Menu
South Putnam, Greencastle, North Putnam finish sixth, seven, eighth at Plainfield Swim Sectional finals
PLAINFIELD — South Putnam’s Brent Cunningham finished second and the 200 medley relay team finished third Saturday at the IHSAA Plainfield Swimming and Diving Sectional finals, helping to lead the Eagles to a sixth-place finish on 208 points.
Greencastle finished six points ahead of North Putnam, 89-83, to secure seventh place.
“Our guys did an outstanding job of fighting through illness to be available and ready to swim,” South Putnam head coach Anna Kendall said. “We had a lot of great time drops and lifetime best swims, exemplary leadership from our seniors and an awesome team dynamic that helped bolster performance.
“I’m really proud of this group and the eagerness they brought to every practice and meet this year.”
“I could not have been more happy with or proud of our boys and the swims they were able to put on this week,” Greencastle head coach Kent Menzel said. “From the preliminary session, where we were 100 percent lifetime best, all the way through finals where our swimmers reset those marks, the boys performed like champions.
“We always try to target this meet, no matter the importance of county or conference. We tried to instill in our boys the understanding that to be a champion means to be your best when your best is required. And that is always the sectional championship as the launching pad to the state meet.
“Whether or not our boys felt that they had a chance to get to state, they nonetheless were able to appreciate the importance of the moment, and they were all incredible,” Menzel added.
"All of the boys worked hard over the season and accomplished a lot," North Putnam head coach Wes Richardson said. "We had some really great swims and many PRs over the two day period at the sectional prelims and finals. James (Thomas) had two massive PRs in the 200 free and 500 free.
"I believe this was a learning experience for all freshman swimmers, not knowing what to expect coming into the sectionals and now knowing what is expected of them in the next three years. They realize things they need to improve upon and the hard work it will take to get them there."
In a razor-tight meet, hosts Plainfield edged out Hendricks County rivals Avon by half a point to win the team sectional title 446.5-446 with Danville third (279.5), Cascade fourth (249.5) and Terre Haute South fifth (244.5). Terre Haute North finished ninth (74) with West Vigo 10th (9).
Cunningham took close to two seconds off his 100 breaststroke prelim time to finish in 1:02.27 but finished runner-up to Cascade’s Cason vonEhrenkrook, who dropped three seconds off his time coming into the sectional to win in a time of 1:00.54. Keaton Chew joined Cunningham on the podium, finishing fifth in the event (1:05.04) while Tyson Lady finished 10th (1:10.44) for the Eagles. Greencastle Charlie Menzel finished 16th overall (1:16.92) in the event.
South Putnam began the finals with a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay (1:43.32) through Cunningham, Chew, Wyatt Kendall and Jonah Taylor while North Putnam finished seventh (1:51.91) through Brayden Chew, William Stiff, Beckett Braeger and Michael Ali and Greencastle ninth (2:18.26) through Jayden Waugh, Nolan Stonebreaker, Caleb Edwards and Daniel Dinn.
Logan Johnson added another podium finish for South Putnam by finishing seventh in the 200 free (1:57.83) with teammate Luke Hutcheson finishing 14th (2:03.84) and North Putnam's Thomas finishing 16th (2:07.28).
Taylor finished 10th in 200 IM (2:15.91) while Lady finished 16th (2:36.23) for the Eagles while Zane Huber finished 12th (2:16.31) and Menzel 15th (2:28.10) for the Tiger Sharks.
Keaton Chew finished eighth (23.69) in the 50 free while Brayden Chew (24.43) finished 14th in the event.
Diving joined the finals with Clay Glessner (197.15) finished ninth for Greencastle while Emilio Gallegos (153.50) finished 11th for the Eagles.
Taylor finished the 100 fly in 11th place (1:00.58) and Evan Hinkle 13th (1:03.24) for South Putnam while Braeger (1:04.71) and Ali (1:07.63) finished 14th and 16th respectively in the event. In the 100 free, Huber topped the county racers in 12th (54.49) while Hutcheson finished 13th (55.31) and Kolten Hoops finished 16th (57.22) for North Putnam.
