INDIANAPOLIS — For the Greenfield-Central girls swim team, competing in the IHSAA Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals prelims has become a mainstay in recent years.
But this year may have been their best performance yet.
On Friday night at the IU Natatorium, the Cougars broke four school records en route to advancing five events into today’s consolation finals.
“Really, that’s what we were hoping for. To get back a couple relays and a couple individuals, so that’s awesome,” Greenfield-Central head coach Emily Logan said. “Last year we got one relay back and one individual back, so we’re building and bringing more back, which is awesome.”
G-C competed in nine of the 11 events on the night, and advanced two of their three relay teams, and an individual in three separate events.
Breaking two of the school records individually, and two more as a member of a relay team was senior Norah Johnson, who advanced to the consolation finals in all four of her events.
“That’s huge and hard to do,” Logan said. “Usually you’re lucky if you get one or two back, so to have all four back, she’s just a phenomenal swimmer.”
In her first individual event, Johnson placed 11th in the 100-yard freestyle, with a school-record time of 52.29 seconds.
Her second individual event of the night, and the last of four events, was the 100 breaststroke, where she came in seeded 9th overall and had hopes of a top-eight finish and advance to the finals.
A time of 1:04.70 had her fall just short of that mark with a 12th-place finish and spot in the consolations.
“I just think we ran out of a little bit of gas after those other events, and she did phenomenal in all of those,” Logan said. “We talked about it, and she really out swam them on top of the water, we just didn’t get off the wall like we needed to.”
“Even though that event wasn’t the outcome that I wanted, I’m still really happy with how I swam, and how I swam in all of my other events,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, I did what I could do, and I’m happy with that.”
In those other events, Johnson was part of two school-record breaking relay teams.
The 200 medley relay of Johnson, Alyssa Osborn, Mary Ellen Stratman and Rachel Stutz finished in 11th with a time of 1:48.37, and the 200 free relay of Johnson, Osborn, Stutz and Cecelia Duffy-Johnson finished 12th with a time of 1:37.86.
Johnson’s fourth school-record came in the 200 free relay, where as the first leg, she swam a split of 24.21 seconds to break the 50 free record.
“It feels really great. I’m really thankful for the opportunity to be able to race again tomorrow, and have some more fast swims,” Johnson said. “I’ve still got some work to do, and I’m excited to just continue racing.”
The other G-C swimmer to advance to tomorrow’s consolation finals was a sophomore — Osborn.
Coming in seeded 23rd, she jumped up nine spots in the 200 individual medley to take 14th with a time of 2:06.89.
“It’s awesome. Last year I just made prelims, so to be in the finals feels so awesome,” Osborn said. “I’m just very proud of myself and my teammates that have helped push me and get me to this spot.”
Osborn took off over two seconds from her seed time of 2:09.02.
“I felt really good, and really smooth throughout the race,” Osborn said. “I really pushed myself to my limits today, and I can tell that all the work I’ve put in this year has really pushed my swimming ahead.”
“That was an incredible race,” Logan said. “I think she was mad after the relay because she didn’t hear the start well, so just went out for that 200 IM and went crazy.”
In the remaining events, Duffy-Johnson finished 24th in the 200 free, Stutz came in 29th in the 50 free, Stratman placed 26th in the 100 butterfly, and the 400 free relay team of Duffy-Johnson, Reagan Crouch, Selah Vahle, and Stratman just missed the cut placing 19th.
The two relays, Johnson and Osborn, will be back to compete in today’s consolation finals beginning at 1 p.m. Mt. Vernon’s Riley Nielsen will be in today’s diving competition.
