MIDDLEBURY – There were moments up and down the line Saturday at the Northridge Girls Swimming Sectional that will be remembered for a lifetime. Concord winning its first team title in five years was the cap on a day that had individual swimmers leaving the pool very excited.

Wawasee’s Paige Miller had another banner day in her final sectional. Miller won both the 200 and 500 freestyles with room to breathe in both races. Miller pulled away from Northridge’s Katie Hughes in the 200 to win at 1:51.02, but Hughes making the state cut with her 1:52.82. The cool and collected Miller would then put on a show in the 500, swimming stroke for stroke with Hughes until the 15th lap, where Miller’s kick off the wall had her emerge a full length in front, and the rangy senior never looked back. Miller just missed her school record of 4:54.37 with her 4:55.47 on Saturday, still a meet record in its own right.

Hughes would make the state cut for a second time in the 500 with her 4:58.78.

Wawasee’s Paige Miller gestures to the crowd after winning the 500 freestyle.

“Paige had everything worked out, she wanted to go 4:55 and that was her plan,” said Wawasee head coach Julie Robinson. “She was falling off pace a little bit, and I told her she had to go. When she got to the wall and made the turn to get away from Katie, I knew that was the burst of speed she needed to get to her planned goal. I knew she was going to nail it. Paige has been so relaxed all season, and she just knew what she wanted to do. She wasn’t really racing Katie anymore. She had that quiet confidence of what she wanted to do, and then went out and did it.”

Fellow Warrior senior Shelby Adams may have been the most emotional fifth-place swimmer in the state. Admitting she didn’t have a shot to catch the leaders or the state cut in the breaststroke, Adams went realistic and shot for her school mark in the event, and was able to get it in her final high school swim. Needing to get into the 1:10 range to set the record, Adams forced herself home to catch the clock at 1:10.69. It was fifth place on the board, but Adams won her own battle.

“I dug into my hard work throughout the season, and knew I had to get the record broken again,” Adams said. “I said it comes down to this, you either stay down and keep pushing no matter how hard it hurts, or you’ll just live with the fact that you never quite got there. I mustered through the race with all the strength in me and I finished the race with a burning fire. I couldn’t be more proud of myself.”

One other Wawasee moment to take away was the consolation backstroke swim of Alyssa Koch. Having missed a portion of the season to a serious illness, Koch had only been in the water less than a month heading into the sectional. Just missing the championship final of the event Thursday night, Koch came back to win the consolation with a late surge to clip Westview’s Madison Burton at 1:04.11. The moment brought tears to at least one person in the Northridge Natatorium.

“That child,” began Robinson of Koch, “I think I cried before the start of her two-IM. I think I cried after her two-IM. Then the backstroke. She just, there are some things you can teach and other things you can’t. If she takes anything away from this season, she learned how to, when life smacks you down, she got up and fought. The doctors didn’t think she could do it, but she came back out. She did it.”

Wawasee’s Shelby Adams smiles after breaking her own school record in the breaststroke.

Wrapping up Wawasee’s championship showings were Adams in seventh in the individual medley (2:16.86), Ella Park seventh in the 500 (5:27.39), Ebba Bjurman eighth in the backstroke (1:03.47), and Wawasee’s three relays for the medley (seventh, 2:03.84), 200 (fifth, 1:45.25) and 400 (third, 3:51.27).

Per Robinson, Wawasee’s swimmers achieved 16 lifetime best performances Saturday throughout the meet.

Concord wrapped up its fourth sectional title after taking first and fourth in the breaststroke, Olivia Trout doing the honors with a 1:04.84 championship with Gabriella Sponseller fourth sandwiching Northridge’s Jenna Northcutt and August Hartzell. Concord’s runner-up state-cut time in the 400 free relay of 3:35.06 gave the Minutemen enough points to take the team crown 481-476 over Northridge. The Raiders had the consolation prize of setting the meet record and the automatic qualifier with a 3:30.17 400 relay title.

The two teams made a habitual exercise of finishing among the top two and stealing state cut times when not winning titles. Concord went one-two in the 50 free, with Maddisen Lantz and MaKayla Miller embracing after 24.23 and 24.27 times.  MaKayla Miller came back to win the 100 at 52.80. Concord’s medley and 400 free relays both hit state cuts and the 200 relay is on the borderline.

Northridge got titles from all three of its relays, the medley at 1:44.93, the 200 at 1:37.36 and the 400. Sydnee Emerson won the IM at 2:03.95, Lauren Miller won the backstroke at 56.76, and Sara Troyer crushed the old sectional record in diving with a 521.90, besting Concord’s Lauren Boone’s mark of 485.30 set last year. Boone would take third on Saturday, joining Ridge’s Rylee Dahlman and Mary Grossman as regional qualifiers for Tuesday.

NorthWood had only Kate Jarvis and the 400 relay swimming in championship flights Saturday. Jarvis just missed the school record in the 100 after going 55.27, the old mark is 55.05. Jarvis would have a great moment in winning the consolation of the 200 free, going 2:02.12. The 400 relay was eighth at 4:13.55.