Greencastle swims away with county title

GREENCASTLE -- After a week off and only a couple days of practice, Greencastle's boys' swim team notched another Putnam County swimming title Thursday night over second place South Putnam and third place North Putnam.

The hosts took nine of the twelve events on the evening, with South Putnam winning the other three events.

Greencastle took the opening four races to build an early lead, led off by the relay team of Dalton Kastigar, Cody Watson, Mitchell Ball and Jay Guffey in the 200 medley relay.

Walter Chiarella won the 200 free, followed by Ball in the 200 IM and Guffey claiming the fastest man in the pool honors, winning the 50 free in under 23 seconds.

Sam Gould scored the first win for South Putnam, edging out Greencastle's Matt Sims in the diving by a score of 190.80 to 181.95.

Nash Firebaugh added his name to the Greencastle win tally by taking the honors in the 100 butterfly, though teammate Ball clipped two seconds of his seed time to nearly claim his third medal on the day.

Guffey won the 100 free, followed by Chiarella squeezing by North Putnam's Jeremy Ban in the 500 free by .62 seconds.

In the race of the night, South Putnam's 200 free relay squad of Taylor Arnold, Tyler Williams, Matt Lund and John McCammack stunned the Greencastle squad of Guffey, Watson, Joey Kass and Chiarella, winning the race by a razor-thin margin of .02 seconds.

Jesse Elkins grabbed the eighth win for Greencastle in the 100 backstroke, while Jake Gould knocked off Watson in the 100 breaststroke to net South Putnam's third win on the evening.

Greencastle's relay team of Chiarella, Firebaugh, Ball and Elkins finished off the evening by winning the 400 free relay and closed the book on another Greencastle win in the Putnam County swim meet.

Greencastle head coach Luke Beasley was happy with the win and the exit for his group of seniors.

"The swimmer of the meet was junior Mitch Ball, no question. His 100 fly, he went 55.90 when his best time ever was 57.50. That gets us awful excited about sectionals with Mitch, and while saying that, Nash Firebaugh went 55.25. Those are two pretty good butterfliers to have on one team," Beasley said.

Along with stalwarts Jay Guffey and Walter Chiarella, Beasley also noted the solid work from his five seniors.

"Cody Watson, a senior, had a season best in his IM, had a good unrested breaststroke. Nash had a great 50 free with a 23.64. Joey Kass went under 6:00 in the 500 free. Joey's another senior who has done a terrific job and really had a fine meet tonight. Jesse Elkins, also a senior, had a good night in the 100 back," Beasley added.

"Everybody across the board swam really well tonight. This meet, a week before the sectional, is kind of a crapshoot and you don't know what you're really going to get with guys starting to rest and their bodies feeling different."

"I thought tonight was really a great effort from all of them," Beasley said.

South Putnam head coach Emily Karas was ecstatic about the Thursday night performance.

"I don't have the words to express how proud I am of these guys tonight, walking away with three county champions. Sam (Gould) in diving, Jake (Gould) in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 free relay, which was one of the best races I've seen all season," Karas said.

"These guys wanted it. They came in amped, ready to go. We haven't competed in a long time and you could definitely tell by their performances in the water that they had season bests in nearly every single event. I'm super thrilled for these guys."

"Just like the girls, I think the four days off actually helped. Larry Hurst dropped six seconds off his 200 free time and thirteen seconds off his 500 free. My breaststroke trio, Jake, Sam and Tyler (Neumann) all had season bests," Karas said.

"They really embraced the days off, dealt with it and then they really got to work when we got to practice Tuesday," Karas added.

North Putnam head coach Wes Richardson saw some good things, but also noted the toll that the lack of practice had on his squad.

"I think they did fairly well. There are some things we still need to work on for sectionals and I think after tonight they know what those things are. We'll get back, hit it hard next week and we'll see where we go with sectionals," Richardson said.

"Everybody individually did well. The relays did well, given the circumstances that we've dealt with in the last two weeks. Now that we're back, we're going to work on those little things that need to be worked on," Richardson mentioned.

With the Putnam County meet the last meet before sectionals, each of the three coaches had things they still wanted to tweak before traveling to Crawfordsville next week.

"I think our endurance has dropped off a little bit because of the time off we've had, so that's something we'll have to work on this week. With some work on starts and turns, hopefully we'll be back up to where we were," Richardson said.

"We have some kids that are looking to get into the finals at sectionals. Jeremy (Ban), Dane (Gray), some relay teams. We're going to work and pick it back up for next week."

"I just want to keep up this energy. I want to keep this going. They swam really hard tonight and I want them to keep the momentum up. Working on the fine details like starts and turns, things like that, they just need to keep up the energy," Karas said.

"You always want to see season best times from everyone. I would love to see Sam go to regionals but we're just going to take it one thing at a time and everyone's going to give their best performance next week."

"We're working on all the little things in practice. Starts, turns, relay exchanges, making sure that everything is done perfectly, everything is done in a great fashion. And tonight, that's the kind of thing where we've been working on this and they've got no excuses not to perform at the meet, and they did that tonight," Beasley mentioned.

