BOYS SWIM: School-record swim highlights sectional prelims

Feb. 16—Western's boys swim team set a school record to highlight the local showing in Thursday's preliminary round of the Carmel Sectional, which is headlined by nine-time defending state champion Carmel.

The top eight swimmers or relay teams in each preliminary event qualified for Saturday's championship finals, and the next eight reached the consolation finals.

Western had several strong swims topped by second-place finishes in the 200-yard medley relay and 200 freestyle relay. Noah Broyles, Charlie Brewer, Kole Shock and Avery Berryman clocked 1:38.01 in the medley relay and Shock, Berryman, Ashton Tso and Noah Broyles clocked 1:30.75 in the 200 free relay.

"We kicked off the meet with that medley relay breaking the school record that had stood since 1984. That was the team that was the state runner-up. You can't start off any better than that," Western coach Brad Bennett said. "I'm really excited about the 200 free relay. Those guys swam a great race. They're within less than a second from the school record and they have more gas in the tank."

The Panthers took sixth in the 400 free relay with Wyatt Edwards, Gavin Bourff, Tso and Brewer posting a time of 3:31.33.

Individually, Shock, Edwards and Brewer earned spots in championship finals. Shock was fifth in the 100 butterfly (:53.95) and seventh in the 50 free (:22.71), Edwards was eighth in the 100 backstroke (:56.95) and Brewer was eighth in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.12).

"Kole Shock had an amazing meet. He's just smooth. He looks like he's ready to go for Saturday," Bennett said.

Western earned an additional 16 individual spots in consolation finals.

"The goal of the night was to do what we're supposed to do as far as guys swimming their seed times and their goal times. We blew that out of the water. I think we had around 34 season-best swims. Just guys all through the lineup dropping huge times," Bennett said.

Northwestern qualified one individual and all three relays for championship finals. Sam Martin was eighth in the 50 free (:22.73) and seventh in the 100 butterfly (:55.07). The 200 medley relay team of Preston DeWitt, Parks Ortman, Martin and Bryan Burkhalter was sixth (1:46.82). The 200 free relay team of Landon Munoz, Kai Shoaff, Logan Phillips and Maverick Harrell was sixth (1:41.06). And the 400 free relay team of Martin, Burkhalter, DeWitt and Ortman was fifth (3:31.06).

The Tigers also earned 12 spots in individual consolation finals.

"I'm super pleased," Northwestern coach Donita Walters said. "Right out of the gate, we were just lifetime [best time], lifetime, lifetime. The boys just looked like taper was 100 percent on target. They looked really good in the pool this week and they executed. The exciting thing was there were some things we saw [Thursday] that we can go back in and tweak, to try to find a little more speed for Saturday."

Like Northwestern, Maconaquah also qualified one individual and all three relays for championship finals. Garrett McManus was sixth in the 50 free. The 200 medley relay team of Aiden Ousley, Cole Nye, Ryley Rodkey and P.J. Higgins was seventh. The 200 free relay team of Zach Duke, Higgins, Isaac Lorenz and McManus was fourth. And the 400 free relay team of Rodkey, Ousley, McManus and Lorenz was seventh.

Eastern put two relays into championship finals. Philip Beedham, Zander Forman, Obi Greene and Grant Kerns finished seventh in the 200 free relay (1:43.32) and Caden Kerns, Beedham, Greene and Grant Kerns finished eighth in the 400 free relay (3:55.91).

Kokomo's 200 free relay team of Hayden Moore, Oliver Taskey, Isaac Flamino and Bryce Brassard took eighth (1:58.70).

CONSOLATION FINALS

For Western, Berryman was ninth in both the 50 free and 100 free, Broyles was ninth in the backstroke and Brewer was ninth in the 200 IM. In addition, Broyles was 11th in the 100 free.

Also for the Panthers, Tso was 12th in both the IM and breaststroke, Ethan Moore was 11th in the 500 free and 14th in the 200 free, Coley Bevington was 12th in the butterfly and 15th in the IM, Bourff was 14th in both the 50 free and 100 free, Ty Frazier was 15th in the 500 free and Landen Gibbs Whalen was 15th in the breaststroke.

Northwestern's DeWitt was 11th in the 200 free and 13th in the backstroke. Also for the Tigers, Ortman was 11th in the IM and 13th in the breaststroke, Harrell was 13th in both the IM and 500 free, Munoz was 14th in the IM and 16th in the breaststroke, Shoaff was 14th in the butterfly and 16th in the 200 free, Burkhalter was 16th in the 100 free and Jonah Jones was 16th in the backstroke.

Maconaquah had three individuals make consolation finals: McManus was ninth in the 200 free; Nye was 15th in the butterfly and 10th in the breaststroke; and Ousley was 14th in backstroke.

Eastern's 200 medley relay team of Caden Kerns, Beedham, Greene and Forman made the consolation final. Grant Kerns and Caden Kerns each made consolation finals in two individual events. Grant Kerns was 12th in both the 50 free and 100 free and Caden Kerns was 14th in the 500 free and 15th in the 200 free.

Kokomo's Flamino was 10th in the butterfly and 15th in the 50 free.