Greencastle boys win eight of 12 events to take WCC crown

The Greencastle boys won eight of 12 events, including four All-WCC performances from Elijah Brattain (above) in the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay. (Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN)

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- The Greencastle Tiger Cubs boys swimming squad took home the West Central Conference title on Tuesday night with a dominating performance, winning eight of 12 events.

With 374 points, Greencastle handily defeated the schools with North Putnam being the closest, 101 points behind.

"I am so proud of this team being able to get in the water and swim as well as they did today. Very, very impressive effort from us," Greencastle coach Kent Menzel said.

Second-place North Putnam had 273 points and was closely followed by South Putnam with 247 points. Cascade rounded out the boys with 187 points for the meet.

The champion Tiger Cubs had wins in the 200-yard medley relay (Nathan Gardner, Taylor Secrest, Nash Firebaugh, Elijah Brattain), 200-yard freestyle (Brattain), 50-yard freestyle (Firebaugh), 100-yard butterfly (Firebaugh), 100-yard freestyle (Brattain), 200-yard freestyle relay (Brant Mangrum, Taylor Secrest, Jacob Kessler, Isaac Harms), 100 yard breaststroke (Taylor Secrest) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (Firebaugh, Mangrum, Gardner Brattain).

In the 100 yard fly, Greencastle senior Nash Firebaugh broke his own record by clocking a time of 52.00, breaking the old record he set two years ago by .31 seconds.

The night was especially productive for Firebaugh and Brattain, each of whom won four events.

Dane Gray swims toward one of his two conference titles for North Putnam. The senior won the 200 IM (pictured) and the 100 backstroke. (Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN)

The Cougars had wins in the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard backstroke, both from Dane Gray.

The Cougars set three school records on the night. In the 400-yard freestyle relay the team of seniors Trevor Troyer, Gray and Nick Kaufman, along with Jonah Creamean, swam a time of 3:35.58. The same team also swam a 1:48.20 in the 200-yard medley relay to set that record as well. Rounding out the school records was Gray with a 56.33 in the 100 backstroke.

"Overall I thought we swam really, really well. We have a lot of kids that are new to swimming, this is their first year swimming and their inexperience showed today. We have been in a big disadvantage, our competition only lost two or three days to snow, we have lost eight," North Putnam coach Tony Gray said.

The 500-yard freestyle belonged to the Cadets.

Rounding out the events were the Eagles, who got their lone win from senior diver Tyler Neumann.

Tayler Arnold set two new school records for the Eagles with a 56.13 in the 100 butterfly and a 59.52 in the 100 backstroke.

"We swam great today. We had two new school records. Everyone swam well from top to bottom. We are not even at the end of the season yet and that is when you see the big time drops," South Putnam coach Anna Kendall said.

However, the day and the title belonged to the Tiger Cubs.

"Our kids did a very good job all day long. A thing we particularly wanted to work on were our turns and I thought our kids showed tremendous improvement in that. A combination of things led to what we were able to do tonight," Menzel said.

At Crawfordsville
West Central Conference meet
Boys' Results
Team Scores
Greencastle 374
North Putnam 273
South Putnam 247
Cascade 187

All-WCC Team
200 Medley Relay: Nathan Gardner, Taylor Secrest, Nash Firebaugh, Elijah Brattain (G) 1:43.22
200 Freestyle: Elijah Brattain (G) 1:52.80
200 IM: Dane Gray (NP) 2:06.12
50 Freestyle: Nash Firebaugh (G) 22.05
Diving: Tyler Neumann (SP) 155.50
100 Butterfly: Nash Firebaugh (G) 52.00
100 Freestyle: Elijah Brattain (G) 50.47
500 Freestyle: Griffin Crum (C) 5:25.81
200 Freestyle Relay: Brant Mangrum, Taylor Secrest, Jacob Kessler, Isaac Harms (G) 1:37.08
100 Backstroke: Dane Gray (NP) 56.33
100 Breaststroke: Taylor Secrest (G) 1:13.24
400 Freestyle Relay: Nash Firebaugh, Brant Mangrum, Nathan Gardner, Elijah Brattain (G) 3:28.54

Tyler Neumann captured the South Putnam boys' lone title with a victory in diving. (Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN)

