GREENFIELD — Zach Cook took home three blue ribbons Tuesday evening for the Greenfield-Central boys swim team, and Carley Logan was a part of four first-place finishes for the Cougars’ girls squad as both teams picked up wins at home against county and conference rival New Palestine.
Greenfield-Central’s boys won 139-47, while the girls won 117-68.
For New Palestine, Courtnee Coffman took first in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events to lead the Dragons.
Greenfield-Central boys head coach Mark Logan said despite putting people in different events, everyone performed at a high level.
“I was proud that the guys did swim a lot of different events,” he said. “Our sprinters were in the distance events, but they still went after it. They didn’t cruise. All the times were pretty good. We can’t come into any meet and not compete.”
The Cougars started the meet with back-to-back wins in both 200-yard medley relays. Cook teamed with Allen Forbes, Ethan Kile and Jordan Cermak to take first on the boys’ side as Krista Zornes, Ashley Finney, Kortney Hodnett and Logan placed first for the girls.
New Palestine’s 200 freestyle relay team of Coffman, Leah Bare, Shannon Jones and Alex Jacobs won on the girls’ side while Greenfield-Central topped the Dragons on the boys’ side. Both the Cougars’ boys and girls won the 400 freestyle relays.
Cook continued his impressive day with wins in the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle. Teammate Chris Joven was right behind Cook for a second-place finish in the 200 individual medley and won the 100 freestyle.
Cermak, who will swim at Franklin College next season, finished second in the 500-yard freestyle while Forbes won the 50 free and the 100 butterfly. Kile was second behind Forbes in the 50 free.
Jared Tomer finished first in the 200 freestyle for the boys while teammate Tyler Bianchi was right behind him for second.
Layne Kintner won the 100 breaststroke while Kile earned a blue ribbon in the 100 backstroke.
For New Palestine, Matthew Taylor-Smith finished second in the 100 freestyle.
“It wasn’t as productive as I thought it would be,” Dragons head coach Steve Maxwell said. “I thought we would have a couple people swim a little bit stronger. It’s not like they were way off. It was more that we didn’t sort of follow the game plan.
“That’s sort of hard in swimming sometimes. We need to be more aggressive about sprinting. They need to risk success.”
In the girls meet, Logan also won the 200 and 500 freestyle. Cougars’ teammate Hailey Russo finished second in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly.
“We’re really in that part (of the season) where we are trying to fill those last spots, whether it be a relay or even like the last spot as an alternate,” Greenfield-Central girls head coach Emily Logan said. “They have been working hard all season long and have been pushing each other.
“We came through our holiday training, and we are really grinding it out and preparing for that big finish.”
Hannah Russo finished second in the 200 individual medley behind Hodnett and third in the 100 backstroke behind Stanley. Hodnett also won the 100 breaststroke.
Stanley took first in the 100 backstroke and second in the 500 free behind Logan.
In the diving competition, Greenfield-Central’s Shyanne Milne and Jacob Keener took first on their respective sides. Keener’s teammate Ben Rader finished second while Conner Page placed third for New Palestine. Behind Milne was Jones for the Dragons while Maci Montgomery took third for the Cougars.
Greenfield-Central divers return to the pool Saturday afternoon at Bloomington North.
Both the Cougars and Dragons swim teams will prepare for the Hoosier Heritage Conference meet next week, which will take place Jan. 14 (diving) at Greenfield-Central and Jan. 16 (swim) at New Palestine.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Team Scores” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Boys
Greenfield-Central 139, New Palestine 47
Girls
Greenfield-Central 117, New Palestine 68
[sc:pullout-text-end]
