is incredible."

Greencastle wasn't the only county team sending swimmers into Saturday's finals. South Putnam and North Putnam will be there as well.

South Putnam is sending all three of its relay teams to the finals on Saturday and have two swimmers in the consuls.

"I'm pleased with us this year," SPHS Coach Emily Coers said. "We got all three relays in the finals and two individuals in the consuls and an alternate and last year we didn't have relays in the finals, so yeah I'm pleased.

"Our 200-yard freestyle relay was actually .01 away form our record tonight (Thursday) so I'm hoping on Saturday that they get it because they have been working really hard for it," Cores said.

The Cougars have one swimmer in the finals for Saturday in Katie Wilcox. She swam 1:00.27 in the 100 freestyle, seeding her fifth for the event.

"I think we did pretty good," NPHS Coach Wesley Richardson said. "We have a couple of people swimming Saturday. Unfortunately with the amount of practice that we have had in the last week and half because of the weather, we haven't had much time in the pool so I'm happy for the way were are swimming.

"Everybody did what they needed to do tonight and I am very pleased with everything," Richardson said.