Cougar boys swimming stuns GHS, Tiger Cubs girls win big

Friday, December 16, 2011

ROACHDALE -- December 15, 2011 is a date that will go down in the history books at North Putnam High School.

For the first time in the 42-year history of the Cougars' boys' swim program, the school beat county power Greencastle in a dual meet with an 88-81 win Thursday evening.

The dual meet was split on the evening, with Greencastle winning the girls' meet 130-43, but the scenes following the announcement of the scores was one of joy and accomplishment for the Cougars and first year coach Tony Gray.

Greencastle did well, picking up seven wins on the evening. Nash Firebaugh won the 200 IM and 100 butterfly, Mitchell Ball took the 50 free and 100 breast, while Isaac Harms won the 500 free.

In addition, the team of Gardner, Ball, Firebaugh and Brattain won the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay.

North won only four events, but made second and third place finishes count repeatedly throughout the meet. Joe Lehr won the 200 free, Hunter Logan took the 100 free and Dane Gray won the 100 backstroke.

The biggest win came from the 400 free relay team of Kauffman, Thornell, Troyer and Ford, which clinched the meet for the Cougars.

Greencastle's girls took all but one event on the evening. Wins came from Faith Liveoak in the 200 free, Emily Wheeler in the 200 IM and 500 free, Cheyenne Fauvergue in the diving, Rosio Gomez in the 100 butterfly, Rachel Custis in the 100 free, Alison Howard in the 100 back and Beth Ann Hansen in the 110 breast.

Greencastle also took the three relays. The combo of Custis, Wheeler, Gomez and Howard won the 200 medley relay, with Custis, Beams, Liveoak and Peters winning the 200 free relay and Peters, Liveoak, Wheeler and Howard winning the 400 free relay.

After the meet, Gray, draped with a towel after a dip in the pool, praised the effort of both squads.

"I'm really happy for the kids. They've bought in with what we are trying to do. They've worked hard," Gray said.

"We went through the record books and the boys had never defeated Greencastle in the 42-year history of the school.

"That's why we celebrated as we did. I hated for us to act like we've never been there before, but we had to enjoy the moment. It's all about the kids. They did a fantastic job," Gray added.

"When we scored the meet out with our diver injured, we thought we would be down four to six points, but some our deeper swimmers made the difference for us."

Gray said that everyone made a difference in the win.

"Jared James really was a leader today. He got the kids fired up today. He had a good fly and breaststroke. Even though he got two second places, he had the toughest draw of the night, going against Nash Firebaugh and Mitchell Ball, two first class swimmers," Gray said.

"He performed well, all the way down to Nick Ballard, one of our new swimmers. He got a couple of third and fourth place finishes that made a difference. A couple of points really turned the tide.

"The girls fought really, really hard. We were down to seven girls, with one injured, so we were behind the 8-ball to start. But, every single girl had a personal best. As we like to say, they got a little jelly with their peanut butter, their personal best," Gray added.

Greencastle head coach Kent Menzel also gave credit to the Cougars.

"North Putnam's doing an absolutely great job of bringing these guys along. They had some stellar individual performances tonight and some particularly good performances in the relays," Menzel said.

"Their boys are just swimming great and my hat's off to them for a great performance tonight."

Menzel said that his squads were also performing well.

"The boys were swimming great tonight. We've been working hard and they're tired but we still had some personal best performances tonight. We were on top of our game and the boys did their best," Menzel said.

"On the girls' side, we saw several girls open up and have great swims tonight. There was a very good performance in the opening 200 medley from the girls. The other two relay swims were great as well."

Menzel said the holiday period would be a time for heavy duty practices before the year turns to 2012.

"We're really going to bear down and do the hardest training of the season over the next seven days. We're going to build them up, which will lead to an opportunity for fast swims at Indian Creek," Menzel said.

The Cougars would be taking a similar approach, according to Gray.

"This is a really good springboard for us heading into our holiday training. Typically, North Putnam has taken the holidays off, but we're going to be going really hard during the holidays, reaching our peak yardage," Gray said.

"This is something I think can really springboard us because we've never beat Greencastle, we've never won the county, never won the conference.

"Those are two big goals we set at the beginning of the year and we saw tonight that those are achievable."

