By RICHIE HALL
Reporter Sports Editor
Everything went according to plan for Hamilton County schools at the boys swimming sectional preliminaries on Thursday.
At Carmel, the three-time defending state champion Greyhounds qualified all 27 of their swims for the championship heat of Saturday’s sectional finals. Carmel earned the top seed in all 11 swimming events, eight of them in state cut times.
The big news was senior Drew Kibler, who set a new sectional record in the 50 freestyle. His time of 20.41 seconds lowered the old mark by .08 seconds. Kibler also has the top seed in the butterfly race.
Other first seeds for Carmel are Jacob Mitchell in the 200 and 500 freestyles, Wyatt Davis in the individual medley and backstroke, Griffin Hadley in the 100 free, Andrew Couchon in the breaststroke, and all three relays: Wyatt Davis, Stefano Batista, Jota Iwase and Couchon in the medley; Alec DeLong, Andrew Morozov, Mitchell and Andrew Rafalko in the 200 free and Kibler, Patrick Cavanaugh, Gus Rothrock and Griffin Hadley in the 400 free.
“We did what we needed to do,” said Greyhounds coach Chris Plumb. “We didn’t lose the meet tonight, which was good. Took care of business, and I feel pretty good about our chances on Saturday.”
Noblesville advanced 21 of its swims to the championship heat, with the other six heading to the consolation heat. The Millers had two relays earn the second seed: The medley, which consisted of Nick Beeson, Sam Bleisch, Andy Buna and Lawson Crum; and the 400 free relay, which was swam by Aaron Helms, Will Huff, Beeson and Cameron Kramer. Helms also took the second seed in the 500 free.
“We had some swims that we weren’t pleased with, but we know they weren’t in suits, hadn’t shaved,” said Noblesville coach Rich Wolfred. “We were hoping they would swim a little bit faster today, but they didn’t. But we know we’re ready for Saturday.”
Westfield sent 17 swims to the championship heat and the other 10 to the consols. Senior Chris Kenney earned the Shamrocks’ highest seed, taking second in the 100 free. Cameron Clayton got the third seed in the breaststroke in a new school record time of 58.58 seconds.
“We had an outstanding day,” said Shamrocks coach Darrick Thomas. “We broke a school record for our breaststroker Cameron Clayton. We had a lot of great time drops, we got our hand on the wall first in a lot of closely contested races. Really proud of the kids’ effort, the way they stood behind each other and cheered for each other. It was a really, really good day for our team.”
Hamilton Heights junior Jared Holder had an excellent meet, qualifying second in the backstroke and third in the 50 free, both in state cut times. The Huskies’ medley and 400 free relay teams also made the championship heat, finishing eighth in both races. Holder joined Logan Fakes, Joe Ringer, Josh Glover to swim both relays.
Guerin Catholic’s 200 and 400 freestyle relays both qualified for the consolation heat. The team of Matthew Jones, Nick Karn, Caleb Russell, Dane Leonard swam the 200 relay, while the foursome of Jones, Russell, Caleb Smith, Leonard swam the 400 relay.
At Fishers, both the Tigers and Hamilton Southeastern advances 26 swims to the championship heat, and one to the consolation heat.
The Royals earned five top seeds at the meet, with DJ Rogers taking first in the 50 and 100 freestyle races. Blake Ratliff is the first seed in the backstroke, while the 200 free relay squad of Nick Bostock, Zack Bostock, Marcus Eden and Evan Sellers and the 400 free relay team of Rogers, Keegan Streett, Sellers and Andrew Ratliff also placed first.
Fishers got four top seeds, with Drake Stallworth first in the 200 free and butterfly races. Aaron Frollo earned the top seed in the 500 free, while the foursome of Kyle Haflich, Joel Crull, Trevor Adcock and Noah Baldwin took first in the medley relay.
At the North Central sectional, University had seven swims reach the championship heat and five more qualify for the consols.
Freshman Keegan Priest earned the third seed in the butterfly race, while Roy Raz got the third seed in the 500 free.
Positions 1-8 qualify for championship heat, positions 9-16 qualify for consolation heat, positions 17 and 18 are alternates.
AT CARMEL
200 medley relay: 1. Carmel (Wyatt Davis, Stefano Batista, Jota Iwase, Andrew Couchon) 1:35.44, 2. Noblesville (Nick Beeson, Sam Bleisch, Andy Buna, Lawson Crum) 1:44.15, 7. Westfield (Nathanael Brown, Ryan Baird, Kevin Estrada, Matthew Sawyer) 1:48.67, 8. Hamilton Heights (Jared Holder, Logan Fakes, Joe Ringer, Josh Glover) 1:52.04.
