PENDLETON — Continued dominance and early season improvements paying off highlighted Thursday night’s swimming and diving meet between Greenfield-Central and Pendleton Heights.
In a sweep of the Arabians, the girls stayed undefeated in dual meets this season with a 144-41 win while the boys won their first meet of the season, 105-74.
“It feels really good,” Greenfield-Central head coach Ben Felver said. “This week, we had Pendleton Heights tonight and then we come back with Mt. Vernon on Monday, so this was an area on the schedule that we circled and really wanted to see some improvements. We did that and swam really, really well.”
Despite splitting wins in the 12 events with Pendleton Heights, the boys won by over 30 points.
For Felver, that’s a testament to the team’s depth and the effort of the team’s second and third swimmers.
In the 200-yard freestyle and 200 individual medley, the boys took first, third and fourth; in the 50 free and 100 free they took second, third and fourth; and in the 100 butterfly, they grabbed second and third.
In the 500 freestyle, they grabbed the top three spots, and in the 200-yard freestyle relay, they took first and second.
“Our second and third swimmers swam well,” Felver said. “We specifically challenged that group of kids that they had to beat their second and third, and they really stepped up.”
Mason Stoughton got the Cougars first win of the night in the 200 free with a time of 2:03.23, beating Pendleton Heights’ Evan McKinney by .04 seconds.
Aiden Michael followed him with a win in the 200 IM, Gabe Hall won the 1-meter diving, Tyler Mullen took first in the 500 free, Colten Mayberry beat the field in the 100 breaststroke by nearly eight seconds, and the team of Mayberry, Michael, Isaac Johnson and Job Grimes won the 200 freestyle relay.
“The biggest thing is the kids have bought in that they can improve, and that they can maybe make some noise in some of the bigger meets,” Felver said. “We challenge them every day to take a little step forward, and they have. We’ve really practiced well and they’ve just bought into the process.”
On the girls side, Greenfield-Central continued their red-hot start to the season.
With the meet sandwiched in between big weekend events, and the meeting with Hancock County rival Mt. Vernon on Monday, the Cougars had no problem getting up for Thursday’s battle with the Arabians.
They swept all 12 events.
“You would think it would be tough to get up, but they’re just a hungry bunch. They were super-excited for tonight and were excited to cheer on the boys and get them going,” Greenfield-Central girls head coach Emily Logan said. “I think that kept them up, and they wanted to make tonight a total team package.”
A trio of Cougars won two individual events.
Alyssa Osborn was the top swimmer in both the 200 IM and the 100-yard breaststroke, Taylor Parsons won both the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke, and Rachel Stutz took the top spot in the 50 and 100 free.
Cecilia Johnson grabbed first in the 200 free, Katie Jennings won the 500 free, and Kersey Hudson beat teammate Avery Davis by two points to win the 1-meter diving event.
“The girls swam really well. We’re trying to figure out our lineup when it comes to those third swimmers, so we played around with that a bit tonight,” Logan said. “Pendleton is usually pretty strong, so we came in with a strong lineup and went after it. The girls really hammered it and did a nice job. They came out very strong, and I was very pleased.”
The girls swept all three relays to finish off the clean sweep.
Parsons joined Caroline Felver, Kaylie Butler and Josie Kinnaman to win the 200 medley relay. Osborn, Johnson, Stutz and Selah Vahle won the 200 free relay, and to close off the night that same group took first in the 400 free relay.
