Last Saturday the rest of Indiana found out what local teams already knew, that the Carmel Girls Swimming and Diving Sectional on Feb. 6 was loaded.

Entrants from that sectional won 10 of 12 events at the state finals, including seven by the Greyhounds, who more than doubled the points of their nearest competitor en route to their 24th straight championship.

As attention turns to the boys sectional at Noblesville, teams from Eastern, Kokomo, Northwestern and Western will have a bit more breathing room this week with Carmel only ranked No. 2 statewide, the Millers ninth, Westfield 17th and Hamilton Heights 25th.

As sarcastic as that sounds, it is a fact. While eight county girls carried a total of 13 top-12 seeds into their preliminary swims, 13 boys own 19 top-12 seeds as heats begin at 5:30 p.m. today.

The consolation and championship finals begin Saturday at 1 p.m., with diving prelims at 9 a.m.

Event winners Saturday, as well as any athlete who swims the state-cut standard time that day, advance automatically to the state finals Feb. 26-27 at the IU Natatorium.

“When you look at what the Carmel ladies were able to do, they were just a phenomenal group,” said Katfish coach Mark Schelbert. “Now, the Carmel boys team is strong, Noblesville is strong, but not so much that I feel the guys need to be overwhelmed or they need to have this climbing-up-a-mountain attitude.

“Our perspective is to go down there, be at our best and be competitive. That’s the bottom line.”

Perhaps the young man with the best chance for advancement is Kokomo’s Alex Baxter.

Baxter, a freestyler in last year’s meet, will begin tonight seeded 10th in the 200-yard individual medley and come back later No. 3 in the 100 backstroke.

Baxter’s seed time of 55.64 seconds in the backstroke, ranked 28th in the state, is a tick more than a second off the state-cut time of 54.34.

“Sectional is a show-and-tell,” Schelbert said. “That’s the time to rise and shine and show everyone who’s looking at your seed time how much work you’ve put into the season and the offseason preparing for this meet.

“With sectional you just get one shot. And that one shot has to happen on that one day, Saturday. [Baxter] has a tremendous opportunity ahead of him.”

Also for the Katfish, Dominic Cognata is seeded 10th in the 100 butterfly and 12th in the 100 back while Jacob Bizjak-Turner is No. 11 in the 100 free.

All three are seniors.

“Points are going to be hard to come by,” said Schelbert, whose team was fifth a year ago. “It’s not about a balanced lineup per se. It’s about who has opportunities to get into the top 12.

“[Those seniors] are racers that when the stakes are high they’re at their best. We’re looking forward to them having a phenomenal meet.”

Sophomore Bryan Parks returns in 1-meter diving. He was a surprise third-place finisher at sectional a year ago, earning one of four regional berths. Senior diver Kevin Moore is coming off a North Central Conference title Jan. 23.

Tigers coach Cindy Britten brings one of her best teams to sectional. They captured the first Mid-Indiana Conference title of her long tenure back on Jan. 30.

“I think they’re still on cloud nine,” Britten said of team. “It’s a tremendous accomplishment and they want to get better and better. They can do it; they just have to believe in themselves.”

Northwestern captured the MIC without winning a single event. The Tigers’ balance shows in their sectional seeds, as six swimmers show up eight times among the top 12 tonight.

Junior Curtis Bretl is seeded sixth in the 50 free and 10th in the 100 free.

“The 50 and the 100 freestyle are the two hardest races,” said Britten. “One bad start, one bad turn, a fingernail finish and you could go from sixth to 10th.

“[Bretl] has had a tremendous season. Unfortunately we’ve had some sickness go through the team, so we’re hoping they can get some rest and be ready for [today].”

Sophomore Trevor Sprouse is No. 8 in the 500 free and No. 10 in the 200 free. Tyler Peterson is 10th in the 100 backstroke, Matt Marrah is 11th in the 100 butterfly, Blake Cheek is 11th in the 100 breaststroke and Austin Roberts is 12th in the 100 breaststroke.

Western junior Colin Hughes is seeded seventh in the 200 freestyle and ninth in the 500 free. Coach Brad Bennett says it’s “a steep climb” to crack the championship final of the top six in each event.

“He’s got to have a pretty big drop to get in [the top six] in both of those,” said Bennett. “I know he can go faster and I know he’s trained to do that, but that’s a pretty big hurdle.”

Senior Mitch Hill is ninth in the 100 butterfly and 10th in the 50 free. Junior Evan Rogers is 11th in the 100 backstroke and senior Nathan Lyons is 12th in the 200 free.

Diver Taylor Branyan, a junior, was ninth at sectional a year ago.

“I’m excited to see what our guys are going to do,” Bennett said. “We don’t have any superstars but they came together at the [MIC] meet and swam as a team [to finish third]. We’re excited to have that opportunity again.”

The Comets, a small, young yet plucky team this season, have no top-12 seeds. But Braden Barnett is right on the cusp, seeded No. 13 in both the 50 and 100 freestyle.

“He’s real excited,” first-year coach Greg Hensler said of Barnett, a sophomore. “He swims at [Howard County Aquatics] club too, so he’s got some friends in those heats he’s going to be against, so he’s looking forward to competing.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. Even though we couldn’t put numbers on the board as far as wins, the times have dropped and they’ve done an excellent job of stepping up to the challenge with only eight guys.”