"We wanted to use tonight as a building block towards our bigger goal next week at sectionals. Our team goal is to win the team title. That's been our goal all season long, talking about it before the season with the seniors. That's what we're going to Crawfordsville to do," Beasley said.

"On top of that, we want to advance a lot of events to state. We want to get a couple of relays and we want several individuals there. We'll get the psych sheets tomorrow, to see where there seeded and what they have to do to move up or score some more points for us. It's a real exciting time, it really is."

At Greencastle

Greencastle 264, South Putnam 190, North Putnam 167

200 Medley Relay - 1. Greencastle (Kastigar, Watson, Ball, Guffey) 1:49.87; 2. South Putnam (Arnold, J. Gould, Lund, McCammack) 1:55.25; 3. North Putnam (Lehr, James, Gray, Ban) 1:55.82; 4. South Putnam (Chaney, S. Gould, Nees, Williams) 2:05.19; 5. Greencastle (Gardner, Timm, Elkins, Wilson) 2:08.49; 6. North Putnam (Smith, Collisi, Troyer, Hinners) 2:14.37

200 Free - 1. Chiarella (G) 1:57.96; 2. Ban (N) 2:04.09; 3. Kass (G) 2:08.85; 4. Asbell (G) 2:13.98; 5. Smith (N) 2:15.05 6. Harms (G) 2:15.77; 7. Thornell (H) 2:22.74; 8. Evens (S) 2:29.86; 9. Skillern (N) 2:41.99; 10. Hurst (S) 2:42.28

200 IM - 1. Ball (G) 2:16.27; 2. Gray (N) 2:20.23; 3. J. Gould (S) 2:27.88; 4. Watson (G) 2:27.97; 5. Gardner (G) 2:29.30; 6. Troyer (N) 2:44.29

50 Free - 1. Guffey (G) 22.67; 2. Firebaugh (G) 23.64; 3. Elkins (G) 24.33; 4. James (N) 25.37; 5. McCammack (S) 26.27; 6. Williams (S) 27.16; 7. Lehr (N) 27.20; 8. Kastigar (G) 28.38; 9. Hinners (N) 28.48; 10. Kaufman (N) 28.51; 11. Ford (N) 28.90; 12, Volland (N) 29.75; 13. Shaw (S) 29.90; 14. Wilson (G) 30.54

Diving - 1. S. Gould (S) 190.80; 2. Simms (G) 181.95; 3. Butts (S) 134.10; 4. Neumann (S) 112.55

100 Fly - 1. Firebaugh (G) 55.25; 2. Ball (G) 55.90; 3. Lund (S) 1:05.76; 4. James (N) 1:12.11; 5. Wilson (G) 1:22.60; 6. Nees (S) 1:25.72; 7. Troyer (N) 1:26.84

100 Free - 1. Guffey (G) 50.22; 2. Arnold (S) 56.90; 3. Chaney (S) 1:00.34; 4. Ford (N) 1:05.79; 5. Kaufman (N) 1:07.75; 6. Timm (G) 1:09.04; 7. Skillern (N) 1:09.95; 8. Shaw (S) 1:10.86; 9. Collisi (N) 1:13.53

500 Free - 1. Chiarella (G) 5:29.32; 2. Ban (N) 5:29.94; 3. Kass (G) 5:54.10; 4. Asbell (G) 6:03.05; 5. Harms (G) 6:07.27; 6. Thornell (N) 6:34.49; 7. Evens (S) 6:50.97; 8. Hurst (S) 7:16.04

200 Free Relay - 1. South Putnam (Arnold, Williams, Lund, McCammack) 1:43.87; 2. Greencastle (Guffey, Watson, Kass, Chiarella) 1:43.89; 3. Greencastle (Firebaugh, Timm, Harms, Asbell) 1:54.08; 4. North Putnam (Lehr, Hinners, Ford, Kaufman) 1:56.12; 5. South Putnam (Nees, Neumann, Butts, Shaw) 2:01.08; 6. North Putnam (Skillern, Volland, Collisi, Thornell) 2:01.43

100 Back - 1. Elkins (G) 1:01.07; 2. Gray (N) 1:02.81; 3. Arnold (S) 1:04.02; 4. Kastigar (G) 1:05.71; 5. Gardner (G) 1:07.49; 6. Lehr (N) 1:07.71; 8. Smith (N) 1:08.83; 9. Chaney (S) 1:13.10

100 Breast - 1. J. Gould (S) 1:09.98; 2. Watson (G) 1:11.85; 3. S. Gould (S) 1:12.12; 4. Neumann (S) 1:25.89; 5. Volland (N) 1:27.53; 6. Timm (G) 1:28.91; 7. Collisi (N) 1:31.03

400 Free Relay - 1. Greencastle (Chiarella, Firebaugh, Ball, Elkins) 3:42.39; 2. North Putnam (Gray, James, Smith, Ban) 3:48.56; 3. Greencastle (Harms, Gardner, Kass, Asbell) 4:07.76; 4. South Putnam (Williams, Lund, Chaney, McCammack) 4:09.40; 5. North Putnam (Troyer, Thornell, Ford, Hinners) 4:33.38; 6. South Putnam (Neumann, Hurst, Shaw, Evens) 5:05.80

Next Meet: All three schools will be at the Crawfordsville sectional next Thursday.