FORTVILLE — With the swimming and diving season beginning to ramp up towards the sectional meets in February, Mt. Vernon showed promising things on Thursday night at their home pool.
In a dual meet with Hoosier Heritage Conference foe Pendleton Heights, the girls defeated the Arabians 114-63, while the boys fell 111-72.
“They looked really good,” Mt. Vernon head coach Brad Grieshop said of his girls team. “They’ve put in a lot of really good work, they’re just having fun and enjoying being a team, and they’re coming together at the right time.”
The girls won 10 of the 12 events to help grab the team victory, and on Senior Night, were led by their trio of fourth-year swimmers — Anna Hiner, Madelyn Meyer, and Emme Grubbs.
The trio, along with Calista Smith, began the night with a first-place swim in the 200-yard medley relay, and added another relay win later on in the 200-yard freestyle.
Hiner added a pair of solo wins in the 200 individual medley and the 100 freestyle, and Meyer won her solo event, the 100 butterfly.
Hiner’s time of 2:25.70 in the 200 IM was nearly four seconds better than second place, and in the 100 free she swam a time of 56.75 seconds.
Meyer bested Pendleton Heights’ Kennedy Safford in the butterfly with a time of 1:09.62.
“It’s awesome for this group. They’ve been with the swim club from Day 1, just like the senior boys last year. This is kind of that girls group that is finally coming through,” Grieshop said. “To see them go out with not only wins but fast swims, and the fun that they had tonight, was awesome.”
Smith won two individual events. She beat the field by nearly 15 seconds in the 200 free with a time of 2:09.84, and later won the 100-yard breaststroke with a swim of 1:14.94.
The Marauders other two individual wins came from Candice Stites in the 500 free and Taylor Sauri in the 1-meter diving event.
Stites swam a 6:28.49 to best the field by 28 seconds, and Sauri finished with a final dive score of 173.50.
To cap off the big night, the 400 free relay team of Stites, Sophie Martin, Cara Gray and Catherine Hiner swam a 4:30.86 to win the event by 24 seconds.
On the boys side, Mt. Vernon got an early win from Adison Mayes before closing out the night strong with wins in the final two events.
In the second event of the evening, Mayes outlasted Pendleton Heights’ Evan McKinney for first place in the 200 free with a swim of 1:57.36.
To end the meet, Daniel Harter took first in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:13.16 and the relay team of Harter, Mayes, Ryland Booher and Tona McClintock took the top spot in the 400 free with a time of 3:44.46.
“The boys swam well. Both us and Pendleton had great conference meets. We dropped a lot of time there, and then again tonight, so right now the boys are where they need to be,” Grieshop said. “They’re working hard and coming together as a team and just really supporting each other, so that’s been awesome to see.”
Charlie Johnson took second in the 200 IM, Mayes was runner-up in the 100 butterfly, Harter was second in the 100 free, and Ethan Leal finished in second in the 500 free.
“We’re still making little corrections here and there,” Grieshop said. “There are just some things that we’re trying to button up, and we’re trying to make sure that our events are where they need to be come sectional.”
Mt. Vernon travels to Yorktown Saturday at 10 a.m. for a meet with the both the Tigers and Shelbyville.
