By RICHIE HALL
Reporter Sports Editor
The Mudsock swim meet is in an interesting part of the calendar: The meet takes place on a Thursday evening, with the Hoosier Crossroads Conference meet on Saturday afternoon.
But there’s no discussion of a quick turnaround from either Fishers or Hamilton Southeastern. There are trophies to be won, after all. And both schools were loud and intense both in and out of the pool during Thursday’s meet at the Royals’ beautiful new aquatic center.
The Tigers swept both the girls and boys meets, with the girls winning 102.5-83.5 and the boys placing first 104-82. Southeastern started the meet by taking both medley relays; couple that with third-place finishes and both teams led 10-4 early.
“I felt like at the start of the meet, we weren’t quite as aggressive as what we really needed to be,” said first-year Fishers coach Joe Keller. “Thus they won both the medley relays.”
But Fishers went 1-2 in the next event, the girls 200 freestyle. Immediately afterwards, the Tigers’ boys finished 1-2-3 in their 200 free race. That put Fishers on top in both meets, and it would hang on to the lead for the remainder of the meet.
“But the 200 freestyles, both girls and the guys, were outstanding and that really kick-started everything,” said Keller.
The Tigers girls won seven events, starting with Hannah Pratt in the 200 free. She was the first of five different Fishers girls to win an individual race. The others were Corinne Yorkman in the individual medley, Amilia Nusbaum in the 100 free, Abby Jahns in the 500 free and Miya Wai in the breaststroke.
Nusbaum and Pratt also swam on the Tigers’ two winning relays. First was the 200 free relay, in which Nusbaum and Pratt joined Ellen Fero and Kyla Srncik to take that race. Nusbaum, Pratt and Jahns teamed with Morgan Booth for a win in the 400 free relay.
Meanwhile, Fishers’ boys won eight events. Drake Stallworth and Kyle Haflich were double individual winners: Stallworth paced the 200 free and butterfly races, with Haflich finishing first in the IM and the backstroke.
Cole VanDevender ran away with the diving event, while Aaron Frollo was the 500 free winner and Noah Baldwin was first in the breaststroke. The Tigers finished the meet with a 400 free relay win; Nick Harris joined Stallworth, Frollo and Haflich to get that victory.
“I really felt like the kids raced,” said Keller. “We’ve been talking a lot about swimming between the two lane lines, staying focused on what’s between the two lane lines and developing a racer’s mentality, taking care of ourselves and not worrying about what else is going on and just keeping the focus upon us and the team. And I thought they did that really well, and I felt like coming down the end, they were just really tough.”
Winners for Southeastern’s girls team were Emily Barnes in the 50 free, Sarah Ballard in diving, Hannah Pugh in the butterfly and Abby Harter in the backstroke. Harter, Pugh and Barnes joined Madison Kertin to win the medley relay.
DJ Rogers was a double winner for the Royals boys in the 50 and 100 freestyles. Blake Ratliff, Andrew Truxall, Keegan Streett and Andrew Christopher got the medley relay victory, while Connor Harrison, Christopher, Rogers and Evan Sellers finished first in the 200 free relay.
“I felt like we had some really shining moments, and then some not-so-good moments. I think it was kind of a mixed bag,” said HSE coach Andy Pedersen.
Before the meet, both teams held a moment of silence for Robert “Dub” Clark, who passed away on Sunday. Clark and his family started and sponsored the Mudsock trophy.
“I want to thank Dub Clark and his family for making this all possible,” said Pedersen. “I think it’s a good rivalry, I think it’s healthy and I think it’s very positive and this rivalry never would’ve come about if not for the Clark family, especially Dub. So it was really nice to start the meet off with a moment of silence for him and just keep this all in perspective. It’s a really big swim meet and all this, a lot of people here. This all started because a guy had a vision.”
The Fishers swim teams swept the Mudsock meet on Thursday. The Tiger girls won seven races at the meet, with the boys winning eight. (Richie Hall)