Ellie Vagedes, Ellie Lewis living in the fast lane for Edgewood girls swimming

Edgewood coach Jeff Kohne sat his girls' swim team down before practice on Monday and like he does every year, goes through the psyche sheets for the upcoming sectional.

Like last year, a few of the swimmers were a bit shocked to find out they had a chance to make the finals as one of the higher seeds in their events. Unlike last year, sophomore Ellie Vagedes and junior Ellie Lewis were not in the group left a bit wide-eyed at the announcement.

Both had gone through the shock process last year and succeeded, Vagedes taking second in the 100 butterfly (as a second seed going in) and eighth in the backstroke while Lewis was eighth in the breaststroke and 12th in the 200 individual medley.

The duo came back this year, faster and better, grabbing three top-five seeds and a 12th seed, even while changing one of their events. And they are also a big reason why Edgewood has two relays seeded in the top four and another in the top eight.

That's a big step up for a program battling uphill every year against its bigger competition, especially from Bloomington, Columbus and East Central. But the team has grown in size lately, won a Western Indiana Conference title last year and came up just short this year.

"Freshman year, the team was much, much smaller," Lewis said. "So I was already excited with how big the team was last year. So it was super cool to see, coming off winning WIC, we were putting a lot of work into every day in practice and it felt amazing.

"Looking at where we were seeded and swimming A finals and competing and doing really well was definitely the high.”

The climb upward continues.

"They are kind of an inspiration," Kohne said. "They're not big. They're these small little girls still doing great things in the pool. It basically shows any of the girls that they can do it if they just put in the work."

Last year's experience with the atmosphere and the excitement is invaluable going forward.

"It was something new for me because I did club swim and usually prelims and finals are all in one day," Vagedes said. "So it was definitely different to be fresh for the Saturday finals, whereas in club meets I was used to being exhausted from swimming prelims and then straight to finals in four hours.

"Physically, I felt better, but I would say my stress levels were way higher because of the waiting."

Vagedes working with goals in mind

Both Lewis and Vagedes were experienced swimmers when they entered high school, spending their off-seasons with the AGON swim club.

Vagedes, who was one of the cross country team's top runners last fall, has always been goal driven. She broke school records in junior high and is doing the same again, recently taking down the Mustangs' 200 free mark.

Which spurred a change of plans for her at the sectional. She'll still do the fly like last year, looking to see how much ground she can make up against Bloomington North standout senior Ashley Freel. She's seeded second at 1:01.38, already better than her time from last year's finals. But she's traded the back for the 200 free and she is seeded third at 2:02.05.

"Vagedes came in, 'I want to break this record. I want to do this,'" Kohne said. "So we ran with it in the beginning. I have a lot of girls who are here and they work hard and do amazing things, but they're here for other reasons, and that's fine. I help everybody try to get their goals.

"But Ellie's always been focused on what she wants and we try to do that as long as it's not a determent to the team. And she understands that. She wants to get to a certain place and she works at it. So this year, we switched her back to the 200 free, and by seedings, that's a good thing. She's not that far out of first place."

Vagedes upped her training load in the off-season, coming in before school three days a week. She was close to the 200 free record when the season began, so she went for it and got it.

"We realized that I could swim the 200 free better than I could the 100 back," Vagedes said. "And I had a better chance to place higher at sectionals."

Lewis accidentally finds a new lane

Lewis, like Vagedes, didn't get as much as she wanted out of her off-season either when training issues cropped up, but she refuses to be held back by it.

"For me, it was mentally, I've not been performing at my absolute best in some of my events this season," Lewis said. "So being able to focus on my mentality and stay positive through it all, definitely has been a big thing I've been working on."

She's sticking with the 100 breast, where her seed time (1:16.53) is seeded fifth and also already faster than last year's sectional finals. But, she's ducking out of the IM to take on the 500 freestyle. It's a big change of plans, but her knees will be better for it, Kohne said.

She'd always wanted try it, but she didn't swim a competitive 500 until the last meet of the season against Bloomington North, but she did it so effortlessly in just under six minutes, it planted a seed.

"She swam it well and when she was done, she wasn't out of breath," Kohne said. "She could have done more and gone faster. So we took her out of the IM and that will take a lot of pressure off her knees. In fact, I'm still thinking about not putting her in the medley relay so she's only breaststroking in the one event."

She's seeded 12th, but, her time is just six seconds from eighth. And if she attacks the race better, the A Final is not an unreasonable goal.

"I've never trained distance, so this week, its been rough," Lewis said.

"We'll see what happens," Kohne said. "I hope it's not too crazy of an idea."

Mustangs hoping for tsunami

If Edgewood made some waves last year, it's looking for something bigger this year.

