Area swimmers move on to sectional finals Saturday

Friday, February 17, 2012

AVON -- The Putnam County boys' swimmers traveled to Avon High School for the sectional prelims Thursday night.

Greencastle leads the pack with three relays and five individual swimmers making the sectional final, with North Putnam adding three relays and an individual finalist, with South Putnam adding a relay of their own to the finals.

The Tiger Sharks advanced Nash Firebaugh in the 100 fly and 50 free, Elijah Brattain advancing in the 200 free, Mitchell Ball in the 100 fly and Nathan Gardner in the 100 back.

Greencastle also advanced its 200 medley, 200 and 400 free relay teams as well, along with six swimmers in consolation finals.

Greencastle head coach Kent Menzel was impressed with the speed of his squad.

"It was a great night for us. 21 of the 24 swims were lifetime bests and another was a season best. Almost all the relay splits were lifetime bests. That was where we knew we needed to be," Menzel said.

"We had to be great tonight, get ourselves positioned in the top eight and in the top 16 and we were able to do that."

"One of our goals was to get the 400 free relay in the finals. The freshman boys and Isaac Harms were able to accomplish that with four absolutely stellar swim," Menzel added.

"Nash is positioned where he wants to be. Mitchell had an absolutely stellar night and his 100 fly was one of the highlights. Nathan, in the backstroke, had one of the great swims of the night, as was Elijah's 200 free."

"All four of our swimmers who needed to perform tonight performed and did what they had to do, so I'm very proud of those boys," Menzel said.

Menzel added, "But the guys I'm most proud of are those swimmers who, while they may not be swimming on Saturday, absolutely turned themselves inside-out tonight."

"They delivered lifetime best performances that are real highlights for me as a coach. It was fun to watch them drop times all over the pool."

In talking about Saturday, Menzel said the squad looks healthy for some wins.

"Our goal is to be faster on Saturday. Our relays are well positioned, and we've planned in ways to make both of those relays faster, so we're going to go for both of those," Menzel said.

"We're looking to move up everywhere we can in the rest of the heats. I think we've got a chance to win a couple of the consolation heats.

"We're looking at a win in the 100 fly and maybe the 50 free. And who knows what Mitchell's got in him as well? It's going to be a lot of fun on Saturday."

North Putnam also advanced their three relay squads and had the bonus of Dane Gray advancing to the sectional finals in the 100 back. The Cougars also have eight consolation final swims.

North Putnam head coach Tony Gray commended the squad and their three record breaking performances.

"I was real impressed with our kids. We had to really step it up a level with the competition here at Avon. We got all three relay teams in the finals and an individual in the finals," Gray said.

"We also got eight others in the consolations so, all in all, it was a great night for us. We also broke the 200 medley relay, the 200 free relay the 200 IM records tonight as well.

"Our goal is to see if the medley relay can break the new record. We held a swimmer out of the 200 free relay, so I think that record will fall by two or three more seconds," Gray added.

"We can also drop three or four seconds in the 400 free relay. We're looking to see if everyone can get personal bests again on Saturday."

South Putnam advanced their 200 medley relay squad and will have both relays and three individual swimmers in the consolation finals, as well as sending county and conference champion Sam Gould into the diving competition on Saturday.

South Putnam head coach Matthew Edwards said his squad continued to do what they had done all season.

"What we've focused on this year is dropping time and for the most part we did that tonight. The kids did a great job. They came into this meet pumped," Edwards said.

"They knew what they were up against and they did a good job of knowing that the meet was between them, the clock and the swimmers in the lanes next to them.

"We've got guys coming back Saturday and it's great for them to have another chance to get their best time of the season.

"Our medley relay is in the finals and we'd love to jump up a couple of places. We're sitting neck and neck with a lot of the teams in that race and I really want to see us jump up a few places," Edwards added.

"Our guys are doing great by being pumped up and swimming against the competition. We're looking forward to jumping as many places as we can and come back Saturday and fight."

