By RICHIE HALL
FISHERS – Fishers swim coach Joe Keller and his staff had a simple agenda for Thursday’s Mudsock meet at the Hamilton Southeastern Aquatic Center.
“We just wanted them to come in and race,” said Keller.
As it turned out, the Tigers raced pretty well. Fishers swept both the boys and girls competitions and earned the Mudsock trophy in both divisions at the conclusion of the meet. The Tigers girls were 119-67 winners, while the Fishers boys won 152-34.
“We’ve been training pretty hard all through break and coming out of break, so I know they’re a little fatigued right now and they’re in a great spot,” said Keller.
The Tigers boys swept all 12 events at the meet. Eduardo Sanchez and Kyle Ponsler were double winners for Fishers; Sanchez placed first in the individual medley and butterfly, while Ponsler triumphed in the 50 free and the breaststroke. Also getting wins were Taichi Kataoka in the 200 freestyle, Kyle Ponsler in the 50 free, William Jansen in diving, Keaton Chop in the 100 free, Nicholas Viola in the 500 free, Connor Carlile in the backstroke and all three relays.
“They’re focused on what they want to achieve and tonight you could see some of that in how they raced and wanted to perform well,” said Keller.
The Tigers swept the top two positions in each event at the meet. The Royals got third-place finishes in each of the relay, and Chouchi Ding also placed third in the 50 free.
The Fishers girls won eight of the 12 events. Nalanie Cortez swept the 200 and 100 freestyles, with other individual victories coming from Alexandra Stein in the butterfly, Emma Schumacher in the 500 free and Jo Jo Ramey in the backstroke. The Tigers swept all three relays as well.
Southeastern’s Kennedy Fisher was a double winner in the 50 free and breaststroke, while Hannah Justice was first in diving. The Royals also won the medley relay.
“We’re working on how we swim our races and constantly learning that and tinkering with things,” said Southeastern coach Christian Hanselmann.
Both teams will now prepare for the Hoosier Crossroads Conference swim meet, which Fishers will host on Saturday. With a big dual meet on Thursday and another major event on Saturday, this stretch is similar to a sectional format, where the preliminary races are on Thursday and the finals are on Saturday.
“That’s how we approach it,” said Keller. “At this point in the season, everything is all about how you execute. The performance is based upon all the work and all the effort that you put forth. And we’re starting to see it come around.”
“In between that, it’s fine tuning,” said Hanselmann. “It’s attacking our racing. What I’m asking everyone is how much better can you get in 27 days or 41 days. That’s what we’ve got.”
GIRLS MEET
Team score: Fishers 119, Hamilton Southeastern 67.
200 medley relay: 1. Southeastern “A” (Grace Newton, Kennedy Fisher, Kaleigh Stivers, Ash Saple) 1:47.32, 2. Fishers “A” (Jo Jo Ramey, Grace Lux, Kate Mouser, Kalli Agapios) 1:47.55, 3. Fishers “B” (Abby Miller, Lydia Reade, Diane Koo, Claire Francis) 1:51.91.
200 freestyle: 1. Nalanie Cortez (F) 1:55.76, 2. Emma Schumacher (F) 1:58.12, 3. Amelia Vicory (HSE) 1:58.97, 4. Ava Olson (HSE) 2:01.88, 5. Arabelle Johnson (F) 2:02.52.
200 individual medley: 1. Mouser (F) 2:08.20, 2. Avery Stein (F) 2:09.85, 3. Reade (F) 2:10.30, 4. Anna Stolle (HSE) 2:11.33, 5. Mia Wilson (F) 2:14.91.
50 freestyle: 1. Fisher (HSE) 24.15, 2. Agapios (F) 24.63, 3. Ramey (F) 24.65, 4. Alexandra Stein (HSE) 24.96, 5. Saple (HSE) 25.10.
One-meter diving: 1. Hannah Justice (HSE) 250.30, 2. Gretchen Osmun (F) 240.55, 3. Ella Penny (HSE) 217.90, 4. Madeline Shell (F) 156.05, 5. Lainey VanTrees (F) 142.05.
100 butterfly: 1. Al. Stein (F) 59.43, 2. Stivers (HSE) 59.94, 3. Lux (F) 1:00.38, 4. Koo (F) 1:00.80, 5. Miller (F) 1:01.95.
100 freestyle: 1. Cortez (F) 53.48, 2. Mouser (F) 53.91, 3. Vicory (HSE) 54.66, 4. Francis (F) 55.37, 5. Olson (HSE) 55.82.
