Indian Creek’s Evan Schaub of Indian Creek swims the 500-yard freestyle during Wednesday’s meet at Whiteland.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Whiteland swim coach John Sincroft didn’t make any special efforts to play up the rivalry aspect of Wednesday’s home meet against county foes Greenwood and Indian Creek (outside of quietly naming it “Wednesday Night Dynamite” on the MeetMobile app, anyway).
But the annual three-way showdown featured some solid early-season swimming and a pretty tight finish — at least on the boys side, where the Braves totaled 106 points to defeat the Warriors (91) and Woodmen (86) by a narrow margin. The girls meet saw Whiteland outpoint Greenwood by a 140-128 score, with Indian Creek (34) well off the pace.
“This being our first home meet, they took it a little more seriously. The TV cameras and stuff, they were excited — a lot of fans here tonight. Good energy in the building,” Sincroft said. “Personally, I didn’t make it a point to make any sort of rivalry out of tonight’s dual meet; I think there’s just a little bit there naturally on the girls side.”
For the Warrior girls, Amelia Edens took first in the 200-yard individual medley (2:17.60) and Haley Achs won the 100 freestyle (1:01.77). Those two also joined Mallory Fields and Gwen Prellis on the the victorious 200 freestyle relay (1:46.67) and then teamed with Regan Smith and Karina Lopez to win the 400 free relay (4:14.91) as well.
Those relays and solid overall depth helped Whiteland outpoint Greenwood, which had more individual event wins.
“We’re doing a pretty good job of racing, and I think we had pretty good energy,” Sincroft said of his Warriors. “We have to work on closing out our races; we’ve got to work on some of the small details that we’ve got to clean up. The kids are working hard, they’re racing hard; we’ve just got to do a little better job of thinking during our races.”
The Woodmen girls got off to a strong start, getting a victory from the 200-yard medley relay quartet of Maddie Johnson, Eleanor Guipe, Naomi Weaver and Hailey Peckinpaugh (2:01.26) and then another from Ryann Marker in the 200 freestyle (2:09.61).
Weaver narrowly prevailed in the best race of the night, going 1:01.79 to beat Edens by nine hundredths of a second in the 100 butterfly, and she also took first in the 100 backstroke (1:03.17). Peckinpaugh was a winner in the 50 freestyle (26.76) as well as the 500 free (5:45.90), while Eleanor Guipe took the 100 breaststroke (1:13.41).
The Braves’ lone first-place finish on the girls side came from Ella Taylor in diving (242.30).
Indian Creek had more success in the boys meet. The quartet of Garrett Bolin, Eli Botts, Evan Dennis and Evan Schaub got the train rolling by winning the medley relay in a time of 1:53.05, and that same foursome wound up clinching the meet by taking first in the closing 400 freestyle relay (3:44.06).
Dennis added individual victories in the 200 IM (2:14.31) and the 100 fly (56.25), while Botts won the 50 free (23.03) and the 100 breast (1:09.92).
“I’m real pleased, especially with our veterans,” Indian Creek coach David Martin said. “They’re training hard, and they’re all ahead of where they were last year.”
The Warrior boys got a win in the 100 free from Julian Prescott (57.26), who teamed with Thomas Klenner, Davis Dwyer and Chase Cooper shortly thereafter to finish first in the 200 free relay (1:44.70).
Ethan Rose led Greenwood’s boys with first-place efforts in the 200 free (2:02.05) and 100 backstroke (1:01.79).
