Johnson County was again well represented at the Indiana Swimming Age Group Long Course Championships, which concluded Sunday at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. Three locals reached the top of the podium in individual events, led by double winner Jayden Xia of Center Grove Aquatic Club.
Xia was the 11-12 boys champion in the 100 butterfly, finishing with a time of 1:03.05, and followed up Sunday evening with a win in the 200 fly (2:21.14). Xia was also second in the 200 IM (2:34.25), third in the 100 breaststroke (1:21.68) and fourth in the 50 butterfly (30.26). He finished the meet with a team-leading 99 points.
Quinn Zarse of Franklin Regional Swim Team was the county’s first champion of the weekend, winning the 10 and under boys 50-meter breaststroke on Friday afternoon with a time of 40.76 seconds. Zarse added to his medal collection by placing second in the 100 breast (1:30.07), third in the 200 individual medley (2:54.41) and 50 backstroke (37.87), and fourth in the 50 butterfly (36.77) and 100 backstroke (1:22.05). He scored 99 points, third among all 10U boys at the meet and tied with Xia for best among county competitors.
Teammate Trevor Smith also claimed gold, out-touching Elkhart’s Landon Williams to win the 11-12 boys 400 freestyle in 4:41.97. Smith picked up a second-place finish in the 200 backstroke (2:30.35) and was third in the 200 free (2:13.84) on the way to an 82-point weekend.
Other multiple medalists for FRST included Lucas Stephon (90 points), Oliver Inabnit (72) and Landon O’Leary (65). Smith, Stephon and Inabnit helped lead Franklin’s 11-12 boys to a pair of top-three relay finishes, teaming with Braeden McKalips to take third in the 200 medley relay on Saturday and second in the 200 freestyle relay on Sunday. FRST wound up eighth in the overall team standings, totaling 584 points.
CGAC 12-year-old Savannah Jahnke was the county’s top scoring female swimmer, totaling 84.5 points. She earned a runner-up finish in the girls 100 freestyle (1:02.39), was third in the 100 butterfly (1:09.38) and fourth in the 50 fly (31.14), 50 free (29.37) and 200 free (2:20.44). Center Grove also got a pair of runner-up finishes from Mason Bridges, who was second among 13-14 boys in both the 100 and 200 butterfly with respective times of 1:01.06 and 2:16.25. Bridges scored 35 points for CGAC, which finished the meet in 12th place with 436.5 points.
