INDIANAPOLIS — Better than expected.
Mt. Vernon’s Brady Gray and Greenfield-Central’s Alex Jahrsdoerfer finished off their high school swimming and diving careers by placing higher than their seedings at Saturday’s IHSAA Boys Swimming and Diving State Finals at the IU Natatorium.
Gray bounced back after a disappointing result in Friday’s preliminaries. On time, he qualified for Saturday’s A Final in the 50-yard freestyle, but he was tied with two other swimmers, resulting in a swim-off.
Finishing third in the swim-off, Gray swam in Saturday’s consolation final instead of the championship final.
He placed third in the race and 11th, overall, with a time of 21.28 seconds. He added a 12th place finish later in the 100 freestyle with a time of 47.33 seconds.
On Friday, Gray had a preliminary time of 21.03 seconds. It tied with two others for a top eight spot in the A final. With only eight slots available, Gray, Munster’s Isaac Martin and Bedford North Lawrence’s Cole Baker had a swim-off at the end of the preliminary meet. Gray missed out on the A Final by .02 seconds.
“Friday night, I was pretty upset at the end,” Gray said. “They said it was the first-ever three-way swim-off in IHSAA history. I was pretty disappointed, but by the end of the bus ride back to the school, I had a far more positive feeling about it and I was proud of what I had accomplished, no matter what.
“By Saturday morning I was excited about finishing strong. It was a little bit slower than Friday, which is typical, I was happy with the placing. In the original seedings I was 12th in the 50 and 17th in the 100, to improve off of those, I was pretty happy with that.”
It was Gray’s fourth straight year qualifying for the state finals. He qualified as part of a relay as a freshman and went both in individual races and relay races the last three years.
Saturday marked the end of his high school career. He said he plans on swimming in college, but is undecided on where he will attend.
“It’s definitely been a pretty special time,” Gray said of his high school swimming career. “I was in seventh grade when Brad (Grieshop) got hired as the high school coach. He was still my middle school coach then. I had him basically the whole time I was taking swimming seriously, so I’m pretty lucky for that.”
Gray had qualified for both the 50 and 100 each of the last three years. Saturday’s finishes were his best. In 2022, he finished 24th in both events and did not qualify for the Saturday’s finals.
Jahrsdoerfer was coming off a regional championship Tuesday at Plainfield. He reached the finals of the diving competition and finished 12th with 377.60 points. It was his best finish in three years as a state qualifier. He was 19th last year.
“I feel really happy with what I’ve accomplished,” Jahrsdoerfer said. “I improved from last year and I improved from my seeding (No. 15). All of my dives felt really good and it was a good day to compete. It was fun.”
Jahrsdoerfer said Monday, he currently does not have plans on competing at the collegiate level.
“It was definitely a great way to end my high school career,” Jahrsdoerfer said of his weekend at the state meet. “I was a lot more comfortable on those boards because I had been there before. I could tell some of the new freshmen that were there for the first time were a little nervous. It was nice having a familiar pool and environment to dive in and a good way to wrap up the season.”
Gray accounted for all 11 points for Mt. Vernon. The Marauders finished 32nd overall. Jahrsdoerfer’s five points gave Greenfield-Central a 37th place finish.
