By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — Checking off preseason goals was the main takeaway at this year’s New Palestine Boys Swimming and Diving Sectional.
For three Hancock County schools, that goal meant different things.
Greenfield-Central sent two divers through to the regional round, Mt. Vernon advanced six events to the state championships, and New Palestine took home the first sectional title in school history.
The Dragons’ 400 points outpaced two-time defending champs Mt. Vernon (314) and was over 100 more points than third-place Richmond (288) and fourth-place Greenfield-Central (264).
“Amazing, it’s absolutely amazing,” New Palestine head coach Chris Kingery said. “Big thanks to (athletic director) Mr. (Al) Cooper and (former assistant athletic director) Mr. (Jeff) Wright for hiring me two years ago, and thanks to all my coaches for just being here all season.”
While it was the Marauders taking first place in six events to qualify for the state finals, it was the depth of the New Palestine roster that was the key in them overtaking their county rival.
The Dragons had 22 swimmers in the championship finals and many more in the consolation finals.
“Our depth and our talent. These kids have been working hard all season long, and they’ve wanted this,” Kingery said. “This is what their goal was as a team at the beginning of the season, and getting second at (the Hoosier Heritage Conference meet) gave them a lot of confidence to get this done.”
For New Palestine, their best finishes came in the 200-yard medley relay, the 200 freestyle relay, and the 100 breaststroke.
In the 200 medley, the team of Dawson Lynch, Aidan Kingery, Liam Fuller and Chase Martin swam a 1:42.99 for second place. The 200 free relay team of Fuller, Martin, Ashton Turner and Dontae Thompson swam a 1:32.55 for the runner-up spot, and in the 100 breaststroke the Dragons took second, third and fourth place. Kingery finished just ahead of Martin, and freshman Blake Hurst.
Cade Rodgers and Aiden Stephens added to the Dragons point total with second- and fourth-place finishes in the 1-meter diving event. The top four finish qualified them for today’s Plainfield Regional.
Joining those two at the regional will be two Greenfield-Central divers, Alexander Jahrsdoerfer and Gabriel Hall.
Jahrsdoerfer defended his sectional title with a final score of 365.75, beating Rodgers by 75 points.
While the Dragons and Cougars look to today’s diving regional, Mt. Vernon has its focus on the IU Natatorium.
Last season, the Marauders advanced seven events to the state finals. This time around they have six, with many of the same swimmers returning.
“It was a goal from the get-go to get to state and to have those swims down there,” Mt. Vernon head coach Brad Grieshop said. “We had an idea of what could make it down and where we were at. Ultimately, we did get those goals, but we still have a few more to meet next week.”
Both relays from last season — the 200 free and 400 free — qualified again with nearly the same lineup. Adison Mayes is the newcomer on a team of Brady Gray, Ethan Murphy, and Matthew Garey. The team swam a time of 1:29.63 for first in the 200 and 3:17.41 in the 400.
Gray, Garey and Murphy are the three individual qualifiers for the Marauders, with each defending their sectional titles from last season.
Gray qualified in both the 50 free and 100 free, Garey took the top spot in the 200 individual medley, and Murphy took first in the 100 backstroke.
Gray set two school records with times of 21.18 seconds in the 50 free and 47.10 seconds in the 100, Garey finished with a time of 2:00.47 in the 200 IM and Murphy had a time of 54.60 in the 100 backstroke.
“We were short in a few spots, but you can’t take anything away from what New Pal did, they swam fantastic,” Grieshop said. “They had a few more swims than we did, but at the end of the day they swam great, and we have six wins and will be down at state next week, so we’re still meeting our goals. It’s just one more week now to keep checking those goals off.”
The first sectional title in school history is just step one for the New Palestine program in the hopes of having some of those same goals that Mt. Vernon does.
“This was the goal for this year,” Kingery said. “Now we will reset the goals for next year to try to be the Mt. Vernon and get people to state.”
The top swimming finishes for Greenfield-Central were Colton Mayberry with a second-place finish in the 200 IM, Jaeden Peters with second in the 500 free and a third-place finish by the 400 free relay team of Mayberry, Peters, Michael and Tyler Swango.
Eastern Hancock’s Kyle Messer placed fourth in the 200 IM and sixth in the 500 free.
