NEW PALESTINE — Determined to make their mark in sectional history, Greenfield-Central’s Carley Logan and Megan Coffin posted record-setting swims during a dominant performance for the Cougars Saturday at New Palestine.
Greenfield-Central won eight of 12 events and rolled to its sixth-straight IHSAA sectional championship with a team total of 503 points. Mt. Vernon followed in second with 364 and host New Palestine finished third with 251.
Competing with just four swimmers, Eastern Hancock placed eighth with 130 points, but the Royals notched their first ever sectional champion with Martina Romano in the 200 IM.
Logan, a state qualifier for the fourth consecutive year, shattered the 500 freestyle mark by nearly four seconds and added another sectional record in the 200 freestyle, which also served as a Greenfield-Central school best. She now has her sights set on the state meet.
“My goal is top 16 at state,” Logan said. “I want to get the Futures Championships cut which I believe is a 5:03. I think if I get that, I should be top 16. I just really need to work on my turns and starts — the little details.”
Not to be outdone, Coffin eclipsed the oldest sectional record in the books with a swim of 1:05.56 in the 100 breaststroke, bettering the old mark set in 2005. Coffin added a winning swim in the 100 butterfly.
“I was hoping for sectional records and school records,” Coffin said. “I was confident going in. I wasn’t really expecting a 1:05, more like a 1:06. I was hoping for a low 57 (in the butterfly) to get the record. I’m a little disappointed with that but there’s always next week.”
Anne Marie DeKeyser was a big part of the Cougars’ dominance as well by winning the 50 freestyle in a school-record time. She added another win in the 100 freestyle. DeKeyser, Logan and Coffin also swam on the winning 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays. They were joined by Rebekah Bogle in the 200 and Sarah Stutz in the 400.
The next big challenge for the Cougars is to score at the state meet.
“One of our big (girls’ team) goals is to make it back on Saturday and have a presence at state,” Greenfield-Central coach Emily Logan said. “Our guys’ team has obviously done that the past few years. We want to take it to that next level.
“This has been probably one of the best teams we’ve had coaching-wise. They’re a gritty bunch. Megan and Carley are two kids who will train through a wall for you. They work extremely hard.”
Mt. Vernon’s Halle Strege showed some grit in her diving performance as well. Trailing by 11.70 points after eight dives, the senior dominated over the final three and scored a winning total of 350.95 points. She now leads a trio of county divers into Tuesday’s diving regional at Brownsburg. New Palestine’s Karen Shriver moved on in third place and Grace Hall of Greenfield-Central advanced in fourth.
Strege’s back-loaded dive list paid dividends as she scored over 30 points on each of the final three dives, all at degrees of difficulty over 2.0.
“All I want now is to get top eight (at regionals) and be able to say that I got to state,” Strege said. “It’s been my dream to go to state for the past three years. To be able to go would be amazing.”
Mt. Vernon secured representation in the state meet by winning the 200 medley relay for the second consecutive season. A team of Maddie Moore, Zoey Musick, Abby Crouch and Mary Nosek posted a winning time of 1:55.85.
“We had a great night Thursday and got all of our girls back in the top 16,” Mt. Vernon coach Brad Grieshop said. “We had more girls in the top eight than we did last year. We just look to improve every year. Eventually we would like to challenge Greenfield or whoever is winning at that point. As long as we’re improving, it’s a great season.”
Royals break through with first champion
There was plenty of excitement for Eastern Hancock as Romano, an exchange student from Italy, led wire-to-wire to take home the 200 IM title.
“I think I was more excited than anyone,” Eastern Hancock coach Derek McCormick said. “I about had a heart attack on the sideline. We knew going into the race she had a really good possibility of holding them off as long as she had a lead in the breaststroke and finished strong in the freestyle.”
Romano is now the school record holder in both the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke. She lowered the IM record by more than 15 seconds.
As a team, the Royals made the most of what they had.
“We had four girls score (130 points),” McCormick said. “I can’t really complain. I’m super proud of them.”
Rogers powers third-place finish for Dragons
Jessica Rogers led the New Palestine effort with a second-place swim in the 100 freestyle and third place in the 50 freestyle. The junior went out strong on the 100 and led at the halfway point but couldn’t hold off DeKeyser.
“We knew Jessica had to get out fast,” New Palestine coach Steve Maxwell said. “She was actually right where she should have been at the 75 but couldn’t quite hold on (to that pace). She’s a junior and she’ll be back. I think she has a strong probability of being just as aggressive next year and hopefully we’ll see her in state as a senior.”
Maxwell, who is retiring after a 50-year coaching career, was thrilled with his team’s performance in his last IHSAA girls’ swimming and diving sectional.
“The girls swam exceptionally well,” Maxwell said. “We had 91 percent lifetime best times. Honestly, we could have been fifth but there were a lot of surprise placements. I was just thrilled. It was a really fine meet.”
New Palestine added another sectional runner-up in the 400 free relay with Rogers, Maria Virt, Bailey Young and Cassy Moorman. The postseason continues for Shriver, a junior, who will make her first appearance in the diving regionals.
