Warsaw Splits With Culver Academy
WARSAW – Tuesday’s swim matchups between Culver Academy and host Warsaw provided a nice preview to the sectional tournaments in February. A 122-63 victory by the visiting Culver girls and a 138-48 whipping by Warsaw’s boys left plenty to be mulled for the coming weeks.
Warsaw’s boys, having had just one meet in the past month, showed fine form in the lopsided victory. The Tigers won 11 of the 12 events, sweeping five of the contests. Leading sweeps for Warsaw were Ethan Cook in the 200 freestyle (1:55.76) and 500 freestyle (5:18.77), Jayden Parrett in the 100 freestyle (49.50), Liam McCarrick in diving (206.40) and the Warsaw 400 free relay team of Cook, Parrett, Spencer Davidson and Matt Wildman at 3:26.20.
Parrett was a winner in the backstroke at 57.24, Davidson in the 50 at 23.52 and Zach Taylor won a pair of races in the individual medley at 2:08.69 and the butterfly at 58.01.
Warsaw’s medley relay team of Parrett, Davidson, Taylor and Wildman won at 1:41.81 and the 200 free relay grouping of Davidson, Taylor, Cook and Josh Miller claimed honors at 1:35.28.
Culver’s Johnny Young was the lone Eagle to win, taking the breaststroke at 1:06.38.
“We were trying to get a couple more records on the board tonight, but it didn’t happen,” admitted Warsaw head coach Tony DeBrota of his boys squad. “I think the mindset wasn’t totally there, but it was senior night and the boys just wanted to have a little fun.
“These guys know what’s ahead of them. It’s trying to beat Northridge at the NLC. They know how good they are. I think they understood that it’s about next week. I want us to have the best opportunity to give Northridge a run for their money. To at least let them know we are still here.”
Culver’s girls had a much easier road against the Lady Tigers.
Josephine Schott and Cecilia Miller were both part of four wins each to lead the Academy. Schott won the 200 free (2:05.32) and the 500 free (5:38.81) while Miller took the IM (2:29.09) and breaststroke (1:16.17). The two were also on the winning medley relay (2:03.86) as well as the 400 free relay (4:00.79).
Warsaw’s Brenna Morgan was the only hometown swimmer to claim victories Tuesday, winning the 50 at 27.34 and 100 at 58.45. Morgan entered the meet the reigning Northern Lakes Conference champion in both events, having won each Saturday for the second consecutive year.
“Culver has some very good swimmers, and our stroke work is going to be very important if we want to catch up with them,” DeBrota said of the girls. “I think we can still snag some twos and threes in a lot of the races. We aren’t really worried about catching the stars as much as trying to get the secondaries when it comes to points if we want to chase the sectional title.
“It would be ideal to get first in everything, but we know that won’t happen. This is a good meet for us, but I’m not trying to get a big win out of this tonight. Our focus is the sectional, not this dual meet. Yesterday we had a hard practice and the kids weren’t happy with some of their times. But that’s a good thing. We need to keep learning and working on technique.”
Both Warsaw teams will compete in a quad this Saturday at Warsaw with Bremen, Columbia City and Rochester – City and Rochester both sectional opponents – before the boys begin prepping for the NLC Championships starting next Thursday at Concord. The boys then have a meet Feb. 3 at Fort Wayne Snider as the girls begin prep for the Warsaw Sectional starting Feb. 5.