Concord Sectional Sending Extras To State
DUNLAP – The state cut exists to give swimmers who are in fast sectionals a fair chance to advance in the state tournament. On top of the 11 swim event champions, 10 others made the state cut at the Concord Boys Swimming Sectional Saturday afternoon to pepper the state field with plenty of local representation.
Both the 200 and 500 freestyles had multiple swimmers make the cut. The 200 had Northridge’s Spencer Lehman claim the title with a meet and pool record of 1:40.50 followed by teammates Logan Elijah (1:41.11) and Seth Cripe (1:41.55) along with Concord’s Stephen Krecsmar (1:42.12). Wawasee’s Logan Brugh finished fifth at 1:44.31, right off the state standard of 1:43.80, with a possibility of getting picked up as an at-large in the event.
Brugh did claim his ticket to state in the 500. Lehman again was the master of the event, breaking the meet and pool records with a 4:33.03, with Cripe second at 4:38.55 and Brugh third at 4:39.39. Northridge’s Chayton Friesen also earned a state cut bid in the 500 (4:39.76) as the second-through-fourth all bundled in together. Brugh’s time in the 500 is the new school record, which he originally set at the Northern Lakes Conference meet earlier in the season.
Asking Wawasee head coach Julie Robinson when she felt Brugh could hit the state cut, she remarked, “The first 50. We mapped out how he swam at conference and he took out his first 50 faster than conference. Every one of his 50’s were under what he had at conference. I knew he was going to get to it. After Spencer (Lehman) you had three boys all together, it was a great race.”
Each one of the relays will have multiple teams from the sectional going to state. Northridge won the medley relay at 1:36.84 while Elkhart Central made the cut at 1:37.43. Concord (1:26.93), Northridge (1:27.21) and Central (1:28.05) made the cut in the 200 free while Northridge (3:10.40) and Concord (3:13.24) will swim at state in the 400 free relay.
“It was definitely set up to swim fast, the Concord swimmers were pretty excited winning their 200 free relay,” Robinson said. “It wasn’t really surprising to see all these fast times, these kids are all very good. What we saw at conference was about the same thing, and Elkhart has a few really fast swimmers.”
Northridge’s Camden Koch was a double winner in the individual medley (1:56.80) and backstroke (52.66). Wawasee’s Brady Robinson gave Koch a run in both events but landed third in the IM at 1:59.56 and fifth in the backstroke at 54.67.
“Brady just didn’t take it out like he did at conference,” coach Robinson stated. “By breaststroke he wasn’t able to make it up. He just needed to take it out faster from the beginning.”
Elijah was tops in the 100 free (47.19) and Jesse Drake was first in the breaststroke (58.81) to help Northridge to the sectional title, its 14th overall and 13th in a row. Concord, which were second in the team scoring, had Nathan Rose win the 50 (21.66) and Krecsmar set a meet and pool record in the butterfly at 50.97.
Goshen had a trio of divers qualify for Tuesday’s Mishawaka Regional in champion Hudson Kay (491.00), Jacob Isnogle and Sam Bowser along with diving runner-up Logan Brown of Elkhart Central.
Wawasee, which finished fourth in the team standings, had some decent showings among all the action at Concord. Senior Danny Allen won the backstroke consoles (1:54.24) and classmate Logan Haessig took the IM consoles at 2:09.17.
“We went out and had a great season,” Robinson said. “The boys did really well. The young kids Jake Cowan, for a freshman not really swimming before, he cut 15 seconds off his fly. It was a really great season for all the kids.”