The Mustangs were seventh at 120 points last year, their highest point total since 153 in 2014. The Mustangs will have 12 swims that are seeded in the top 16 and a few more who could break through to the finals. It's kind of uncharted territory so Kohne is reminding them to just swim the way they have all year and let the rest fall into place.

"Twelve is more than I've had in years," Kohne said. "Maybe 2008? And we're close to a few relay records. It's been a good season.

"Our goal is to get fifth, getting as many girls in top 16 as possible and getting our relays and I think we have a shot at it,"

Sectional lowdown

The sectional location has been moved to East Central this year, like the boys meet was last year.

Preliminaries are Thursday at 6 p.m. with the top eight advancing to the A Finals and the next eight to the B Finals on Saturday, starting at 1:30 p.m. The winner of each event and those who meet the state standard advance to the state finals.

All diving competition will start Saturday at 9:30 a.m. with the top four advancing to the Jasper Regional on Tuesday.

Tickets are online only at: https://websites.eventlink.com/s/ihsaa/Tickets.

Defending champs back include South sophomore Harper Eakin in the 200 and 500 frees and junior Anna Asplund in the 100 freestyle and North's Ashley Freel in the backstroke and butterfly. They occupy the No. 1 seeds in those same events again. South freshman Emily Wang is the top seed in the breaststroke.

The Panthers will be the strong team title favorites. They have the top times in all three relays and boast three swimmers among the top-10 seeds in the 50, 100, 200 and 500 frees, back, fly and 200IM.

EAST CENTRAL SECTIONAL TOP SEEDS

Participating teams: Bloomington North, Bloomington South, Edgewood, Batesville, Columbus East, Columbus North, East Central, Lawrenceburg, Milan, Oldenburg Academy, Rising Sun, South Dearborn, South Ripley.

State standard in parenthesis.

50 freestyle (24.19): 1. Elizabeth McKitt, SR, 25.38; 2. Riley Reany, EC, 25.52; 4. Lucy Tait, BS, 26.54; 6. Ambra Marchionne, BS, 26.66.

100 freestyle (52.62): 1. Anna Asplund, BS, 53.55; 2. Audrey Bumgardner, EC, 56.93; 6. Sara Buehler, BN, 58.42; 7. Marchionnne, BS, 58.65; 8. Tait, BS, 59.60.

200 freestyle (1:54.10): 1. Harper Eakin, BS, 1:59.89; 2. Jullian Bley, EC, 2:01.38; 3. Ellie Vagedes, Edg, 2:02.05; 5. Campbell Warren, BS, 2:05.59; 6. Buehler, BN, 2:07.40; 7. Abagail Smith, BS, 2:08.97.

500 freestyle (5:08.30): 1. Eakin, BS, 5:10.71; 2. Connelly Furnish, CE, 5:19.03; 4. Warren, BS, 5:35.20; 5. Smith, BS, 5:41.24; 6. Kate Thies, BN, 5:48.10; 7. Adriana Terry, BN, 5:50.50.

100 backstroke (57.39): 1. Ashley Freel, BN, 57.57; 2. Asplund, BS, 57.81; 3. Kate Seidenfaden, BS, 1:03.19; 6. Thies, BN, 1:05.40.

100 breaststroke (1:05.91): 1. Emily Wang, BS, 1:08.77; 2. Ainsley Sherlock, CN, 1:09.44; 3. Leona Wang, BN, 1:12.50; 5. Ellie Lewis, Edg, 1:16.53.

100 butterfly (57.19): 1. Freel, BN, 57.73; 2. Vagedes, Edg, 1:01.38; 3. Wang, BN, 1:04.10; 4. Tamara Kun, BS, 1:04.58; 6. Merlyn Rojas, BS, 1:05.62; 8. Sydney Garretson, BN, 1:08.70.

200 individual medley (2:08.34): 1. Connelly Furnish, CE, 2:18.65; 2. Seidenfaden, BS, 2:20.10; 3. Wang, BS, 2:21.35; 5. Kun, BS, 2:23.76.

200 medley relay (1:49.12): 1. Bloomington South, 1:55.22; 2. Lawrenceburg, 1:56.52; 3. Columbus North 1:57.81; 4. Bloomington North, 2:00.59; 7. Edgewood, 2:07.48.

200 freestyle relay (1:39.13): 1. Bloomington South, 1:45.47; 2. Columbus North, 1:45.96; 3. Columbus East, 1:47.88; 4. East Central, 1:48.00; 5. Edgewood, 1:49.56; 6. Bloomington North, 1:53.35.

400 freestyle relay (3:36.46): 1. Bloomington South, 3:46.81; 2. Bloomington North, 3:51.34; 3. East Central, 4:00.00; 4. Edgewood, 4:01.48.

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Edgewood swimming: Ellie Vagedes, Ellie Lewis living in the fast lane