By RICHIE HALL
Reporter Sports Editor
This weekend’s IHSAA boys state swim meet promises to be one of the fastest ever.
Don’t believe it? Take a look at the psych sheets on the IHSAA website.
One can always tell just how fast an event could be by taking a look at how many state cut qualifiers there are. The “state cut,” as many swimmers are aware, is that crucial time that swimmers are focused on when they compete in a sectional final. Swim your event at or faster than a state cut, and you have a golden ticket to state – whether you place first or 16th in the sectional.
Each event at state is always supposed to have 32 swims in the preliminary round, which begins at 6 p.m. Friday at the IU Natatorium. Twenty spots are reserved for the champion from each sectional, who automatically heads to state regardless of time. After that, the state cut swimmers are added in.
Since all swimmers that make cuts are guaranteed a spot, that means there can be years where an event has more than 32 swimmers. That’s happening in three events this year: The individual medley has 37 swimmers, including 28 who swam faster than the cut. Both the 50 and the 100 freestyles will have 36 competitors each – both events had 31 swims make the state cut.
In the other events, there were a handful of swims that were called back to state in order to make sure each event has 32 competitors. Those times may not be cuts, but they’re still fast.
One event that could turn out well for Hamilton County is the backstroke. There are five local swimmers seeded in the top nine, including three from Carmel. Sophomore Wyatt Davis is the top seed, after winning his own sectional in a time of 49.20 seconds.
The other two Greyhounds in the 50 free mix are senior Drew Amaral, seeded fourth and freshman Griffin Hadley, seeded sixth. Fishers senior Kyle Haflich has the ninth seed.
And then there’s junior Jared Holder from Hamilton Heights. Holder is seeded third in a new Huskies school record time of 49.98 seconds. Holder will also swim the 50 free, where he is seeded 16th in 21.27 seconds. The eighth seed is Plainfield junior Max Wiser in 21.03 seconds, so there’s not much separating any of the swimmers.
In all, Carmel has nine top seeds going into the prelims. Senior Drew Kibler is the first seed in the 50 free, in a time of 20.10 seconds and the butterfly, where his sectional race was 49.27 seconds. Sophomore Jacob Mitchell leads the list in the 200 free (1:38.09) and 500 free (4:28.88), with freshman Augustus Rothrock the second seed in the long-distance event (4:31.23).
The 500 free, in fact, also looks strong for Hamilton County, with six local swimmers among the top nine. After the Carmel top two, Fishers sophomore Aaron Frollo is seeded fourth, Carmel senior Brett Sherman is sixth, and Fishers seniors Nicholas Harris and Sam Kuhn are seventh and ninth respectively.
The ‘Hounds are also seeded 1-2 in the breaststroke, with senior Andrew Couchon first (55.03) and senior Stefano Batista second (55.59). Junior Andrew Rafalko holds the fifth seed). Carmel will also come into the meet with top seeds in the medley relay (1:32.08), and the 400 free relay (3:06.67)
Haflich has a second seed for Fishers in the IM, with his sectional time of 1:50.51 giving him that high placement going into the prelims. Junior Drake Stallworth is seeded fourth in the butterfly, while sophomore Aaron Frollo holds the fourth seed in the 500 free. The Tigers’ 400 free relay is seeded fifth.
Hamilton Southeastern sophomore DJ Rogers will look to keep the momentum from his great sectional. He is seeded sixth in the 50 free.
Westfield senior Chris Kenney has two top-eight seeds: He is rated third in the 100 free and seventh in the 50 free. Noblesville junior Evan Diamente is seeded 20th in the butterfly, with a time of 51.60 – not far from the 16th seed, Valparaiso junior Samuel Behrend’s 51.45.
A complete list of Hamilton County seeded swimmers now follows:
Swimmers are listed by their seeds and sectional finals times. Divers are listed by their regional scores.
200 medley relay: 1. Carmel 1:32.08, 9. Fishers 1:35.00, 11. Hamilton Southeastern 1:35.23.
200 freestyle: 1. Jacob Mitchell (C) 1:38.09, 3. Augustus Rothrock (C) 1:40.57, 9. Alec DeLong (C) 1:41.65, 11. Drake Stallworth (F) 1:41.93, 13. Sam Kuhn (F) 1:42.65, 19. Nicholas Harris (F) 1:43.17, 22. Keegan Streett (HSE) 1:43.60.
200 individual medley: 2. Kyle Haflich (F) 1:50.51, 8. Wyatt Davis (C) 1:52.18, 11. Andrew Rafalko (C) 1:52.74, 13. Aaron Frollo (F) 1:53.33, 19. Brett Sherman (C) 1:54.52, 21. Cory Jacocks (F) 1:54.76, 28. Blake Ratliff (HSE) 1:55.23.
50 freestyle: 1. Drew Kibler (C) 20.10, 6. DJ Rogers (HSE) 21.01, 7. Chris Kenney (Westfield) 21.02, 9. Andrew Couchon (C) 21.05, 16. Jared Holder (Hamilton Heights) 21.27, 25. Evan Diamente (N) 21.49, 28. Stefano Batista (C) 21.54.
One-meter diving: 3. Cole VanDevender (F) 577.00, 24. Nathan Barr (HSE) 380.00, 26. Garrett Garwood (HSE) 378.15, 31. Jared Newman 361.15.
100 butterfly: 1. Kibler (C) 49.27, 4. Stallworth (F) 49.90, 15. Jota Iwase (C) 51.24, 18. Connor Harrison (HSE) 51.52, 20. Diamente (N) 51.60.
100 freestyle: 3. Kenney (W) 45.97, 7. Griffin Hadley (C) 46.48, 10. DeLong (C) 46.79, 16. Rogers (HSE) 46.94, 20. Andrew Morozov (C) 47.01, 21. Jack Wolfred (N) 47.01.
500 freestyle: 1. Mitchell (C) 4:28.88, 2. Rothrock (C) 4:31.23, 4. Frollo (F) 4:35.21, 6. Sherman (C) 4:36.62, 7. Harris (F) 4:38.46, 9. Kuhn (F) 4:38.46, 20. Streett (HSE) 4:44.90, 21. Aaron Helms (N) 4:45.04.
200 freestyle relay: 5. Carmel 1:25.68, 8. Southeastern 1:26.21, 10. Fishers 1:26.49, 17. Westfield 1:27.75, 23. Noblesville 1:28.37.
100 backstroke: 1. Davis (C) 49.20, 3. Holder (HH) 49.98, 4. Drew Amaral (C) 50.09, 6. Hadley (C) 50.55, 9. Haflich (F) 51.20.
100 breaststroke: 1. Couchon (C) 55.03, 2. Batista (C) 55.59, 5.Andrew Rafalko (C) 56.77, 13. Noah Baldwin (F) 57.59, 22. Joel Crull (F) 58.48.
400 freestyle relay: 1. Carmel 3:06.67, 5. Fishers 3:09.59, 10. Southeastern 3:11.34, 16. Noblesville 3:13.07.
ABOVE: LEFT: Hamilton Heights’ Jared Holder (left) and Carmel’s Wyatt Davis (right) are among the top three seeds in the backstroke in the Friday night boys swimming state preliminaries. (Doug Sanqunetti)
BELOW: Noblesville’s Jack Wolfred is seeded 21st in the 100 freestyle. (Bret Richardson)