200 freestyle: 1. Jacob Mitchell (C) 1:41.45, 2. Gus Rothrock (C) 1:42.42, 3. Alec DeLong (C) 1:45.04, 4. Cody Fenimore (W) 1:46.79, 6. Brett Calvin (W) 1:47.66, 7. Aaron Helms (N) 1:48.01, 8. Jack Wolfred (N) 1:48.30, 9. Jakob Janson (N) 1:49.64, 11. Evan Lesniewski (W) 1:54.33, 21. Ringer (HH) 2:09.52, 28. Caleb Russell (Guerin Catholic) 2:37.94.
200 individual medley: 1. Davis (C) 1:56.92, 2. Brett Sherman (C) 1:57.28, 3. Cameron Clayton (W) 1:57.70, 4. Andrew Rafalko (C) 1:58.32, 5. Cameron Kramer (N) 2:03.29, 6. Alex Casas (W) 2:06.04, 7. Isaac Stephan (N) 2:06.85, 8. Zane Kaufman (W) 2:07.08, 9. Ben Griffin (N) 2:10.62, 23. Matthew Jones (GC) 2:41.61.
50 freestyle: 1. Drew Kibler (C) 20.41, new sectional record, 2. Couchon (C) 21.15, 3. Holder (HH) 21.46, 4. Chris Kenney (W) 21.75, 5. Batista (C) 21.76, 6. Evan Diamente (N) 22.00, 8. Beeson (N) 22.98, 10. Crum (N) 23.30, 11. Jacob Roberts (W) 23.39, 16. Chandler Luedke (W) 23.86, 29. Payton Tindal (HH) 29.13, 30. Nick Karn (GC) 29.42, 31. Russell (GC) 29.65, 32. Charles Smith (GC) 30.10, 33. Trey Conner (HH) 30.73.
100 butterfly: 1. Kibler (C) 51.23, 3. Diamente (N) 53.87, 4. Iwase (C) 54.06, 5. Drew Amaral (C) 54.73, 7. Roberts (W) 55.73, 8. Will Huff (N), 9. Calvin (W) 55.95, 11. Crum (N) 56.31, 13. Estrada (W) 57.98, 25. Jones (GC) 1:16.28.
100 freestyle: 1. Griffin Hadley (C) 47.83, 2. Kenney (W) 47.94, 3. DeLong (C) 48.08, 4. Wolfred (N) 48.55, 5. Fenimore (W) 48.81, 6. Andrew Morozov (C) 48.93, 7. Janson (N) 49.91, 9. Michael Simpson (W) 50.78, 11. Ben Griffin (N) 51.42, 17. Fakes (HH) 54.77, 26. Glover (HH) 59.16, 28. Karn (GC) 1:08.34, 29. Ethan Hall (HH) 1:13.42.
500 freestyle: 1. Mitchell (C) 4:39.10, 2. Helms (N) 4:52.81, 3. Rothrock (C) 4:54.30, 4. Sherman (C) 4:59.28, 5. Kramer (N) 5:04.43, 6. Huff (N) 5:08.74, 7. Brown (W) 5:10.99, 8. Lesniewski (W) 5:11.81, 10. Baird (W) 5:27.54, 18. Ringer (HH) 5:54.45.
200 freestyle relay: 1. Carmel (DeLong, Morozov, Mitchell, Rafalko) 1:28.62, 3. Noblesville (Wolfred, Griffin, Helms, Diamente) 1:32.70, 5. Westfield (Casas, Estrada, Jack Finnegan, Luedke) 1:35.22, 9. Guerin Catholic (Jones, Karn, Russell, Dane Leonard) 1:54.90.
100 backstroke: 1. Davis (C) 50.71, 2. Holder (HH) 51.42, 3. Hadley (C) 52.38, 4. Amaral (C) 52.96, 5. Beeson (N) 55.71, 6. Kaufman (W) 57.22, 7. Buna (N) 57.83, 9. Simpson (W) 58.61, 15. Wesley Mathis (N) 1:02.20, 28. Hall (HH) 1:31.18.
100 breaststroke: 1. Couchon (C) 56.45, 2. Batista (C) 56.87, 3. Clayton (W) 58.58, 4. Rafalko (C) 59.30, 5. Bleisch (N) 1:03.68, 6. Casas (W) 1:04.05, 7. Seth Koszyk (N) 1:05.07, 7. Isaac Stephan (N) 1:05.09, 13. Estrada (W) 1:08.82, 17. Fakes (HH) 1:11.88, 20. Glover (HH) 1:16.06, 24. Leonard (GC) 1:19.83, 26. Conner (HH) 1:25.20.
400 freestyle relay: 1. Carmel (Kibler, Patrick Cavanaugh, Rothrock, Hadley) 3:12.02, 2. Noblesville (Helms, Huff, Beeson, Kramer) 3:23.32, 5. Westfield (Brown, Roberts, Will Kreag, Simpson) 3:30.62, 8. Heights (Holder, Ringer, Glover, Fakes) 3:40.68, 10. Guerin Catholic (Jones, Russell, Smith, Leonard) 4:23.47.
