Walton —
A season ago, Northwestern’s girls swimming and diving team came from behind in the final two events to nip Western for its first Mid-Indiana Conference title since 1988.
This time around, there would be no such suspense.
The Purple Tigers passed Maconaquah for the lead with four events to go, and buoyed by an incredible display of depth, topped the field going away Saturday at Lewis Cass High School for a repeat MIC championship.
“It’s just awesome – awesome,” Northwestern coach Cindy Britten said, still shivering from a celebratory dunk in the Cass pool. “Our program has really kicked it into gear, and I credit that to our assistant coaches Roger Sprouse and Wade Roberts. They do a tremendous job with the girls, getting them ready and getting them fired up. … It was just a total team effort. It means the world to all of us.”
Northwestern took top honors in five events, but won the meet with depth, placing two or more in the top eight of seven separate events, including three in the top eight of four events.
“Our girls really stepped up,” Sprouse said. “From Day 1, this was their mission. Every girl in every lane stepped up and swam their hardest. That proved [critical Saturday].”
The Purple Tigers took top honors with 311 points, ahead of runner-up Maconaquah, who finished with 274.5 points. Hamilton Heights took third with 188, followed by Western (180), Cass (162.5) and Eastern (147).
Charlotte Ahls was a triple winner for Northwestern. She topped the field in the 200-yard individual medley (2:20.85) and 100 butterfly (1:02.90), then teamed with Savannah Gamester, Karla Martinson and Ashton Martin to win the 200 freestyle relay (1:48.34).
“I know our coaches were expecting us to win, so the pressure was on,” Ahls said. “I was really pumped going into the meet, and we did well, so I was pretty happy with how it went. My strategy was to go out there and take my races early. I feel like I did that.
“We just try to go into every practice with a positive attitude and try to work hard. That’s where you win races – in practice.”
Gamester took the top spot on the podium in the 100 backstroke in 1:07.03, topping teammate Kindra Gingerich by over a second.
Addie Roth rounded out Northwestern’s winners in the 100 breast stroke (1:16.26).
Maconaquah won four events, taking two of the three relay races.
Gabby Ladd edged Eastern’s Audra Isaac by .19 seconds to win the 50 freestyle in :26.24, while Kayleigh Grey bested Northwestern’s Rachel Johns to win the one-meter diving portion of the meet.
Ladd, Lauren Ravesloot, Kaitlin Rowlette and Kasey Daniels teamed to win the opening event of the meet, the 200 medley relay, in 1:59.06. The foursome also combined to win the final event of the day, the 400 freestyle relay, in 3:57.73.
“My girls swam with amazing heart,” Maconaquah coach Janet McManus said. “They wanted this so bad. They swam really great. We had a ton of great times. I can’t believe some of the times that we came out of here with. They’ve really worked hard. They’ve been looking forward to this meet for a long time. This group of girls is an amazing group that you don’t get very often.”
Summer Brown put together a performance to remember for Western, setting new conference records in winning the 200 freestyle (1:53.02) and 500 freestyle (5:10.84). She won the 200 free by a 16.5-second margin, before taking the 500 free by a staggering 40 seconds.
“This is one of the first meets where she really has to swim hard, in a competition like this, so it was nice to see where she was,” Western coach Brad Bennett said of Brown. “[As a team], I’m a little disappointed in our intensity level [Saturday]. We had some decent seeds coming in, and I knew it was going to be tough with Maconaquah, who got us in a dual meet this season, and Hamilton Heights, who was close with us in another dual meet. That’s my biggest disappointment, to have Heights pass us in this meet.”
Cass’ Clair Crum rounded out the day’s winners, taking a blue ribbon in the 100 freestyle in :58.48.
Isaac had an additional second-place showing for Eastern, teaming with Maddie Vint, Katie Swartzendruber and Avery Ewing to finish the 200 freestyle relay in 1:50.59.
“We swam phenomenal,” Eastern coach Dana Culp said. “We had 14 best times [Saturday]. We were really on top of our game. We’re a small group this year, so as far as competing with numbers, we don’t have them, but I was so proud of the girls. We had some great swims, so as far as gauging the girls’ progress, they were outstanding.”
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CONTRIBUTOR: Northwestern swimmer Kristina Arslain, seen here competing during a meet in November, took seventh in the 100 breast stroke in Saturday’s Mid-Indiana Conference meet. The Tigers repeated as conference champions.
Discussion
Northwestern sets fast pace at MIC meet
Purple Tigers power past Mac to repeat as girls champs.
