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Girls swimming: Strong start for Bloomington South in sectional prelims

jim gordillo, the herald-times
·6 min read

The Bloomington South girls' swim team got off to a great start in the preliminaries of the East Central Sectional on Thursday in St. Leon.

The Panthers will bring back 23 of their 24 swims, missing the only one due to a disqualification, and put 21 of them in A Finals. Bloomington North will return 20 swims with nine in A Finals and Edgewood will have a lineup of 10 swims, missing out in only one event, with three in the A Finals.

The finals are Saturday with diving starting at 9:30 a.m. and swimming events at 1:30 p.m. The winners and those who meet the state standard automatically advance to the state finals.

South nabbed the top spot in each of the freestyle events as Harper Eakin was fastest in the 200 (1:59.27) and 500 (5:11.65) while Anna Asplund was No. 1 in the 100 (54.07) and Lucy Tait led the field in the 50 with a 25.48. The Panthers were also tops in the medley relay (1:55.43) and 400 free relay (3:52.56) and tied with Columbus North in the 200 free relay (1:45.78).

South's Harper Eakin swims the Girl's 500 Yard Freestyle race during the 2024 Counsilman Classic Swimming & Diving Meet between the Bloomington North Cougars and Bloomington South Panthers at Bloomington High School South Natatorium on January 13, 2024
South's Harper Eakin swims the Girl's 500 Yard Freestyle race during the 2024 Counsilman Classic Swimming & Diving Meet between the Bloomington North Cougars and Bloomington South Panthers at Bloomington High School South Natatorium on January 13, 2024

South also has a bevy of top four seeds: Kate Seidenfaden is second in the 200 IM and fourth in the back; Asplund is second in the back; Ambra Marchionne is second in the 100 free and Emily Wang is second in the breast.

The Panthers also had swimmers drop considerable time to move into the A Finals after being seeded on the outside. Nora Borneman went from 12th in the breast to seventh; Merlyn Rosas went from ninth to seventh in the 50 free and Leighton Huffman went from 10th to eight in the back.

North's Ashley Freel was the top qualifier in the butterfly (57.85) and back (57.90). The Cougar relays were third in the 200 medley, third in the 400 free and seventh in the 200 free. Leona Wang was third in the breast and fly and Kate Thies was fourth in the 500 free.

Helena Lahe went from 18th seed to 16th in the 100 free, Iria Perez went from 17th to 14th in the 50 free with a drop from 29.27 to 27.99 and Ella deWeber, a 12th seed in the 200 free, dropped six seconds to come in ninth.

Edgewood's Ellie Vagedes was second in the fly (1:01.66) and No. 3 in the 200 free (2:01.73) to make A Finals in both events while Ellie Lewis made the breaststroke A Final with a 1:17.31 for sixth. Lewis also dropped her 500 time to 5:49.39 to grab ninth (needing a 5:46 to make the top eight).

Making B Finals were Anna Doyle (200IM, breast), Maya Gill and Zhenia Venegas (50 free), Jaelyn Woodcock (fly) and Cora Emmons (back). In the relays, Edgewood placed fourth in the 200 free, fifth in the 400 free and sixth in the 200 medley.

EAST CENTRAL GIRLS' SWIMMING SECTIONAL PRELIMINARIES RESULTS

Top 8 to the A Final, next 8 to the B Final

Competing schools: Bloomington North, Bloomington South, Edgewood, Batesville, Columbus East, Columbus North, East Central, Greensburg, Lawrenceburg, Milan, Oldenburg Academy, Rising Sun, South Dearborn, South Ripley.

50 freestyle: 1. Lucy Tait, BS, 25.48; 2. Riley Reany, EC, 25.54; 3. Elizabeth McKittrick, SR, 26.01; 5. Ambra Marchionne, BS, 26.17; 7. Merlyn Rosas, BS, 26.33. (10. Sydney Garretson, BN, 26.69; 11, Maya Gill, Edg, 27.43; 14. Iria Perez, BN, 27.99; 16. Zhenia Venegas, Edg, 28.37). 17. Jaelyn Woodcock, Edg, 28.79; 29. Zocia Surzycki, BN, 32.88.

100 freestyle: 1. Anna Asplund, BS, 54.07; 2. Marchionne, BS, 56.62; 3. Katie Frazier, CN, 56.53; 5. Tait, BS 57.43; 7. Sara Buehler, BN, 58.23. (10. Ella deWeber, BN, 59.59; 16. Helena Lehr, BN, 1:01.03). 17. Gill, Edg, 1:01.52; 18. Venegas, Edg, 1:03.93; 20. Ellie Emmons, Edg, 1:04.39.

