By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — Improving on last year’s results will be the main goal for Hancock County participants in this weekend’s IHSAA Boys Swimming and Diving State Finals.
Mt. Vernon swimmers and Greenfield-Central’s Alex Jahrsdoerfer return to the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis looking to find themselves higher up on the final results.
“We want to improve on our finishes from last year,” Mt. Vernon head coach Brad Grieshop said. “The boys have always been eyeing what it takes to be a top 16 swim, or potentially a top eight finish at the state meet, so I know that’s on their list.”
The Marauders advanced in six events at last weekend’s New Palestine Sectional and bring nearly the same swimmers from the last time around.
Seniors Brady Gray, Matthew Garey, and Ethan Murphy are all returners in individual events, as well as members of the two returning relay teams.
In the 200-yard freestyle and 400 free, the trio will be joined by first-time state participant Adison Mayes, who takes the spots left by Jack Champion (200) and Caleb Strege (400).
“It’s especially helpful to a new incoming swimmer in Adison Mayes who hasn’t experienced a high school meet like this before,” Grieshop said. “Just having these guys on deck, and people that he looks up to on deck with him to experience it all with him. Really all our seniors are down there as a last hurrah whether in the relays or alternates, we have our whole senior class there going out on the top.”
Last season, the relay teams placed 30th in both events. This time, they come in seeded 29th in the 200 free and 25th in 400 free.
“In terms of the relays, we’re just looking at, do we have that chance to make it back and have a relay that can score this time.” Greishop said.
Individually, the three seniors will look to put together a higher finish as well. Garey led the Marauders with the highest finish last season, 22nd place in the 200 individual medley as well as 30th in the 500 free. He was followed by Gray with 24th place finishes in the 50 and 100 free, and Murphy with a 32nd place finish in the 100 backstroke.
“They’re just high school guys. Their confidence is there, their understanding of what is going on is there,” Grieshop said. “Just their understanding of what it is from sectional to state and how all of that works, just controlling their emotions and their swims so they have more left for state.”
Gray comes in seeded much higher than his placements from a year ago. In the 50 free, he comes in seeded 12th with a time of 21.18 and seeded 17th in the 100 free with a time of 47.10.
Both are improvements from last year’s times of 21.64 and 47.88.
“Really just looking for him to improve upon last year. We want to be in that top 16 and going for the top eight swims,” Grieshop said. “This year he’s back, and he understands what it takes at the higher caliber meets, and I know he’s in a good spot going in this year.”
His seed times have him placed right on the top-16 qualifying line. The top 16 times at Friday’s prelims will advance to either Saturday’s championship finals or consolation finals.
For Garey, this time around, he will be competing in a lone individual event — the 200 IM. He comes in seeded 28th with a time of 2:00.47.
Murphy enters the 100 backstroke, seeded 32nd, with a time of 54.60.
Grieshop expects the state final experience of the trio to be a big factor in hopefully improving on those placements.
“It’s priceless. Just having the experience and getting down there and already knowing what it’s like,” Grieshop said. “Especially with having Ethan, Brady and Matthew all swimming in individual events last year, plus relays last year. Brady was on the relay team that broke the school record and finished 13th two years ago at state, so that experience is invaluable.”
While Mt. Vernon returns the county participants in the swimming events, Greenfield-Central’s Jahrsdoerfer holds that honor in the diving portion of the meet.
With a first-place finish (the first in school history) at Tuesday’s Plainfield Diving Regional the G-C senior qualified for his third consecutive state finals.
His 11-dive score of 375.95 was good enough for the top spot, and has him heading to the IU Natatorium in a position he hasn’t been in before.
In his sophomore season he placed just inside the eighth-place qualifying line in seventh, and last year he placed fourth.
He had the best finish of county competitors at last year’s state finals with a 19th place finish and a score of 272.45.
All diving will take place on Saturday, with the top 20 of 32 competitors advancing from the prelims to the semis after five dives each. After three dives each in the semis, the top 16 will advance to the final round for another three dives each.
The preliminary swimming round begins Friday at 6 p.m. The top 16 in each event will advance to Saturday’s finals beginning at 1 p.m. Diving prelims begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday with the semifinals after, and the finals to take place during the swimming at 1 p.m.
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2023 IHSAA Boys Swmming and Diving State Finals
Time: Friday 6 p.m., swimming preliminaries. Saturday 9 a.m., diving preliminaries and 1 p.m. championship/consolation finals in all swimming event and diving
Site: Indiana University Natatorium, IUPUI, 901 W. New York St., Indianapolis
Information: $10 per session or $19 both days general admission. Children 5 years and younger admitted free for general admission only. All tickets are digital only. All competition will be streamed live at IHSAAtv.org via pay-per-view for $10 for Friday’s preliminaries only or $15 for both days.
Event order: 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestlye, 200-yard IM, 50-yard freestlye, 1-meter diving, 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle relay, 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke, 400-yard freestyle relay