AT FISHERS
200 medley relay: 1. Fishers (Kyle Haflich, Joel Crull, Trevor Adcock, Noah Baldwin) 1:39.49, 3. Hamilton Southeastern (Ethan Forbes, John Kirby, Ethan Christopher, Husam Elgaali) 1:41.38.
200 freestyle: 1. Drake Stallworth (F) 1:46.97, 2. Sam Kuhn (F) 1:48.37, 3. Cameron Knurek (HSE) 1:48.46, 4. Evan Sellers (HSE) 1:49.60, 5. Nicholas Harris (F) 1:49.66, 6. Keegan Streett (HSE) 1:50.31.
200 individual medley: 2. Haflich (F) 1:58.67, 3. Blake Ratliff (HSE) 1:59.21, 4. Aaron Frollo (F) 1:59.70, 6. Connor Harrison (HSE) 2:02.18, 7. Cory Jacocks (F) 2:02.25, 8. E. Christopher (HSE) 2:02.33.
50 freestyle: 1. DJ Rogers (HSE) 21.54, 2. Adcock (F) 22.32, 3. Andrew Christopher (HSE) 22.45, 4. Crull (F) 22.48, 7. Marcus Eden (HSE) 22.92, 8. Christopher Goolsby (F) 23.12.
100 butterfly: 1. Stallworth (F) 51.15, 2. E. Christopher (HSE) 52.68, 3. Harrison (HSE) 52.85, 5. Adcock (F) 53.11, 7. Forbes (HSE) 55.36, 9. Nicolas Silveira Silva (F) 56.56.
100 freestyle: 1. Rogers (HSE) 47.99, 2. A. Christopher (HSE) 49.12, 4. Baldwin (F) 49.66, 5. Goolsby (F) 50.03, 6. Eden (HSE) 50.18, 8. Peyton Dewaelsche (F) 50.95.
500 freestyle: 1. Frollo (F) 4:52.09, 2. Harris (F) 4:56.28, 3. Kuhn (F) 4:58.75, 4. Sellers (HSE) 5:02.81, 5. Streett (HSE) 5:03.00, 6. Knurek (HSE) 5:04.10.
200 freestyle relay: 1. Southeastern (Nick Bostock, Zack Bostock, Eden, Sellers) 1:32.07, 2. Fishers (Adcock, Goolsby, Frollo, Harris) 1:33.37.
100 backstroke: 1. B. Ratliff (HSE) 54.11, 2. Haflich (F) 54.26, 3. Forbes (HSE) 54.56, 4. Israel Harding (F) 55.22, 8. Dewaelsche (F) 56.74, 9. Andrew Ratliff (HSE) 57.83.
100 breaststroke: 2. Crull (F) 1:00.05, 3. Baldwin (F) 1:01.68, 4. Jacocks (F) 1:01.88, 5. John Kirby (HSE) 1:02.59, 6. Andrew Truxall (HSE) 1:02.80, 8. Thomas Reising (HSE) 1:03.73.
400 freestyle relay: 1. Southeastern (Rogers, Streett, Sellers, A. Ratliff) 3:20.41, 2. Fishers (Kuhn, Goolsby, Frollo, Harris) 3:25.93.
AT NORTH CENTRAL
200 medley relay: 4. University (Keegan Priest, Cole Reinholt, Cordell Wilson, Roy Raz) 1:45.28.
200 freestyle: 6. Raz 1:51.73, 12. Hayden Suarez-Davis 1:59.39, 33. Christian Moore 3:17.12.
200 individual medley: 13. Reinholt 2:20.33.
50 freestyle: T26. Austin Clark 26.76, T28. Ari Atlas 28.48, 34. Lucas Miller 31.30.
100 butterfly: 3. Priest 54.54, 12. Wilson 59.65.
100 freestyle: 16. Suarez-Davis 54.03, 29. Clark 59.60, 35. Kevin Shen 1:09.42.
500 freestyle: 3. Raz 5:03.35.
200 freestyle relay: 9. University (Wilson, Suarez-Davis, Clark, Reinholt) 1:42.90.
100 backstroke: 4. Priest 55.99, 31. Moore 1:49.36, 32. Zach Schneider 2:08.58.
100 breaststroke: 4. Reinholt 1:05.06, 28. Atlas 1:25.83, 34. Miller 1:41.46.
400 freestyle relay: 5. University (Raz, Wilson, Suarez-Davis, Priest) 3:37.74.
ABOVE: Hamilton Heights’ Jared Holder (left) and Carmel’s Wyatt Davis congratulate each other after the 100 backstroke race during the boys swimming sectional preliminaries Thursday at the Greyhounds’ pool. Davis earned the top seed in the backstroke at Saturday’s sectional finals, with Holder the second seed. Both swam under state cut times. (Doug Sanqunetti)
BELOW: Noblesville’s Aaron Helms will be the second seed in the 500 freestyle at Saturday’s sectional finals. (Bret Richardson)