200 freestyle: 1. Harper Eakin, BS, 1:59.27; 2. Jillian Bley, EC, 2:00.61; 3. Ellie Vagedes, Edg, 2:01.73 (school record; old record, 2:02.05, Vagedes, 2024); 5. Buehler, BN, 2:06.02; 7. Campbell Warren, BS, 2:07.68; 8. Abagail Smith, BS, 2:08.02. (9. deWeber, BN, 2:09.10; 10. Addison Covey, BN, 2:11.57). 19. E.Emmons, Edg, 2:21.29; 20. Marilyn Ballard, Edg, 2:29.59.

500 freestyle: 1. Eakin, BS, 5:11.65; 2. Connelly Furnish, CE, 5:18.54; 3. Bley, EC, 5:27.95; 4. Kate Thies, BN, 5:41.08; 5. Smith, BS, 5:41.45; 7. Warren, BS, 5:43.00. (9. Ellie Lewis, Edg, 5:49.39; 11. Covey, BN, 5:53.81; 14. Adriana Terry, BN, 5:58.94). 20. Sophia Kapperman, Edg, 6:35.87; 21. Lillian Allcock, Edg, 6:38.64.

100 backstroke: 1. Ashley Freel, BN, 57.90; 2. Asplund, BS, 59.26; 3.Reany, EC, 1:02.80; 4. Kate Seidenfaden, BS, 1:03.27; 6. Thies, BN, 1:04.20; 8. Leighton Huffman, 1:07.89. (9. Elizabeth Sereda, BN, 1:08.76; 15. Coralin Emmons, Edg, 1:13.95); 19. Nayeli Young, Edg, 1:16.09; 23. Cora Lewis, 1:21.34.

100 breaststroke: 1. Ainsley Sherlock, CN, 1:07.95; 2. Emily Wang, BS, 1:09.40; 3. Leona Wang, BN, 1:10.67; 6. E.Lewis, Edg, 1:17.31; 7. Nora Borneman, BS, 1:17.47. (11. Chloe Nguyen, BS, 1:18.42; 14. Haley Youseif, BN, 1:23.46; 16. Annalise Doyle, Edg, 1:24.36.) 17. Josephine Arthur, BN, 1:26.40; 21. Allison Lilley, Edg, 1:29.42

100 butterfly: 1. Freel, BN, 57.85; 2. E.Vagedes, Edg, 1:01.66; 3. L.Wang, BN, 1:02.28; 5. Rojas, BS, 1:03.83; 6. Tamara Kun, BS, 1:05.14; 7. Garretson, BN, 1:05.83. (11. Lorelei Held, BS, 1:08.95; 15. Jaelyn Woodcock, Edg, 1:18.08). 19. Chloe Purcell, Edg, 1:36.71.

200 individual medley: 1. Furnish, CE, 2:15.06; 2. Seidenfaden, BS, 2:19.71; 3. Sherlock, CN, 2:20.53; 4, E.Wang, BS, 2:20.85. (12. Sereda, BN, 2:36.40; 13. Lehr, BN, 2:36.48; 15. Doyle, Edg, 2:48.01). 17. Young, Edg, 2:48.91; 18. Makayla Buffum, BN, 2:50.38; 19. C.Lewis, Edg, 2:53.58. Kun, BS, DQ.

200 medley relay: 1. Bloomington South (Asplund, Wang, Seidenfaden, Tait), 1:55.43; 2. Columbus North, 1:55.69; 3. Bloomington North (Thies, Wang, Freel, Terry), 1:57.62; 4. East Central, 2:03.24; 6. Edgewood (C.Emmons, E.Lewis, Madeline Porter, Woodcock), 2:09.62.

200 freestyle relay: 1. Columbus North, 1:45.78; Bloomington South (Tait, Marchionne, Warren, Eakin), 1:45.78; 3. Columbus East, 1:47.11; 4. Edgewood (Venegas, Woodcock, Gill, Vagedes), 1:50.77; 7. Bloomington North (deWeber, Lehr, Terry, Covey), 1:56.17.

400 freestyle relay: 1. Bloomington South (Eakin, Marchionne, Warren, Seidenfaden), 3:52.56; 2. Columbus East, 3:58.93; 3. Bloomington North (Thies, Lehr, Covey, deWeber), 4:02.68; 5. Edgewood (Gill, Venegas, E.Lewis, Vagedes), 4:06.24.

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

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Strong start for Bloomington South in girls' swimming sectional prelims