At Avon

IHSAA Avon Swimming Sectional Prelims

200 Medley Relay -- 1.Terre Haute South (Mitchell, Sakbun, McCord, Roach) 1:38.46; 2. Plainfield (Allen, Wright, Tice, Pawlowski) 1:42.63; 3. Avon (Scalf, Mothersead, Jameson, Jones) 1:42.79; 4. Greencastle (Gardner, Ball, Firebaugh, T. Secrest) 1:46.44; 5. Terre Haute North (Longa, Preister, Guell, Coons) 1:49.80; 6. Danville (Berg, Callahan, Bradshaw, Schoening) 1:50.39; 7. North Putnam (Lehr, James, Gray, Logan) 1:51.92; 8. South Putnam (Arnold, Gould, Lund, McCammack) 1:52.91 9. West Vigo (Soliday, Bull, Allsup, Tolerson) 2:06.09; 10. Tri-West (Jones, Garland, Corbett, Tintera) 2:06.23; 11. Cascade (Whicker, McConnell, Vanwinkle, Pence) 2:14.64

200 Free -- 1. Wilhelm (THS) 1:45.89; 2. McPhail (A) 1:47.25; 3. Sprout (A) 1:51.12; 4. Weisbach (P) 1:52.59; 5. Goldhammer (A) 1:53.47; 6. Jones (THN) 1:54.50; 7. Brattain (G) 1:54.98; 8. Charles (P) 1:56.54; 9. Cook (TW) 1:56.68; 10. Rosine (P) 1:58.02; 11. Gemmecke (THS) 2:01.32; 12. Gilmore (C) 2:01.80; 13. Neilson (D) 2:01.98; 14. Lehr (NP) 2:04.80; 15. Barnes (THN) 2:06.43; 16. Harms (G) 2:06.48

200 IM -- 1. Lewis (A) 1:59.32; 2. Ferguson (A) 2:00.38; 3. Ford (THS) 2:0.54; 4. Sakbun (THS) 2:00.87; 5. Lorenz (A) 2:04.17; 6. Priester (THN) 2:05.84; 7. Phillip (P) 2:06.55; 8. Hurst (P) 2:07.54; 9. Guell (THN) 2:09.30; 10. Gray (NP) 2:11.21; 11. Allen (THS) 2:15.62; 12. Haynes (THN) 2:17.84; 13. Bridge (P) 2:22.50; 14. Schoening (D) 2:26.56; 15. Dugan (C) 2:26.83; 16. Corbett (TW) 2:27.53

50 Free -- 1. Roach (THS) 21.37; 2. Kelly (TW) 22.69; 3. Tice (P) 22.75; 4. Schilling (THS) 23.08; 5. Firebaugh (G) 23.31; 6. Jameson (A) 23.42; 7. Scalf (A) 23.54; 8. Bradshaw (D) 23.66; 9. Arnold (SP) 23.79; 10. Logan (NP) 23.80; 11. Rank (A) 23.83; 12. Pawlowski (P) 23.98; 13. James (NP) 24.07; 14. Miller (P) 24.19; 15. Gardner (G) 24.41; 16. Clark (D) 24.49

100 Fly -- 1. Lewis (A) 53.91; 2. Firebaugh (G) 54.05; 3. Col. McCord (THS) 54.19; 4. Ball (G) 54.32; 5. Mothersead (A) 55.75; 6. Ferguson (A) 56.10; 7. Schilling (THS) 56.68; 8. Guell (THN) 56.76; 9. Philip (P) 57.43; 10. Con. McCord (THS) 57.62; 11. Wright (P) 57.98; 12. Longa (THN) 1:00.05; 13. Charles (P) 1:01.31; 14. Haynes (THN) 1:02.33; 15. Clark (D) 1:02.91; 16. Austin (D) 1:04.39

100 Free -- 1. Roach (THS) 48.04; 2. Callahan (D) 49.02; 3. Jones (A) 49.38; 4. Mitchell (THS) 49.44; 5. Stowe (A) 49.84; 6. Bradshaw (D) 51.23; 7. Rhodes (P) 51.41; 8. Kelly (TW) 51.53; 9. Weisbach (P) 52.04; 10. Goldhammer (A) 52.21; 11. Brattain (G) 52.32; 12. James (NP) 52.86; 13. Pawlowski (P) 53.34; 14. Dowell (THS) 54.55; 15. Logan (NP) 54.84; 16. Cook (TW) 54.89