Kendall had a major improvement in the 500 free from the prelims, finishing ninth (5:12.59), a 15-second time drop from Thursday, with Johnson (5:27.99) finishing 11th and Thomas (5:43.72) 14th overall.
South Putnam finished fifth in the 200 free relay (1:40.02) through Cunningham, Hutcheson, Taylor and Johnson with Greencastle nipping in front of North Putnam for seventh as Menzel, Glessner, Huber and Sam Hanlon beat out Braeger, Hoops, Thomas and Ali 1:40.00 -1:40.40.
Kendall added a ninth-place finish in the 100 back (1:00.26) ahead of Brayden Chew in 10th (1:02.74) with Landon Chew finishing 12th (1:04.97), Stonebreaker finishing 14th (1:09.37) and Hinkle finishing 15th (1:09.44).
In the final race of the event, South Putnam took sixth in the 400 free relay (3:35.89) through Jonson, Hutcheson, Kendall and Keaton Chew while Greencastle finished eighth (3:51.44) through Huber, Hanlon, Stonebreaker and Menzel and North Putnam finished ninth (4:05.84) through Hoops, Heath Livingston, Adam Grajewski and Brayton Hecht.
To reach the finals, the Eagle team of Kendall, Cunningham, Taylor and Chew beat out Cascade for the top spot in the medley relay in a time of 1:46.15 while Cunningham finished second in the breaststroke in 1:04.18; Chew was fifth in the same event in 1:05.73.
South Putnam had two other individual swims in the A finals Saturday as Johnson finished seventh in the 200 free (1:57.12) and Chew claimed eight in the 50 free (23.38) while the 200 free relay team of Cunningham, Taylor, Johnson and Hutcheson (1:42.33) and 400 free relay team of Johnson, Hutcheson, Kendall and Chew (3:42.43) both finished fifth.
North Putnam and Greencastle put two relays each in the finals Saturday as the Cougar team of Brayden Chew, Stiff, Braeger and Ali (1:52.37) finished sixth in the 200 medley relay while Braeger, Ali, Hoops and Heath Livingston (1:45.06) finished seventh in the 200 free relay. The Tiger Shark 200 free relay team of Glessner, Caleb Edwards, Daniel Dinn and Huber (1:48.70) and 400 free relay team of Huber, Menzel, Hanlon and Stonebreaker (3:56.07) both finished eighth.
South Putnam added 12 swims in the B Finals with North Putnam adding eight and Greencastle six swims in the secondary finals.
Qualifying for the B finals for the Eagles were Hutcheson (2:08.06) in the 200 free, Taylor (2:18.34) and Lady (2:34.15) in the 200 IM, Taylor (59.64) and Hinkle (1:01.58) in the 100 fly, Hutcheson (57.00) in the 100 free, Kendall (5:29.61) and Johnson (5:29.67) in the 500 free, Kendall (1:02.65), Landon Chew (1:06.34) and Hinkle (1:09.82) in the 100 back and Lady (1:09.10) in the 100 breaststroke.
Qualifying for the B finals for the Cougars were Thomas (2:07.88) in the 200 free, Chew (24.74) in the 50 free, Braeger (1:05.74) and Ali (1:07.13) in the 100 fly, Hoops (57.04) in the 100 free, Thomas (5:50.66) in the 500 free and Chew (1:02.96) in the 100 back, along with the 400 free relay team of Braeger, Thomas, Hoops and Hecht (4:04.09).
Qualifying for the B finals for the Tiger Sharks were Huber (2:16.71) and Menzel (2:28.23) in the 200 IM, Huber (53.89) in the 100 free, Stonebreaker (1:10.17) in the 100 back and Menzel (1:14.00) in the 100 breaststroke, along with the 200 medley relay team of Stonebreaker, Glessner, Waugh and Edwards (2:17.19).