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Eastern dominates Taylor in softball
GREENTOWN — The third time turned out not to be the charm for the Taylor softball squad as Eastern improved to 3-0 on the season over its backyard rival Wednesday night, ousting the Titans from the Class 2A Eastern Sectional 15-0 in five innings.
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Barnes sets Taylor's career hits record
Taylor baseball standout Logan Barnes made his final game at George Phares Field one to remember.
Barnes pitched four solid innings to lead Taylor past Monroe Central 9-3 Tuesday. In addition, he went 2 for 3 at the plate, pushing his career hits total to a school-record 142. -
Kats drop heartbreaker
When the postseason arrives, emotions surge like a roller-coaster. One minute, it’s a long uphill, then a wild series of events offer a barrage of frights and thrills. And then, for one team, the ride ends and there aren’t any more tickets for another go around.
After two days of chills and thrills, Kokomo’s softball team ran out of tickets Tuesday night in the Class 4A Harrison Sectional. The Kats dropped a 4-3 decision to Harrison in eight innings, giving up a run in the top of the extra frame, and having a runner tagged out at home in the bottom of the frame.
“It was a great game,” Harrison coach Dick Mitchell said. “It’s always nerve-wracking to coach in one of them, but both teams played their hearts out. Nobody deserved to lose that game, but unfortunately somebody does.” -
Comets turn heads at track regional
Heading into Tuesday’s IHSAA girls track and field regional at Fort Wayne Northrop High School’s Spuller Stadium, event workers alike weren’t sure of Eastern High School’s location.
After the dust settled, they may feel compelled to get a map out and find out where Greentown is located.
Led by seniors Sarah Wagner, Brittany Neeley and Bethany Neeley, the Comets qualified for the state finals in six separate events to finish fourth as a team with 55.5 points, behind host and champion Northrop (78), Bellmont (68) and Carroll (Allen) 66. -
GASKINS: Hibbert’s block was thing of beauty
For the better part of the NBA season, ESPN devoted all kinds of time on SportsCenter episodes to replays of two dunks. Anyone who watches any ESPN at all surely knows the two to which I’m referring: 6-foot-11 DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers posterizing 6-3 Brandon Knight of the Detroit Pistons, and 6-8 LeBron James of the Miami Heat hammering home a dunk over 6-2 Jason Terry of the Boston Celtics.
Day after day, ESPN commentators lavished endless praise, which quickly grew tiresome. The dunks were strong, but Jordan and James were much taller and heavier than Knight and Terry and the dunkers also caught perfect alley-oop passes with the defenders in poor positions to defend. Still, ESPN commentators loved these plays.
I kept wondering if a great defensive play would receive the same kind of love. -
Coons, Walker, Glassburn reach Victory Lane
When the dust settled Sunday evening at the Kokomo Speedway, a pair of drivers who have visited Victory Lane in the past at the local oval found themselves there once again while a talented up-and-comer hit the hallowed ground for the first time.
Jerry Coons Jr. had his way in the sprint car feature and Craig Walker seemed to get faster as the laps wound down to win the Street Stock main event, however Kokomo High School sophomore Kory Glassburn had to scratch and fight before scoring the first feature win of his career in the Thunder Car A-main. -
Field is set for Indianapolis 500
After being bumped from the starting field while sitting on the qualifying line on pole day, Josef Newgarden turned the fastest time on bump day, assuring himself a spot in the Indianapolis 500.
The field of 33 cars will have one final opportunity to practice on Friday before next Sunday’s 97th running of the 500.
One year ago the Sarah Fisher Racing Team withdrew Newgarden’s entry on the first day of qualifying and had to qualify on bump day. This year the team decided not to make another qualifying run and got bumped. -
Athlete of the week
Cole led the small-school Comets to the Kokomo Sectional title, their first title since 1998.
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Kats regain tennis throne
At 10:51 a.m. Saturday morning, the bulk of Kokomo’s girls tennis team sprinted from the viewing hill to the east entrance of the tennis courts to mob No. 1 singles player Morgan Mohr as she came off the court following her 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Eastern’s Courtney Clark.
The No. 3 singles match was still raging, but the team match was already won. The Wildkats had reconquered the throne from two-time defending champion Eastern and were once again champions of the Kokomo Sectional. -
Eastern boys track claims first sectional title since 1998
The boys track and field coach at Eastern High School from 1987 until last season, Paul Nicholson’s parting message to his team was simple: “Don’t deny the gift.”
That motto left such a lasting impression on the Comets’ returning athletes that they had it screen printed on their 2013 season T-shirts.
With Nicholson in attendance to celebrate with them, new coach Austin Roark and the Comets outlasted host Kokomo to win their first sectional title since 1998 Thursday night, topping the Wildkats by 3.5 points, 124.5-121.
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