The Hamilton Southeastern swim teams competed in the Homestead Invitational on Saturday.
The Royals boys placed third, scoring 421.5 points. Southeastern had three runner-up finishes: DJ Rogers placed second in the 50 freestyle, then swam on the two Royals runner-up relays, the medley with Blake Ratliff, Connor Harrison and Andrew Christopher and the 200 free relay with Christopher, Zack Bostock and Marcus Eden.
“For the swimmers, this was a really tough meet – bringing home third place equals last year, but there are still a lot of questions about how the championship lineup will shake out for our team,” said HSE coach Andy Pedersen. “This meet is an absolute slugfest with many of the best swimmers in the state competing for their schools. Most of the older and more experienced swimmers handled this very well while some of the younger guys got caught looking around and letting the meet pass them by. What a great opportunity for our team – there is no better way to prepare for the championships than by facing state level competition.”
In the girls meet, the Royals took fourth with 388 points. Southeastern placed second in four events. Individual second places were earned by Hannah Pugh in the butterfly, Molly Pedersen in the 100 free and Abby Harter in the backstroke. The three HSE swimmers teamed with Molly Robinson to take second in the medley relay.
“From a team perspective, this was a rough day for the Lady Royals swimmers – finishing fourth in this meet does not meet the historical standard for our program,” said Andy Pedersen. “All three teams finishing ahead of us are top 10 teams in the state, but we still wanted to be stronger today.””That does not mean there weren’t some outstanding performances and the enthusiasm was strong for the Lady Royals – fortunately this outcome makes our challenge moving forward very evident.
“There is no red flag here – the behavior of this team is solid and the character of these young ladies in incredible. We just got a real wake-up call from a perspective of what will be required to finish the season according to the team goals that they have set. The good news is that this group has some experienced leaders who have been down this road before – we will follow their lead and be back on track before the holiday break.”
GIRLS MEET
Team scores: Homestead 556, Chesterton 490, Northridge 389, Hamilton Southeastern 388, North Central 254, Yorktown 93.
200 medley relay: 2. Southeastern “A” (Abby Harter, Molly Robinson, Hannah Pugh, Molly Pedersen) 1:47.87, 8. Southeastern “B” (Olivia Harter, Katherine Kesler, DaBin Jung, Bri Saple) 1:53.62, 13. Southeastern “C” (Rebecca Ang, Ashley Baker, Kaleigh Stivers, Laura MacLafferty) 1:57.14.
200 freestyle: 5. Ellie Pedersen 2:00.23, T9. Kayleigh Witt 2:02.21, 16. Robinson 2:06.04.
200 individual medley: 5. Pugh 2:12.49, 8. A. Harter 2:13.63, 16. Ang 2:21.44.
50 freestyle: 4. Saple 24.91, 12. Witt 26.00, 16. E. Pedersen 26.49.
100 butterfly: 2. Pugh 57.76, 5. A. Harter 1:00.48, 7. Jung 1:01.28, 16. Ang 1:03.68.
100 freestyle: 2. M. Pedersen 53.22, 5. Saple 54.89, 13. E. Pedersen 56.47.
500 freestyle: 9. Witt 5:31.30, 15. Sloane Gardner 5:42.91.
200 freestyle relay: T3. Southeastern “A” (M. Pedersen, Pugh, Saple, Witt) 1:40.41, 11. Southeastern “B” (L. MacLafferty, E. Pedersen, Olivia Vicory, Brooke Ratliff) 1:48.51, 12. Southeastern “C” (Sophia Kegley, Sarah Juffer, Jung, Anna MacLafferty) 1:48.79.
100 backstroke: 2. A. Harter 58.24, 6. M. Pedersen 1:00.38, 7. Pugh 1:00.51, 12. O. Harter 1:01.38, 13. Ang 1:01.53.
100 breaststroke: 3. Robinson 1:08.07, 15. Baker 1:12.87.
400 freestyle relay: 4. Southeastern “A” (M. Pedersen, Saple, Robinson, A. Harter) 3:42.26, 13. Southeastern “B” (Witt, Vicory, L. MacLafferty, Juffer) 3:58.83, 15. Southeastern “C” (Gardner, Ratliff, Stivers, Kegley) 4:02.57.
BOYS MEET
Team score: Chesterton 742, Homestead 446.5, Hamilton Southeastern 421.5, Northridge 296, Yorktown 146, North Central 118.
200 medley relay: 2. Southeastern “A” (Blake Ratliff, DJ Rogers, Connor Harrison, Andrew Christopher) 1:37.06, 6. Southeastern “B” (Marcus Eden, Thomas Reising, Keegan Streett, Zack Bostock) 1:42.30, 11. Southeastern “C” (Evan Sellers, Justin Voelker, Ethan Forbes, Logan Hess) 1:48.25.
200 freestyle: 5. Streett 1:47.09, 12. Sellers 1:52.38, 15. Alex Kaminski 2:01.30.
200 individual medley: 5. Ratliff 1:59.11, 12. Harrison 2:05.63, 14. Eden 2:08.51, 15. Reising 2:10.29, 16. Voelker 2:12.34.
50 freestyle: 2. Rogers 21.94, 8. Christopher 23.17, 10. Z. Bostock 23.43, T11. Nick Bostock 23.55.
100 butterfly: 5. Harrison 54.04, 12. Christopher 56.57, 15. Reising 58.23.
100 freestyle: 3. Rogers 48.66, T8. Eden 51.37, 12. N. Bostock 52.15, 13. Z. Bostock 52.65.
500 freestyle: 8. Streett 4:57.34, 9. Ratliff 4:57.91, 12. Sellers 4:59.31, 16. Kaminski 5:28.86.
200 freestyle relay: 2. Southeastern “A” (Christopher, Z. Bostock, Eden, Rogers) 1:29.74, 6. Southeastern “B” (Harrison, N. Bostock, Streett, Forbes) 1:32.49, 13. Southeastern “C” (Kaminski, Holden Kesler, Laith Qadan, Logan Hess) 1:43.48.
100 backstroke: 3. Ratliff 53.33, 12. Christopher 59.36, 14. Sellers 59.93, 15. Forbes 1:00.34, 16. Eden 1:00.70.
100 breaststroke: 5. Rogers 1:01.49, 11. Reising 1:05.68, 13. Z. Bostock 1:06.02, 15. Voelker 1:06.75.
400 freestyle relay: 3. Southeastern “A” (Streett, Ratliff, Harrison, Sellers) 3:20.82, 9. Southeastern “B” (N. Bostock, Reising, Forbes, Kaminski) 3:30.98, 12. Southeastern “C” (Kesler, Voelker, Hess, Qadan) 3:48.51.
Southeastern’s divers competed in the Fishers Tiger Claw Invitational on Saturday.
In the girls meet, the Royals placed four divers in the top eight. Sarah Ballard was a close second, Halli Siwik took third, Ashley Sinicropi was sixth and Courtney Broyles seventh.
In the boys meet, freshman AJ Ricafort was fourth while first-year diver Noah Ebeyer placed eighth.
Fishers’ Morgan Casey won the girls competition.
Fishers senior Garrett Fox performs a dive at the Fishers Tiger Claw Diving Invitational. (Kirk Green)