Individual Results
200 Medley Relay: 1. Greencastle A (Gardner, T Secrest, Firebaugh, Brattain) 1:43.22, 2. North Putnam (Gray, Creamean, Troyer, Kaufman) 1:48.20, 3. South Putnam A (Rayce, Neumann, Arnold, Crosby) 1:50.31, 4. Cascade (Cecil, Mahan, Van Winkle, Berlin) 2:07.44, -- Greencastle B (Johnson, Z Secrest, Gobert, Wood) x1:58.33, -- South Putnam B (H Fields, Evens, Chambers, Duggan) x2:16.34.
200 Freestyle: 1. Brattain (G) 1:52.80, 2. Crum (C) 1:57.88, 3. Harms (G) 2:03.40, 4. Davis (NP) 2:07.78, 5. Miller (C) 2:08.15, 6. Albright, (SP) 2:08.21, 7. Ummel (G) 2:10.26, 8. Sheldon (NP) 2:18.30, 9. A Fields (SP) 2:25.77, 10. Hattenbach (SP) 2:35.36, 11. E Lewis (G) x2:46.96, 12. Barnes (SP) x3:16.83, -- Creamean (NP) DQ.
200 IM: 1. Gray (NP) 2:06.12, 2. Gardner (G) 2:12.25, 3. Troyer (NP) 2:18.93, 4. Dugan (C) 2:21.05, 5. Van Winkle (C) 2:21.97, 6. Wood (G) 2:31.10, 7. Rayce (SP) 2:32.96, 8. Lewis (G) 2:34.77, 9. Rogers (NP) 2:37.31, 10. Z Secrest (G) x2:40.93, 11. H Fields (SP) 2:43.94, 12. Chambers (SP) 2:56.11, 13. Wunderlich (NP) x3:09.61.
50 Freestyle: 1. Firebaugh (G) 22.05, 2. Crosby (SP) 23.72, 3. Kaufman (NP) 23.81, 4. Kessler (G) 24.41, 5. Mangrum (G) 24.70, 6. Cecil (C) 26.18, 7. Nees (SP) 26.55, 8. McPherson (NP) 26.86, 9. Johnson (G) x27.40, 10. Duggan (SP) 27.57, 11. Timm (NP) 27.61, 12. Marcum (SP) x27.69, 13. Berlin (C) 28.00, 14. Watson (G) x29.12, 15. Wunderlich (NP) x32.11, 16. Shelton (NP) x34.05, 17. Kim (SP) x37.36.
Diving: 1. Neumann (SP) 155.50, 2. Ruble (NP) 126.20, 3. L Lewis (G) 123.75.
100 Butterfly: 1. Firebaugh (G) 52.00, 2. Arnold (SP) 56.13, 3. Creamean (NP) 1:00.94, 4. Kessler (G) 1:02.57, 5. Dugan (C) 1:03.95, 6. Gobert (G) 1:06.17, 7. Rogers (NP) 1:10.72, 8. Nees (SP) 1:11.29, 9. Marcum (SP) 1:18.85, 10. Ballard (NP) 1:20.39.
100 Freestyle: 1. Brattain (G) 50.47, 2. Crosby (SP) 51.27, 3. T Secrest (G) 54.26, 4. Troyer (NP) 54.42, 5. Mangrum (G) 54.64, 6. Allen (NP) 56.62. 7. Cecil (C) 59.16, 8. McPherson (NP) 1:02.01, 9. Sheldon (NP) x1:02.74, 10. Duggan (SP) 1:07.76, 11. Evens (SP) 1:10.41, 12. Dunbar (G) x1:10.51, 13. Shelton (NP) x1:19.87, 14. Wunderlich (NP) x1:21.55, 15. Barnes (SP) x1:24.85.
500 Freestyle: 1. Crum (C) 5:25.81, 2. Harms (G) 5:36.07, 3. Young (NP) 5:38.24, 4. Miller (C) 5:56.61, 5. Albright (SP) 5:58.06, 6. Wood (G) 6:04.33, 7. Ummel (G) 6:06.22, 8. Ballard (NP) 6:07.89, 9. Noble (NP) 6:27.53, 10. A Fields (SP) 6:47.34, 11. Hattenbach (SP) 7:09.44, 12. Lewis (G) x7:33.47.
200 Freestyle Relay: 1. Greencastle A (Mangrum, T Secrest, Kessler, Harms) 1:37.08, 2. South Putnam A (Arnold, Nees, Albright, Crosby) 1:38.18, 3. Cascade (Cecil, Dugan, Crum, Miller) 1:42.93, 4. North Putnam (Kaufman, Sheldon, McPherson, Rogers) 1:44.24, -- Greencastle B (Gobert, Dunbar, C Lewis, Ummel) x1:51.15, -- South Putnam B (H Fields, Chambers, A Fields, Duggan) x1:58.53.
100 Backstroke: 1. Gray (NP) 56.33, 2. Gardner (G) 57.63, 3. Arnold (SP) 59.52, 4. Rayce (SP) 1:02.49, 5. Van Winkle (C) 1:06.54, 6. Johnson (G) 1:08.10, 7. Gobert (G) 1:09.69, 8. Timm (NP) 1:10.71, 9. Allen (NP) 1:12.46, 10. Chambers (SP) 1:18.91, 11. Dunbar (G) x1:28.77.
100 Breaststroke: 1. T Secrest (G) 1:13.24, 2. Davis (NP) 1:15.28, 3. Z Secrest (G) 1:15.83, 4. Neumann (SP) 1:16.53, 5. Young (NP) 1:18.41, 6. H Fields (SP) 1:19.55, 7. Watson (G) 1:20.23, 8. C Lewis (G) x1:21.59, 9. Mahan (C) 1:22.35, 10. Evens (SP) 1:23.39, 11. Berlin (C) 1:26.70, 12. Wunderlich (NP) 1:27.43, 13. Kim (SP) x1:27.53, -- Noble (NP) DQ.
400 Freestyle Relay:1. Greencastle A (Firebaugh, Mangrum, Gardner, Brattain) 3:28.54, 2. North Putnam (Troyer, Creamean, Kaufman, Gray) 3:35.58, 3. Cascade (Crum, Miller, Dugan, Van Winkle) 3:50.90, 4. South Putnam A (Nees, H Fields, Albright, Rayce) 4:14.25, -- Greencastle B (Ummel, Wood, C Lewis, Johnson) x4:08.64, -- South Putnam B (Hattenbach, Kim, Barnes, A Fields) x5:17.81.