GHS boys take WCC swimming crown

Monday, January 7, 2013
The Tiger Cubs boys' swimming and diving team celebrates after winning the 2013 West Central Conference championship. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

The Greencastle boys' swimming and diving team came to play on Saturday, winning the 2013 West Central Conference swim meet by 65 points.

The Tiger Cubs won eight total events, including the bookend relays, en route a 349 points. North Putnam had three wins and finished second with 284 points. South Putnam (255) and Cascade (220) rounded out the field.

"Going into the meet, we felt that the boys had a little bit of an edge (on the competition)," GHS coach Kent Menzel said. "We worked hard the last two weeks, but paid attention to our technique and paid attention to the way we thought about races, and I think that helped the boys come through."

Nathan Gardner, Elijah Brattain and Nash Firebaugh each had four wins for the Cubs, two individual each and wins in the 200 medley and 400 free relays.

Taylor Secrest swam the fly for GHS in the medley relay, and Jason Ummel swam the second leg of the 400 free relay.

"Our county competitors, both North Put and South Put, showed great things today," Menzel said. "The South Putnam relays are outstanding, and they have some very good freestyle swimmers who are always on our mind.

"North Putnam is a great swim team as well. I thought they had some outstanding swims. Dane Gray, particularly, swam well and had a good day. I know that they were working hard the last couple weeks so they will be on our radar for the county meet, and also the sectional meet."

North Putnam was led by a strong performance from Dane Gray.

He picked up wins in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke and swam the second leg of the victorious 200 freestyle relay.

"Dane Gray has to stand out," NPHS coach Tony Gray said. "The other members on the relay team, Trevor Troyer, Jonah Creamean and Nick Kaufman all deserve the credit for their all-conference effort."

The Cougars' coach said he used as much strategy as he could to help put the team in position to score points, stacking the teams' 200 freestyle relay team, rather than the 400.

"We knew coming in that we weren't going to beat (Greencastle's) 4x100 relay team, so I put my better resources in the 4x50 relay team so we could win that event," Tony Gray said. "The boys swam pretty well. We didn't taper or rest for this meet. Maybe that was the coaches mistake, but I knew coming in it was going to be a difficult hill to climb beating Greencastle, so I decided just to keep us in training.

"When we get to county (on Feb. 7) hopefully we can turn the result around."

South Putnam started the day with a second-place finish by diver Tyler Neumann but couldn't carry momentum into the swimming events.

Tayler Arnold finished second in the 100 free and the 200 freestyle relay team of Zane Crosby, Ben Albright, Matt Lund and Arnold took second.

"With Tyler Neumann getting second in diving, that was a great start," SPHS coach Matthew Edwards said. "It was a really good job by our seniors today. We've also been dealing with some sickness over the last week, so we had to switch some relays at the very end. But they didn't let it get to them. They did everything they could, and everything they needed to."

Cascade diver Kyle Trent won the one-meter event with a 192.00.

Greencastle hosts Cascade in a dual meet on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

North Putnam hosts Cascade and Covington on Thursday, Jan. 17 at 6 p.m.

South Putnam hosts North Montgomery on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.



At DePauw
2013 West Central Conference Swim Meet
Boys - Final
1, Greencastle 349. 2, North Putnam 284. 3, South Putnam 255. 4. Cascade 220.

All-conference swimmers
200 Medley Relay: Gardner, Secrest, Firebaugh, Brattain, GHS
200 Free: Brattain, GHS
200 IM: Gray, NPHS
50 Free: Firebaugh, GHS
Diving: Trent, CAS
100 Fly: Gardner, GHS
100 Free: Firebaugh, GHS
500 Free: Brattain, GHS
200 Free Relay: Troyer, Gray, Creamean, Kaufman, NPHS
100 Back: Gardner, GHS
100 Breast: Gray, NPHS
400 Free Relay: Brattain, Ummel, Gardner, Firebaugh, GHS

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