County swimmers compete at state: Cougars’ junior advances to consolation finals

0
264

INDIANAPOLIS — It was a record-breaking night for the Greenfield-Central Cougars.

Swimmers from Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon and Eastern Hancock competed in Friday night’s IHSAA state swimming preliminaries, hoping to earn a spot in today’s finals.

Greenfield-Central junior Megan Coffin did just that.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

The Cougars were the most well-represented area team, with three individuals and two relay teams competing, while Mt. Vernon had one relay and Eastern Hancock one individual.

Coffin was the highest county finisher and only one to finish in the Top 16 and advance, earning a spot in today’s finals. She finished 11th in the 100 yard breaststroke, with a time of 1:04.67, just .34 away from eighth place and the championship finals.

She just missed the school record in that event, by .07 seconds, her coach said. She set a new school record in the 100 yard butterfly, with her 57.20 good enough for 19th place, less than a second out of qualifying for the consolation round.

“I was very excited about that. That’s my goal,” Coffin said of advancing and also breaking a school record. “I’m thrilled for tomorrow. I can’t wait. I want to go faster, so hopefully I do.”

“Megan had a great day today,” Greenfield-Central coach Emily Logan said. “Just overall, really all of her races, she hit it and she was on. She nailed it today.”

Another school record was broken by Carley Logan, who broke her own 500 yard freestyle record. She finished 22nd in that event (5:08.07), knocking more than four seconds off her sectional time.

She also finished 25th in the 200 yard freestyle (1:56.68).

“We were hoping to get Carley and Megan both through,” Logan said. “Kind of looking at it, that was our expectation of getting them both through in at least one event. Unfortuantely, Carley, I think if she had somebody to race in the 500 … her heat, she blew it away, which is awesome. But if you’ve got somebody along there to push ya, I think she might have been able to squeak in.”

Logan cruised throughout the 500 free, winning by several lengths, but missed qualifying for today’s finals by a few seconds.

Two other school records were nearly broken by the Greenfield-Central relay teams.

The Cougars’ 200 freestyle relay team of Anne Marie DeKeyser, Rebekah Bogle, Coffin and Logan swam a 1:42.73, good enough for 27th place. The Greenfield-Central 400 free team of DeKeyser, Logan, Coffin and Sarah Stutz finished in 28th position (3:45.28).

DeKeyser competed in two individual events, finishing 31st in the 50 yard free (24.98) and 30th in the 100 free (54.08).

“It was a great overall team performance with all of them,” Logan said. “Rebekah and Sarah on relays, this was their first trip ever to state, so good experience for them. The other three have been here a few times so they know what it’s like, but the other two got to come along with a pretty fast, pretty special group of girls.”

It was important for the Cougars to take this step, sending someone through to the second day of state.

“That was one of our big goals as a girls team,” Logan said. “Our guys team has been so strong at the state level for so long, and we make it here, but we haven’t made it to the next day for a little while. We wanted to make that next step.”

Mt. Vernon’s 200 yard medley relay team of Maddie Moore, Zoey Musick, Abby Crouch and Mary Nosek finished 28th, with a time of 1:55.50, about seven seconds shy of advancing.

Eastern Hancock’s Martina Romano competed in the 200 yard IM, finishing 31st (2:21.72).

The lone Hancock County qualifier, Coffin, will compete today in the consolation finals, slated to start at 1 p.m.