At North Putnam

Girls' Results

Greencastle 130, North Putnam 43

200 Medley Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Custis, Wheeler, Gomez, Howard) 2:17.65; 2. North Putnam (Wolf, Muse, Byrd, Alford) 2:25.92; 3. Greencastle (Moore, Mason, Beams, Stevens) 2:28.23

200 Free -- 1. Liveoak (G) 2:31.85; 2. Peters (G) 2:46.46; 3. Moore (N) 2:56.03; 4. Hansen (G) 3:00.11; 5. Livesay (N) 3:04.87

200 IM -- 1. Wheeler (G) 2:44.34; 2. Howard (G) 2:48.90; 3. Moore (G) 3:05.25; 4. Alford (N) 3:08.97

50 Free -- 1. Byrd (N) 29.16; 2. Gomez (G) 30.21; 3. Beams (G) 30.67; 4. Wolf (N) 33.08; 5. Stevens (G) 33.70; 6. Volland (N) 36.92

Diving -- 1. Fauvergue (G) 133.30; 2. Seahorn (G) 127.00

100 Fly -- 1. Gomez (G) 1:13.60; 2. Byrd (N) 1:17.96; 3. Beams (G) 1:21.97; 4. Peters (G) 1:30.68

100 Free -- 1. Custis (G) 1:06.93; 2. Livesay (N) 1:11.64; 3. Muse (N) 1:15.02; 4. Mason (G) 1:18.41; 5. Alford (N) 1:23.59

500 Free -- 1. Wheeler (G) 6:52.06; 2. Moore (G) 7:01.12; 3. Volland (N) 8:14.31

200 Free Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Peters, Liveoak, Beams, Custis) 2:04.08; 2. Greencastle (Mason, Seahorn, Fauvergue, Hansen) 2:33.26

100 Back -- 1. Howard (G) 1:22.02; 2. Wolf (N) 1:25.73; 3. Stevens (G) 1:30.42; 4. Mason (G) 1:32.07; 5. Volland (N) 2:02.56

100 Breast -- 1. Hansen (G) 1:31.18; 2. Custis (G) 1:32.24; 3. Liveoak (G) 1:32.51; 4. Muse (N) 1:42.56; 5. Moore (N) 1:49.96

400 Free Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Peters, Wheeler, Liveoak, Howard) 4:38.41; 2. Greencastle (Gomez, Stevens, Moore, Hansen) 5:10.92; 3. North Putnam (Livesay, Moore, Volland, Wolf) 5:31.72

Boys' Results

North Putnam 88, Greencastle 81

200 Medley Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Gardner, Ball, Firebaugh, Brattain) 1:50.44; 2. North Putnam (Lehr, James, Gray, Logan) 1:54.99; 3. North Putnam (Hinners, Volland, Troyer, Kauffman) 2:15.44

200 Free -- 1. Lehr (N) 2:06.09; 2. Harms (G) 2:11.58; 3. Thornell (N) 2:17.37; 4, Briones (G) 2:21.84; 5. Skillern (N) 2:23.61; 6. T. Secrest (G) 2:30.32

200 IM -- 1. Firebaugh (G) 2:15.49; 2. Gray (N) 2:16.49; 3. Brattain (G) 2:20.67; 4. Troyer (N) 2:39.14

50 Free -- 1. Ball (G) 24.52; 2. Logan (N) 25.31; 3. Gardner (G) 26.22; 4. Hinners (N) 28.50; 5. Ford (N) 28.51; 6. Ummel (G) 28.61

100 Fly -- 1. Firebaugh (G) 54.46; 2. James (N) 1:10.97; 3. Troyer (N) 1:19.18; 4. Watson (G) 1:34.34; 5. Ballard (N) 1:35.03; 6. Johnson (G) 2:12.92

100 Free -- 1. Logan (N) 57.62; 2. Gardner (G) 58.71; 3. Kauffman (N) 1:00.17; 4. Briones (G) 1:05.04; 5. Ummel (G) 1:05.97; 6. Volland (N) 1:06.71

500 Free -- 1. Harms (G) 6:05.47; 2. Thornell (N) 6:15.83; 3. Ford (N) 6:56.01; 4. Skillern (N) 6:59.48; 6. Dunbar (G) 10:17.04

200 Free Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Brattain, Gardner, Ball, Firebaugh) 1:38.91; 2. North Putnam (Lehr, Gray, James, Logan) 1:40.00; 3. North Putnam (Hinners, Kauffman, Skillern, Volland) 1:53.31; 4. Greencastle (Briones, Z. Secrest, T. Secrest, Harms) 2:02.12

100 Back -- 1. Gray (N) 1:02.41; 2. Brattain (G) 1:03.60; 3. Lehr (N) 1:05.93; 4. Ballard (N) 1:33.02; 5. Z. Secrest (G) 1:40.59; 6. Dunbar (G) 2:03.72

100 Breast -- 1. Ball (G) 1:10.46; 2. James (N) 1:18.59; 3. Hinners (N) 1:24.13; 4. Watson (G) 1:26.60; 5. Volland (N) 1:27.31; 6. Johnson (G) 1:55.66

400 Free Relay -- 1. North Putnam (Kauffman, Thornell, Troyer, Ford) 4:00.65; 2. Greencastle (Briones, T. Secrest, Ummel, Harms) 4:13.15; 3. Greencastle (Z. Secrest, Dunbar, Johnson, Watson) 6:12.79