Fishers, ‘Rocks, HSE qualify several swims – HH’s Holder, NHS’ Wolfred advance
By RICHIE HALL
Reporter Sports Editor
Everything is shaping up for the Carmel boys swim team to have one of its biggest state meets ever.
The Greyhounds qualified 24 swims for today’s state finals, this after a very successful round of preliminaries Friday night at the IU Natatorium. Nineteen of Carmel’s swims reached the championship heat, with the other five making the consolation heat.
The ‘Hounds started the meet with a new state and national record in the medley relay: Sophomore Wyatt Davis and seniors Stefano Batista, Drew Kibler and Andrew Couhon swam that event in 1:28.00 – almost a second and a half under the old record – to take the top seed. Kibler was back a while later to set a new state and national mark in the 50 freestyle, finishing that race in 19.38 seconds.
“That’s his best time and I think he’s got more in there,” said Carmel coach Chris Plumb.
Kibler also took the top seed in the butterfly race, finishing that one in 46.81 seconds. Batista earned the first seed in the breaststroke (54.28), with Couchon right behind him for a 1-2 Greyhound finish.
Sophomore Jacob Mitchell finished first in the 500 free, with this time of 4:27.14 good for a top seed. Mitchell was also second in the 200 free, with freshman Augustus Rothrock finishing third and junior Alec DeLong taking fourth.
“We swam great,” said Plumb. “Having guys 2-3-4 in the 200 free is great.”
Plumb enjoyed the fact that newer swimmers were stepping up to complement the “elite guys” that were setting new records. Rothrock and Griffin Hadley are two freshmen reaching championship heats at this year’s state meet.
“Just great to see and great fun and we’re looking forward to a better day tomorrow,” said Plumb.
Other championship heat qualifiers for Carmel were: Davis (third) and senior Brett Sherman (fifth) in the individual medley; Couchon (fifth) in the 50 free; Rothrock (third) and Sherman (fourth) in the 500 free; the 200 free relay team of senior Andrew Morozov, Batista, DeLong and Mitchell (third); Davis (second), senior Drew Amaral (third) and Hadley (sixth) in the butterfly; and the 400 free relay team of Sherman, Rothrock, junior Patrick Cavanaugh and Hadley (seventh).
The Greyhounds’ five consolation swimmers will be junior Andrew Rafalko in the IM (14th), junior Jota Iwase in the butterfly (12th), Hadley (10th) and DeLong (13th) in the 100 free, and Rafalko in the breaststroke (ninth).
Fishers had a solid day, with 10 swims reaching today’s finals. Four will swim in the championship heat and the other six will compete in the consols.
Junior Drake Stallworth made two championship heats, taking sixth in both the 200 free and the butterfly. Senior Kyle Haflich will represent the Tigers in the other two, after placing sixth in the IM and eighth in the backstroke.
Consolation swimmers for Fishers will be the medley relay team of Haflich, senior Noah Baldwin and junior Trevor Adcock and Cory Jacocks (ninth); sophomore Aaron Frollo (ninth) and senior Sam Kuhn (12th) in the 500 free; the 200 free relay team of Stallworth, senior Joel Crull, Adcock and Jacocks (tied for 13th), Baldwin in the breaststroke (14th) and the 400 free relay team of Stallworth, junior Christopher Goolsby, Frollo and Haflich (16th).
“We had some good individual performances,” said Tigers coach Joe Keller. “Several lifetime bests. Last week we swam beyond where probably we were capable in a lot of places. That makes it tough to come back.”
Keller does have a goal in mind for tomorrow’s finals.
“We’re growing, we’re getting better,” said the coach. “Fishers has never been higher than seventh, so we’re going to plan to beat that tomorrow.”
Westfield had a goal of getting all four of its state swims to the finals, and the Shamrocks achieved that goal. Senior Chris Kenney reached the championship heat of both of his individual races, placing fifth in the 100 free and sixth in the 50 free.
Kenney also swam on both of Westfield’s state relays, which both reached the consolation heat. The foursome of senior Cody Fenimore, sophomore Cameron Clayton, junior Brett Calvin and Kenney tied for 13th in the 200 free relay, then placed 14th in the 400 free relay.
First-year Westfield coach Darrick Thomas called it “a really, really great night.” He said his Shamrocks were faster than they were at last week’s sectional meet – this after Westfield performed very well at the sectional.
“We came into tonight with four swims and our goal was to get four through to tomorrow, and we accomplished that,” said Thomas. “Two individual swims in the top eight, two relays in the top 16. So we did our job tonight and we’ll see what we got to do tomorrow to move up a little bit more.”
Hamilton Southeastern’s young team had four swims reach the consolation heat. The Royals’ medley relay team of junior Blake Ratliff and sophomores Andrew Truxall, Connor Harrison and Andrew Christopher took 10th in that event.
Sophomore DJ Rogers was part of a three-way tie for 13th in the 50 free, then after the diving break, Harrison placed 14th in the butterfly. Southeastern’s 200 free relay team of Christopher, Harrison, Rogers and sophomore Marcus Eden placed ninth.
“We had some really good swims and we had some that weren’t so good,” said HSE coach Andy Pedersen. “Just a tough night. The meet was fast and we’re really young. It was a good learning experience. Part of that learning experience is tomorrow, so we know we need to be ready to go for tomorrow.”
