NEW PALESTINE — Setting the tone early led to some sweet sounds late.
They were sounds of celebration that had not been heard in 16 years.
Mt. Vernon ended a 10-year stretch of boys sectional swimming titles by Hancock County rival Greenfield-Central by defeating the Cougars and the rest of the 11-team field in Saturday’s finals of the New Palestine Sectional.
It is only the second boys swimming sectional title in school history. The other came in 2005.
The last team other than Greenfield-Central to win was Richmond in 2010.
Mt. Vernon finished with 432.5 points. Greenfield-Central was second with 402. County teams New Palestine (181) and Eastern Hancock (175) finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
The Marauders opened by winning the afternoon’s first event, the 200-yard medley relay, an event that had been dominated by the Cougars since 2016. Mt. Vernon’s crew of Aidan Murphy, Aiden Tierney, Brady Gray and Evan Flick won in 1 minute, 36.94 seconds. Greenfield-Central was less than one second behind in 1:37.68.
“The 200 medley, winning that right off the bat, set a tone that we’re here and we’re going to swim fast,” Mt. Vernon head coach Brad Grieshop said.
The Marauders won two of the three relays and had three individual champions. All will move on to next week’s IHSAA boys swimming state finals prelims to be held Friday at the IU Natatorium.
Greenfield-Central will be well-represented at the state meet, too. The Cougars won five events, with four individual champions and one relay.
“It’s a huge step and a great direction right now to be able to come in to compete like we did with Greenfield today and be toe-to-toe with them, best swimmer to best swimmer, the whole way,” Grieshop said. “It was awesome to be here to witness the meet.”
Both Grieshop and Greenfield-Central coach Mark Logan are hopeful others from their teams will be pulled in on time to complete the 32-entrant field in each state meet event. They will have to wait until all the sectionals are complete to find out the fate of the others as the Castle Sectional was not scheduled to have its finals until Monday evening.
“For me personally, it’s a much better feeling,” Mt. Vernon senior Aiden Tierney, now a three-time state qualifier, said of having a few more teammates join him at the state meet. “We haven’t won a sectional title since 2005. It’s great to dethrone the champs and be the best. Individually it’s fun, but as a team it is so much more satisfying.”
Tierney, along with being part of the 200 medley relay team won his third straight sectional championship in the 100 breaststroke in a convincing time of 56.77 seconds. It was only .12 seconds shy of the sectional’s oldest record (56.59 seconds), set in 2006 by Richmond’s Aaron Koger, who went on to win the state title that season.
He also took top honors in the 100 butterfly with a time of 50.42 seconds.
Senior Aidan Murphy had the other Mt. Vernon individual championship, but he wasn’t the only one to share the glory of his triumph in the 100 backstroke.
It was the 10th of the 12 events, right before Tierney’s breaststroke. Murphy led a 1-2-3 Mt. Vernon finish in the 100 backstroke. It garnered 43 team points. While Greenfield-Central managed 15 in the event.
Murphy and second-place finisher Logan Schomaker came in as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. Aidan’s younger brother, Ethan Murphy was No. 5 and that came after being one of the legs of the team’s 200 freestyle relay, the preceding race, during Friday’s prelims.
It changed up the Marauders plans for Saturday and it couldn’t have worked out any better.
Ethan Murphy was replaced on the relay so he could be better rested for the backstroke. Mt. Vernon still won the relay and Ethan Murphy moved up two spots to take third in the backstroke.
“That was unbelievable,” Grieshop said of his swimmers’ performance in the backstroke final. “I thought about that (Friday night) and mentioned it to them, you guys could do 1-2-3. It’s possible and it’d be cool to see. Sure enough they did it.”
“It means a lot (going to state as an individual) but what means even more to me was the 1-2-3 in the 100 back with Logan and my brother getting second and third,” Aidan Murphy said. “That was so cool … We didn’t expect it going into the meet. We saw after prelims Logan and I were 1-2 and Ethan was fifth and he had just came off the relay. With getting Ethan more rest, (we knew) this could happen. We could do this. I am so excited for (my brother) I am almost more excited for him than I am for me.”
The Mt. Vernon 200 freestyle relay winning team consisted of James Demircioglu, Matthew Garey, Schomaker and Gray (1:31.29).
The Cougars may have had their long run of sectional titles come to an end but they had a number of strong performances.
Senior Travis Black qualified for the state meet for the fourth straight year and third straight year as a champion in the 50 freestyle (20.92 seconds) and 100 freestyle (46.00 seconds). Seniors Anthony Nagel and Samuel Logan are also going back for the third time.
Logan won the 200 freestyle (1:44.78) and Nagel took the top spot in the 200 IM (1:57.29).
Greenfield-Central closed out the meet with a win in the 400 freestyle relay with Black, Logan, Clay Griffin and Nagel (3:14.01).
“We had some great swims and guys that went faster,” coach Logan said. “It just came down to the 100 back, 100 breast and we just fell short. They fought right through. We got the effort, got a lot of good times and we didn’t quit.
“They (Mt. Vernon) are great competitors. We knew all year it was going to be tough.”
Logan said he is hopeful the 200 medley relay team will get picked up along with Samuel Logan in the butterfly and Nagel in the breaststroke.
Grieshop said he hoped Gray, who qualified as part of both relay teams, could be added in both the 50 and 100 freestyle races.
“It feels great (to win the sectional),” Gray said. “We come in and work every day. This has been a big goal for several seasons and we’re very happy to be able to accomplish it.
“We had some people really step up and do more than what was asked of them. They overcame a lot. They swam fast in prelims and came back and swam faster in the finals.”
Greenfield-Central could also have representation in the state diving competition. Two Cougar divers, Alexander Jahrsdoerfer and Jack Mays finished second and third, respectively, in the sectional and were scheduled to compete Tuesday evening at the Plainfield Diving Regional, where the top eight divers advance to the state meet.
The regional includes top four finishers from the Pike, Crawfordsville, Lawrence North, New Palestine and Avon sectionals.
Jahrsdoerfer, a sophomore, was just a few points short of winning a sectional title. Quinton Jones of Connersville won with 429.85 points. Jahrsdoerfer had 427.55.
New Palestine’s top finish was a runner-up spot in the 200 freestyle relay with Ben Miesse, Chase Martin, Kyle Ellis and Jackson Schwartz.
Eastern Hancock’s top spot was a third-place finish in that race with Aaron Surburg, Ryan Dagley, Luken Edwards and Matthew McDaniel.
The event’s other individual champion was Ben Quinn of Richmond, who won the 500 freestyle in 4:53.99.
