Lebanon sweeps dual with Tri-West
Dec. 7—The Lebanon swimming and diving teams had no problems in sweeping Tri-West in a dual meet on Thursday.
The boys won 96-80 and the girls won 93-58.
After a tough three-way meet with Crawfordsville and Danville on Tuesday, Lebanon head coach Craig Howe liked the way his team bounced back on Thursday.
"It's nice to have all these conference meets before the actual conference meet to kind of measure where we are at," Howe said. "I think Tuesday's meet gave us areas to learn and improve on, and gave me talking points in practice — mainly turns in the water because we swam well — because those little things make a difference."
Although it had just been a couple of days, Howe said he saw the improvement from his group already.
The Tigers used the little time they had after school before the meet started to fine tune some things and it made a difference.
"We spent a good portion of that time after school on cleaning up turns and starts," Howe said. "Not just going through the motions, but putting power and emphasis in what they are doing."
The Lebanon boys got a win from the medley relay team of Taylor O'Brien, Parker Lawson, Grayson Goff and Tate DeLaRosa in a time of 1:52.58.
Goff followed that up with a win in the 200-free in a time of 1:56.21 and the 100-fly in 55.65. Ryden Vickery won diving with a score of 134.50, Tate DeLaRosa won the 500 in 5:45.25, and Lawson won the breaststroke in 1:14.28.
The 400-free relay team of Perrine, DeLaRosa, Howard and Goff won in 3:36.08.
Finishing runner-up for the Tigers were Lawson in the IM in 2:18.85, Camden Perrine in the 50-free in 23.32 and the 100-free in 51.85, the 200-free relay team of O'Brien, Lawson, Jack Howard and Perrine, and O'Brien in the backstroke in 1:03.01.
"Grayson had a great meet, and so did Tate," Howe said. "Camden Perrine dropped some of his best times. All the kids across the board are doing a great job of dropping time right now. We have some senior boys that are new and swimming things they have never done before, so when they drop a couple seconds, it's a step in the right direction."
The Lebanon girls got an early win from the medley relay team of Jessie Stevens, Anna Hale, Bea Johnson and Paige Howard in 2:07.01. Hale won the IM in 2:27.85 and breaststroke in 1:15.24, Johnson won the butterfly in 1:14.07, Howard won the 100-free in 1:00.63, the 200-free relay team of Stevens, Hale, Johnson and Howard won in 1:52.66, Stevens won the backstroke in 1:11.70 and the 400-free relay team of Madaline Luchetta, Chiara Vitale, Martita Sheets and Kylee Rodriguez won in 5:02.38.
Finishing runner-up for the Tigers were Howard in the 200-free in 2:21.07, Johnson in the 50 in 27.49, Madaline Luchetta was runner-up in the 500 in 7:41.33.
"We are still moving some girls around a little bit," Howe said. "Bea Johnson had a good meet, Paige Howard and Anna Hale had great meets and so did Jessie. We've got a lot of younger kids that are in some new events and they are doing a great job."
The Tigers have the Husky Invitational on Saturday, before traveling to Frankfort on Thursday.
Lebanon has just five meets before Christmas break and then it's onto championship season.
"It's kind of a weird season in how it fits with our Christmas break," Howe said. "The same week we come back is conference week. We are kind of measuring when to really get after it, and then when to get ready for conference. Right now, it's all coming together."
Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.
