NEW PALESTINE – After the past two weeks of postseason events for IHSAA girls swimming and diving, the boys take the starting blocks and diving platform beginning tonight.
With the New Palestine Sectional preliminaries at the New Palestine Natatorium, the boys swimming postseason begins.
Tonight, beginning at 5:30 p.m., 11 teams will swim 11 events in hopes of qualifying for Saturday’s championship and consolation finals. Diving joins the mix Saturday morning.
Mt. Vernon is the two-time defending sectional champion and has five individual defending sectional champions returning along with two relay squads that have three-quarters of their lineup back.
A year ago, New Palestine was runner-up. Eastern Hancock placed fifth and Greenfield-Central was seventh.
“We’re in a good spot and like our race chances,” Mt. Vernon coach Brad Grieshop said. “Our big focus is getting kids down to state and who can score at state and what relays can do the same things, school records. We’re looking at a lot of stuff and we’re in a really good spot right now.”
Earlier this year, the Dragons finished ahead of the Marauders at the Hoosier Heritage Conference Championships.
In a tight finish at the top of the standings, Yorktown (391) won the HHC followed by the Dragons (368) and Marauders (359).
Grieshop said there will be strong competition from a number of teams this weekend, too.
“Our conference is a whole different beast of a meet,” the coach said. “It tends to be a little bit quicker than our sectional, but we still have a lot of competition at the sectional, and we will this weekend, for sure. We’re going to be primed and ready to go.”
They are hoping to move back up to the top of the standings. Yorktown is not in this sectional, but five of the 11 teams competing are from the HHC, including Mt. Vernon, New Palestine, Greenfield-Central, New Castle and Shelbyville.
Other schools competing are Centerville, Connersville, Eastern Hancock, Hagerstown, Richmond and Seton Catholic. Richmond was runner-up in the North Central Conference Championship.
Mt. Vernon seniors Brady Gray, Matthew Garey and Ethan Murphy lead the Marauder contingent.
Gray is the defending champion in the 50-yard freestyle and 100 freestyle. He also won both events in the January HHC meet. Garey won sectional titles in last year’s 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle. He was also a 200 IM winner at the conference meet.
Murphy, is the defending champion in the 100 backstroke. Gray, Garey, and Murphy were all part of sectional champion relays in the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle.
All will be top seeds this weekend in the events they won a year ago.
“They know what it is and they know how to handle it,” Grieshop said of his three veterans. “They can definitely lead the other kids and help them stay focused, stay on task yet enjoy the atmosphere. There is no other meet like a high school sectional meet, especially on Saturday finals. If you had to say what’s the difference maker, it’s having that leadership.”
Greenfield-Central has the only other county returning champion in Alex Jahrsdoerfer, who won last season’s 1-meter diving competition.
Event champions in swimming will qualify for next week’s state finals at the IU Natatorium in downtown Indianapolis.
Any swimmer who equals or betters the state time standard in their respective event in Saturday’s consolation or championship finals also qualifies along with the next fastest number of swimmers in the state that would bring each event to 32 entrants.
There are 20 sectionals statewide.
The top four divers will advance to Tuesday’s Plainfield Regional, where the top eight will move on to the state meet.
Jahrsdoerfer turned in the top finish, of Hancock County competitors, at last year’s state meet. He qualified for the diving semifinals and finished 19th overall. In swimming, Garey had the top state-meet finish, placing 22nd in the 200 IM.
New Palestine Boys Swimming and Diving Sectional
Teams: Centerville, Connersville, Eastern Hancock, Greenfield-Central, Hagerstown, Mt. Vernon, New Castle, New Palestine, Richmond, Seton Catholic, Shelbyville
Start Times: Today, 5:30 p.m. (preliminaries); Saturday, 9 a.m. (diving), 1 p.m. (finals).
Admission: $7 per session; $12 all sessions. Children age 5 and younger admitted free.
Defending champion: Mt. Vernon