500 freestyle: 1. Schumacher (F) 5:17.22, 2. Johnson (F) 5:18.54, 3. Sloane Gardner (HSE) 5:23.40, 4. Kenzie Pierce (F) 5:26.27, 5. Emma Schwertfeger (F) 5:26.38.
200 freestyle relay: 1. Fishers “A” (Av. Stein, Agapios, Cortez, Mouser) 1:37.69, 2. Southeastern “A” (Saple, Olson, Kiley Zoeller, Vicory) 1:40.63, 3. Fishers “B” (Al. Stein, Lux, Schwertfeger, Schumacher) 1:41.83.
100 backstroke: 1. Ramey (F) 58.50, 2. Agapios (F) 59.59, 3. Newton (HSE) 1:00.19, 4. Stivers (HSE) 1:02.31, 5. Miller (F) 1:02.35.
100 breaststroke: 1. Fisher (HSE) 1:03.92, 2. Av. Stein (F) 1:06.48, 3. Stolle (HSE) 1:08.04, 4. Lux (F) 1:08.16, 5. Reade (F) 1:08.20.
400 freestyle relay: 1. Fishers “A” (Cortez, Schumacher, Av. Stein, Ramey) 3:35.80, 2. Southeastern “A” (Saple, Stolle, Vicory, Fisher) 3:40.87, 3. Fishers “B” (Al. Stein, Francis, Schwertfeger, Koo) 3:41.59.
BOYS MEET
Team score: Fishers 152, Hamilton Southeastern 34.
200 medley relay: 1. Fishers “A” (Connor Carlile, Kyle Ponsler, Eduardo Sanchez, Victor Herbert) 1:38.49, 2. Fishers “B” (Logan Ayres, Reed Beaumont, Daniel Bennett, Keaton Chop) 1:38.74, 3. Southeastern “A” (Ryan Harrison, Matt Truxall, Derek Robison, Chouchi Ding) 1:41.60.
200 freestyle: 1. Taichi Kataoka (F) 1:44.71, 2. Ayres (F) 1:48.60, 3. Carlile (F) 1:49.15, 4. Jonny Hines (F) 1:50.28, 5. Jack Waren (HSE) 1:53.83.
200 individual medley: 1. Sanchez (F) 2:00.36, 2. Nicholas Viola (F) 2:03.24, 3. Bennett (F) 2:04.33, 4. AJ Adams (F) 2:06.79, 5. Truxall (HSE) 2:07.04.
50 freestyle: 1. Ponsler (F) 21.45, 2. Beaumont (F) 22.61, 3. Ding (HSE) 22.80, 4. Chop (F) 23.01, 5. Robison (HSE) 23.99.
One-meter diving: 1. William Jansen (F) 291.80, 2. Jack Roby (F) 269.60, 3. Jacob Schade (F) 260.70, 4. Gavin Tucker (HSE) 217.85, 5. Paul Kelley (F) 196.25.
100 butterfly: 1. Sanchez (F) 53.91, 2. Lee Balkcom (F) 56.02, 3. Hebert (F) 57.06, 4. Jude Bragdon (F) 57.13, 5. Robison (HSE) 57.62.
100 freestyle: 1. Chop (F) 49.66, 2. Kataoka (F) 50.03, 3. Hines (F) 50.87, 4. Ding (HSE) 51.13, 5. Noah Haines (HSE) 51.20.
500 freestyle: 1. Viola (F) 4:57.09, 2. Adams (F) 4:58.78, 3. Ben Russell (F) 5:06.99, 4. Bragdon (F) 5:08.46, 5. Waren (HSE) 5:09.32.
200 freestyle relay: 1. Fishers “A” (Beaumont, Chop, Hines, Herbert) 1:31.04, 2. Fishers “B” (Sanchez, Bennett, Hudson Lee, Kataoka) 1:31.26, 3. Southeastern “A” (Eli Pache, Harrison, Robison, Haines) 1:34.38.
100 backstroke: 1. Carlile (F) 53.22, 2. Ayres (F) 55.16, 3. Tommy Johanneman (F) 57.01, 4. Harrison (HSE) 57.23, 5. Balkcom (F) 59.64.
100 breaststroke: 1. Ponsler (F) 58.86, 2. Beaumont (F) 59.28, 3. Bennett (F) 1:01.03, 4. Truxall (HSE) 1:01.17, 5. Pache (HSE) 1:04.28.
400 freestyle relay: 1. Fishers “B” (Hines, Adams, Johanneman, Ponsler) 3:22.18, 2. Fishers “B” (Kataoka, Viola, Ayres, Carlile) 3:22.35, 3. Southeastern “A” (Haines, Ding, Truxall, Waren) 3:29.27.