500 Free -- 1. Wilhelm (THS) 4:50.58; 2. Sprout (A) 4:58.30; 3. Allen (P) 4:58.40; 4. Col. McCord (THS) 5:00.57; 5. Priester (THN) 5:01.07; 6. Landau (A) 5:05.41; 7. Moore (A) 5:06.74; 8. Jones (THN) 5:10.10; 9. Nielson (D) 5:18.42; 10. Hayden (P) 5:25.28; 11. Con. McCord (THS) 5:26.20; 12. Brink (P) 5:31.58; 13. Harms (G) 5:43.66; 14.Hubbs (THN) 5:46.10; 15. Thornell (NP) 5:55.95; 16. Sheets (TW) 5:57.97

200 Free Relay -- 1. Terre Haute South (Schilling, Ford, Wilhelm, McCord) 1:31.52; 2. Avon (Rank, Jameson, McPhail, Lewis) 1:32.12; 3. Greencastle (Ball, Brattain, Harms, Firebaugh) 1:34.52; 4. Plainfield (Miller, Pawlowski, Weisbach, Allen) 1:35.28; 5. Tri-West (Cook, Brandkamp, Richard, Kell) 1:36.14; 6. North Putnam (Shorter, Kaufman, James, Logan) 1:37.37; 7. Terre Haute North (Guell, Welch, Coons, Jones) 1:38.07; 8. Danville (Clark, Schoening, Austin, Berg) 1:39.79; 9. South Putnam (Arnold, McCammack, Albright, Lund) 1:41.71; 10. Cascade (Cecil, Dugan, Franchville, Gilmore) 1:49.08; 11. West Vigo (Vermillion, Allsup, Whitford, Lebrun) 1:50.90

100 Backstroke -- 1. Stowe (A) 54.05; 2. Mitchell (THS) 54.15; 3. Jameson (A) 55.76; 4. Hurst (P) 57.75; 5. Rhodes (P) 58.11; 6. Gardner (G) 58.55; 7. Scalf (A) 58.61; 8. Gray (NP) 1:01.39; 9. Longa (THN) 1:01.43; 10. Arnold (SP) 1:02.22; 11. Lehr (NP) 1:03.22; 12. Allen (THS) 1:04.21; 13. Robinson (THS) 1:04.24; 14. Bailey (P) 1:04.33; 15. Hubbs (THN) 1:05.64; 16. Jones (TW) 1:10.44

100 Breaststroke -- 1. Lorenz (A) 58.88; 2. Mothersead (A) 59.67; 3. McPhail (A) 1:00.27; 4. Wright (P) 1:00.78; 5. Sakbun (THS) 1:00.84; 6. Callahan (D) 1:02.25; 7. Ford (THS) 1:02.36; 8. Miller (P) 1:04.05; 9. Ball (G) 1:04.85; 10. Shaver (THS) 1:08.46; 11. Koos (THN) 1:09.60; 12. Gould (SP) 1:10.03; 13. Brandkamp (TW) 1:10.19; 14. T. Secrest (G) 1:13.98; 15. Bridge (P) 1:15.34; 16. Schoening (D) 1:16.64

400 Free Relay -- 1. Terre Haute South (Roach, Mitchell, Wilhelm, Sakbun) 3:17.46; 2. Avon (Jones, Moore, McPhail, Goldhammer) 3:28.46; 3. Plainfield (Tice, Weisbach, Rhodes, Miller) 3:28.59; 4. Danville (Neilson, Clark, Bradshaw, Callahan) 3:35.02; 5. Tri-West (Cook, Brandkamp, Richard, Kelly) 3:47.54; 7. North Putnam (Lehr, Troyer, Thornell, Kaufman) 3:54.39; 8. Greencastle (Harms, Briones, Ummel, T. Secrest) 3:58.36; 9. Cascade (Cecil, Dugan, Franchville, Gilmore) 4:00.86; 10. South Putnam (Albright, Crosby, Gould, Fields) 4:05.18; 11. West Vigo (Vermillion, Whitford, Soliday, Lebrun) 4:11.50