Wawasee’s Luke Smith leads the swimmers into the water at the start of the 100-yard freestyle Tuesday night against Memorial. Smith would win the event to help Wawasee to a big win. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE — The Northern Lakes Conference opener for the Wawasee boys and girls swim teams could not have started off much better.

The Lady Warriors rebounded from a somewhat slow start to cap a 119-67 win while the Warrior boys won all 12 events to highlight a 123-57 victory Tuesday evening at the Wawasee Middle School Natatorium. The Wawasee girls moved to 3-0 on the season while the Wawasee boys open at 1-0.

Wawasee diver soars to an eventual career-best score against Memorial.

The Lady Warriors almost ran the gamut unbeaten on the day, winning 11 of its 12 events. The lone Memorial win, a sharp 220.25 win by Ally Roskos in diving, and a second-place 176.85 by Megan Rody were all that trumped Wawasee’s Tori Sylvester, who posted a career-best 173.10 for third place.

Otherwise, Wawasee claimed wins everywhere else in an impressive opener to the conference slate.

Bre Robinson and Kayla Hershberger each won two individual events to lead the girls. Robinson met no opposition in winning the 100 freestyle (53.88) and the 200 free (1:55.60) while Hershberger took the individual medley (2:23.91) and 500 free (5:49.91). Hershberger and Robinson joined Kendra Miller and Rachel Rozow to win the 400 free relay (3:59.97) while Miller, Robinson, Mikala Mawhorter and Betsy Rozow took the 200 free relay at 1:50.13. Hershberger, the Rozow sisters and Mawhorter claimed the opening medley relay at 2:04.40.

Betsy Rozow earned honors in the backstroke (1:07.57), Rachel Rozow the breaststroke (1:15.56), Miller the 50 (27.34) and Mawhorter the butterfly at 1:12.90.

Wawasee led just 47-30 in the girls scoring heading into the break after the 50, but claimed 40 of the next 62 points to pull away.

Rachel Rozow speeds through the backstroke leg of the individual medley.

“This girls team has a lot of sophomores that swam with the seniors from a year ago,” started Wawasee head coach Julie Robinson. “They just stepped up, said alright the score is close, talked to their teammates and moved the team right along.”

The Warriors had an easier time in one of the better showing the boys team has had against Memorial in several years.

Sebastian List, Logan Brugh and Luke Smith all were part of four wins while Zac Hershberger and Andrew Busse helped the cause with three wins each.

List, Brugh and Smith all had two solo wins and the trio teamed with Hershberger to win the opening medley relay at 1:48.78. List, Brugh, Busse and Hershberger grabbed the closing 400 free relay (3:38.97) while Smith, Busse, Caige Wahlgren and Corey Kenworthy won the 200 free relay at 1:42.01.

Smith won the 50 (23.86) and 100 (54.11), Brugh the fly (59.22) and 500 (5:13.48), List the 200 (1:59.31) and backstroke (1:00.66), Busse the IM (2:20.24) and Hershberger the breaststroke at 1:04.91.

Tristan Mauk opened the night with a diving win, going head-to-head with Matt Jarvis and winning 155.35-127.45.

Andrew Busse plows ahead in the individual medley against Memorial.

“I thought the boys had a great meet overall,” Robinson said. “A lot of the boys were swimming where they left off last year, which was much better than where they started a year ago. I think coming into the pool competitive tonight really helped a lot of the guys out. It showed in a lot of their times.”

Wawasee now looks forward to renewing a budding rivalry with Concord. The Warrior boys were just 6.5 points behind Concord at the Northridge Sectional last February while the Lady Warriors edged Concord during the regular season, but were clipped by the Lady Minutemen at the NLC and Concord Sectional.

“We’re still moving kids around, I’m just trying to feel out with this young group where to place them,” Robinson said. “Yes it’s a big meet and we want to do well. But saying that, it’s still about being able to do personal bests. As long as we go in and race, this early in the season I’d rather see good times overall.”