Greenwood and Whiteland both have some lofty goals for this winter, and the two county and Mid-State Conference rivals often end up using one another as a measuring stick. On Wednesday evening, both sides came away with reasons for optimism.
Competing in their annual triple dual meet with host Indian Creek, the Woodmen boys edged the Warriors by an 89-83 score, while Whiteland’s girls topped Greenwood, 98-74.
“I think our kids did a really good job going back to back after last night’s meet,” Whiteland coach John Sincroft said. “I think we showed some toughness I didn’t know was there. I’m just really looking forward to watching them grow. We’ve got a lot of young kids, a lot of potential. I just think we use tonight as a springboard in moving forward.”
The Woodmen started the evening off by taking first in both medley relays. The girls team of Emma Tschopp, Eleanor Guipe, Annie Chrisman and Tatum Syers finished with a time of 2:14.54, while the boys quartet of Ethan Rose, Emmanuel Jackson, Arya Gokhale and Lucas Young hit the wall in 1:49.02.
Guipe chased down Whiteland’s Erynn Price on the back half to win the 200-yard individual medley (2:32.90) and was later victorious in the 100 breaststroke (1:15.04). Hailey Peckinpaugh was first in the 200 freestyle (2:09.03) and Ryann Marker picked up a win in the 500 free (5:51.26).
The Warrior girls picked up momentum as the meet went on, though. They got individual first-place efforts from Mallory Fields in the 50 freestyle (25.98), Sienna Delagrange in the 100 fly (1:07.12), Price in the 100 free (1:00.06) and Alexis Dyer in the 100 backstroke (1:12.21). Price, Kate Barnes, Delagrange and Fields teamed up to win the 200 free relay in 1:50.13 and then finished the meet by taking the 400 free relay in 4:02.74.
For Greenwood’s boys, Gokhale was victorious in the 200 IM (2:17.84) and 500 freestyle (5:31.94). Jackson won the 50 free (23.02) and 100 breast (1:06.69). Rose took first in the 100 butterfly (1:02.44). Those three and Young won the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:38.51.
Chase Cooper was a winner for the Warrior boys in the 200 free (1:59.44) and the 100 free (53.79), and he joined Davis Dwyer, Logan Papandria and Mason Benefield on the winning 400 freestyle relay (3:49.02).
Indian Creek’s lone swimming win came from freshman Jack Sopko in the boys 100 backstroke (1:06.33), but the Braves did sweep the 1-meter diving competition. Ella Taylor, a state medalist last winter as a junior, posted a six-dive score of 250.20 to head up a 1-2 finish for the girls along with Alex Pfaehler (211.10), while the Braves’ Skyler Jasper edged Whiteland’s Noah Grady by a razor-thin margin of 190.80 to 190.55 on the boys side.
Like Sincroft, Greenwood coach Brooke Gilles was hoping to use Wednesday’s meet to get a better handle on her team’s strengths and where it can improve between now and the championship meets ahead.
“This meet right here really helps us gauge it a little better,” she said, “because it is kind of a close rivalry; it always has been. … It kind of gives me a good gauge of where we’re at and then where we’re going to be after the county — because obviously we swim against them at county, conference and sectionals, things like that.”
All three teams will be competing against one another again on Dec. 16 during the Johnson County meet at Center Grove.
