Greenfield-Central’s Norah Johnson competes during the girls 100-yard breaststroke during the sectional final at New Palestine High School on Monday, Feb. 8, 2022. (Tom Russo/Daily Reporter)
INDIANAPOLIS — After capturing its ninth consecutive sectional title earlier this week, the Greenfield-Central girls swimming and diving team competed in six events overall during Friday’s opening night at the IHSAA state finals.
The Cougars rewrote history three times and advanced in two events Friday, led by returning individual state qualifier Norah Johnson, a junior, who participated in her third consecutive state finals inside the Indiana University Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI in Indianapolis.
Johnson was 11th overall during Friday’s 100-yard breaststroke preliminaries, besting her seed time of 1:04.86. Her new school-record preliminary time of 1:04.51 places her in today’s state consolation finals.
Last year, Johnson finished 13th at the state meet in the same event with a time of 1:04.84. Her 2020-21 state preliminary time was 1:04.90.
The top 16 in each swimming event during Friday’s preliminaries returns for competition today with the top-eight individuals or relay teams vying for championship honors.
Competitors placing ninth through 16th during the preliminaries will swim in the consolation finals today.
The diving preliminaries open the state meet’s second day this morning at 9 a.m., followed by diving semifinals. The championship and consolation races, beginning at 1 p.m.
The Cougars’ 200 medley relay team consisting of Alyssa Osborn, Johnson, Mary Ellen Stratman and Rachel Stutz also made the consolation cut with a time of 1:49.49, which was good enough for 16th overall.
The Cougars’ relay quartet nearly matched its seed time of 1:49.43 in the preliminaries.
Individually, Osborn won her heat race and turned in a new school-record time of 2:10.46 during the 200 IM preliminaries to place 19th. Stratman was 27th in the 100 butterfly preliminaries with a time of 1:00.43.
Greenfield-Central’s 200 freestyle relay team placed 28th during the state preliminaries with a time of 1:43.54, which was better than its seed time of 1:44.01.
Stutz, Osborn, Stratman and Johnson were 18th in the 400 freestyle relay, posting a new school-record time of 3:38.22, which toppled their school-record seed time of 3:40.05. The relay team set a school record and a new sectional record on Monday.
As freshmen in 2019-20, Johnson and Stratman competed with the Cougars’ state-qualifying 200 medley relay. Stratman qualified for state in the 200 IM that same year, turning in a time of 2:15.95. The duo were also on the Cougars’ 200 freestyle relay that placed 25th at the state meet in 2020.
Johnson finished 27th overall in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:08.13 in 2019-20.
In 2020-21, Johnson and Stratman were part of the Cougars’ state-qualifying 200 medley and 400 free relays. Stratman also swam in the 100 butterfly state preliminaries that year, and Johnson competed in the 100 free.
