Concord Squeaks By Wawasee
SYRACUSE — After taking two on the chin Saturday, Concord rebounded with a pair of jabs of its own Tuesday night.
Bouncing back from a pair of losses to rival Northridge Saturday afternoon, Concord faced another Northern Lakes Conference rival in Wawasee Tuesday night and edged out wins in both swimming competitions at the Wawasee Middle School Natatorium. Both the Minutemen boys and girls won by five points, the boys 94-89 and girls 95-90.
The Concord girls avenged its lone conference loss last year to Wawasee by using a huge night from sophomore Ashley Schrock. Winning the individual medley (2:17.52) early in the evening and the breaststroke (1:10.44) in event 21, Schrock capped a full slate that had her team winning medley and 200 free relays.
A trio of individuals also had big hands in the winning ways for Concord, with Kenzie Wright winning the 50 (25.98), Laura Housman the fly (1:06.57) and Avery Smith the 500 (5:37.67). Schrock, Wright, Smith and Mariah DeFreese claimed the hotly contested 200 free relay that had Wright hold off a hard-charging Bre Robinson at the finish for a 1:45.59 win. Schrock, Housman, DeFreese and Allie Herkenroder opened the night with a big win in the medley relay at 2:03.40.
“Coming off Northridge, we knew this was another big race and we had to learn to control our emotions,” Concord head coach Tom Johnson said. “We looked at it like a conference meet as far as the days go, with prelims on Thursday and the finals on Saturday.
“I wouldn’t say we have mastered it yet. It’s just a process that begins early in the season. That’s kind of what caught us last year for the girls, beating Northridge then coming in and losing to Wawasee. We swam flat last year, but I felt like we did a better job of that this year.”
Robinson did her best to egg on her Wawasee teammates, winning the 100 (52.50) and 200 (1:54.06) and grabbing the 400 free relay with Kayla Hershberger, Kendra Miller and Betsy Rozow at 3:52.77.
Rozow had the other swim win for Wawasee, taking the backstroke at 1:07.07 and Tori Sylvester bounced back from hitting the diving board on her first attempt to score a 175.35 to win the diving portion of the night.
While the score disappointed several of the girls, Wawasee head coach Julie Robinson was focused on other numbers.
“We talked about what we needed to do coming into tonight, they all knew what we needed time-wise and we maintained that path,” Robinson said. “There were a lot of personal best times tonight, and that is really what is important for us.”
The Wawasee boys nearly caught Concord, but the depth from Dunlap became the deciding factor.
The Warriors nabbed seven wins of the 12 events, but Concord snatched up seven second and seven third places to go with the remaining five victories, two of which were crucial relay wins.
Logan Brugh continued to impress as a freshman and Sebastian List as a senior, both laying claim to three wins for the Warriors. Brugh won the fly (58.06) and 500 (5:10.69) while List had the top time in the 200 (1:56.22) and backstroke (59.97) while the two teamed with Andrew Busse and Zac Hershberger to win the 400 relay at a decent early-season time of 3:32.66.
Hershberger also had three wins, taking the breaststroke (1:04.53) and IM (2:09.25) to go with the 400 relay.
The lack of a chaser for Wawasee, or at least someone to grab mid-range points, affected Tuesday night’s outcome, but didn’t damper the mood of Robinson or of the bigger picture circumstance.
“We really had a big night on the boys side, we had so many kids step up and swim their best,” Robinson said. “We just have to take meets one day at a time. We have Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday two weeks in a row coming up. Just try to find the bright spot in each one of those.”
Trent Chamness did a lot of the heavy lifting for Concord, winning the 50 (23.50) and 100 (52.12) and anchored the medley relay to a win at 1:47.64, teaming with Luke VanderVliet, Andrew Hinds and Zach Wright. Hinds, Nathan Rose, Alex Mark and Stephen Krecsmar grabbed the 200 free relay at 1:38.83.
Mac DeShone outdueled Tristan Mauk on the diving board 200.80-178.40 to help Concord to an early lead. Mauk was noted as having reached a personal best score.
Coach Johnson was just happy his kids remained focused after the long weekend and short turnaround from one big meet to the next.
“We knew this was going to be a close meet, with a lot of close races,” Johnson said of the boys meet. “A lot of those close races developed. We didn’t win a few of those close ones, but I am proud of the effort my boys gave tonight. If we lose focus and give a couple extra spots here or there, that could have been the difference in the final score.”