Hamilton Heights junior Jared Holder went through that learning experience last year as a sophomore at state. This year he returned in two events, and reached the finals of both.
Holder began by tying for 13th in the 50 free, reaching the consolation heat in that race. He then came back to place fifth in the backstroke, earning a spot in the championship heat. This is the first time a Huskies swimmer will compete in the finals of the state meet since 2011, when Sam Hoeferle and Jake Wood swam for Heights.
“I think it went really well,” said Huskies coach Sue Beale. “He swam very confidently, he swam just about as we expected him to. But I think he can go faster tomorrow.”
Noblesville will have a swimmer in the consolation heat of the 100 free. Junior Jack Wolfred placed 16th in that event.
“We got another swim back, that’s what we’re here for,” said Millers coach Rich Wolfred. “So we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
Today’s state finals begin with diving preliminaries, which start at 9 a.m. and be immediately followed by the semi-finals. The swimming and diving finals begin at 1 p.m.
RESULTS
Positions 1-8 qualify for championship heat, positions 9-16 qualify for consolation heat, positions 17 and 18 are alternates.
200 medley relay: 1. Carmel (Wyatt Davis, Stefano Batista, Drew Kibler, Andrew Couchon) 1:28.00, new state and national record, 9. Fishers (Kyle Haflich, Noah Baldwin, Trevor Adcock, Cory Jacocks) 1:35.33, 10. Hamilton Southeastern (Blake Ratliff, Andrew Truxall, Connor Harrison, Andrew Christopher) 1:35.99.
200 freestyle: 2. Jacob Mitchell (C) 1:38.42, 3. Augustus Rothrock (C) 1:40.11, 4. Alec DeLong (C) 1:40.89, 6. Drake Stallworth (F) 1:40.95, 20. Sam Kuhn (F) 1:43.85, 23. Keegan Streett (HSE) 1:44.42, 27. Nicholas Harris (F) 1:44.90.
200 individual medley: 3. Davis (C) 1:49.88, 5. Brett Sherman (C) 1:50.12, 6. Haflich (F) 1:50.42, 14. Andrew Rafalko (C) 1:52.61, 21. Ratliff (HSE) 1:55.03, 28. Aaron Frollo (F) 1:56.04, 29. Jacocks (F) 1:56.05.
50 freestyle: 1. Drew Kibler (C) 19.38, new state and national record, 5. Couchon (C) 20.55, 6. Chris Kenney (Westfield) 20.86, T13. DJ Rogers (HSE) 21.19; Jared Holder (HH) 21.19, 17. Batista (C) 21.24, 30. Evan Diamente (Noblesville) 21.74.
100 butterfly: 1. Kibler (C) 46.81, 6. Drake Stallworth (F) 49.92, 12. Jota Iwase (C) 50.56, 14. Harrison (HSE) 51.20, 20. Diamente (N) 51.68.
100 freestyle: 5. Kenney (W) 45.99, 10. Hadley (C) 46.71, 13. DeLong (C) 46.85, 16. Jack Wolfred (N) 46.93, 19. Andrew Morozov (C) 47.08, 21. Rogers (HSE) 47.14.
500 freestyle: 1. Mitchell (C) 4:27.14, 3. Rothrock (C) 4:31.54, 4. Sherman (C) 4:32.22, 9. Frollo (F) 4:38.34, 12. Kuhn (F) 4:38.34, 17. Harris (F) 4:42.37, 24. Streett (HSE) 4:46.08, T28. Helms (N) 4:54.66.
200 freestyle relay: 3. Carmel (Morozov, Batista, DeLong, Mitchell) 1:24.58, 9. Southeastern (Christopher, Harrison, Rogers, Marcus Eden) 1:26.05, T13. Fishers (Stallworth, Joel Crull, Trevor Adcock, Jacocks) 1:27.08; Westfield (Cody Fenimore, Cameron Clayton, Brett Calvin, Kenney) 1:27.08, 20. Noblesville (Wolfred, Cameron Kramer, Jakob Janson, Diamente) 1:28.46.
100 backstroke: 2. Davis (C) 48.55, 3. Drew Amaral (C) 49.62, 5. Holder (HH) 50.35, 6. Hadley (C) 50.49, 8. Haflich (F) 50.98.
100 breaststroke: 1. Batista (C) 54.28, 2. Couchon (C) 54.43, 9. Rafalko (C) 57.16, 14. Noah Baldwin (F) 57.71, 29. Crull (F) 1:00.06.
400 freestyle relay: 7. Carmel (Sherman, Rothrock, Patrick Cavanaugh, Hadley) 3:08.47, 14. Westfield (Calvin, Fenimore, Clayton, Kenney) 3:11.87, 16. Fishers (Stallworth, Christopher Goolsby, Frollo, Haflich) 3:12.33, 18. Southeastern (Streett, Rogers, Ratliff, Eden) 3:12.53, 21. Noblesville (Diamente, Kramer, Janson, Wolfred) 3:13.08.
ABOVE: Carmel senior Drew Kibler is greeted by his coach, Chris Plumb, after Kibler broke the state and national record in the 50 freestyle event at the IHSAA state preliminaries on Friday at the IU Natatorium. Kibler swam the race in 19.38 seconds. (Doug Sanqunetti)
BELOW: Fishers’ Kyle Haflich (left) and Hamilton Heights’ Jared Holder both qualified for the championship heat of the backstroke at Friday’s state preliminaries. (Bret Richardson)
