Wawasee Swimming: Another Step In The Right Direction
DUNLAP – The team wins may not have been there Tuesday night, but Wawasee had plenty to be excited about coming away from its swim duals at Concord. Ten lifetime bests were swam by the boys, which hung around with the perennial Northern Lakes Conference powerhouse Minutemen, 105-81, while the girls had Rileigh Atwood set a school record in the breaststroke among its 126-57 result.
The boys had four wins among the lot, and nearly made an impressive comeback in the final 400 free relay. After the second leg of the relay, Concord held a tenuous stroke lead on Wawasee at the exchange, where Brett Willaman swam a fantastic third leg to keep Wawasee right in it as Willie Harris did his best to keep Concord ahead. As Matt Bond and Brady Robinson hit the water, the two were virtually tied after the third turn. The wake on the wall didn’t give away the winner until Bond’s name had the ‘1’ at 3:25.05 to Robinson’s ‘2’ at 3:25.27.
Two pretty advanced times for early December.
“The one thing I asked of the kids tonight was to come out and race, every event, every swimmer,” said Wawasee head coach Julie Robinson. “If we walk out of here and we have what we had tonight where nearly every swim was a personal best, then nothing else on the scoreboard matters. That’s what we are looking for. They came out and raced, and that final relay was a product of that. I couldn’t be more proud of where they are right now.”
Robinson would win both the individual medley and backstroke without much trouble, going 1:59.50 in the IM and 57.39 in the back. Jared Krugman would also push out two wins, edging Garrett Roberts in the 200 free at 1:49.25 and breaking five minutes in the 500 at 4:58.10.
Wawasee continued to have a smattering of lifetime bests, breaking double digits for the second straight dual meet. Included in the lot were two in diving with Dane Jenkins at 205.20 and Brady Claassen at 202.50, both eclipsing the 200-point mark for the first time. Concord’s Austin Leas was the runaway diver of the meet at 289.80.
“It’s great to see,” Robinson said of the constant rewriting of personal record sheets. “I think they are just getting stronger and stronger. They are swimming tired and know their confidence is going to take them a long way. When you swim like this in December, it can only help you when working towards what’s to come in January and February.”
Atwood’s run to catch the breaststroke school record took all of four duals in her career. The freshman was hot right off the block, swimming a 1:06 pace the first half, then coming home at 1:09.88, breaking Shelby Adams’ record of 1:10.64 back in 2015. Tuesday likely was the first of a continual lowering of the mark, one Robinson wasn’t surprised to see drop so quickly.
“Rileigh has an extensive club background, so she is used to swimming at this high level,” said Robinson of Atwood, who also set a lifetime best of 58.91 in the 100 freestyle. “For her, this was probably just another meet. The breast, to come out after a great 100 free and then get the record, that’s great for her going forward.”
Ella Park saw her personal six-race win streak come to an end Tuesday, falling to Alex Beer in the 200 freestyle, Beer’s 2:02.87 well ahead of Park’s 2:05.56 pace. But Park came back strong in the 500 free, dropping a 5:32.84 to beat Veronica Lidy by two strokes. The return to form in the 500 was telling for Park, who wasn’t necessarily upset about her first loss of the season.
“She was actually really happy with that 200 free, and that gave her confidence heading into the 500,” Robinson said of Park. “It told her that hey, you can swim up there with the elite. You can hold your own. You belong in the front. And she swam like it. That was a special moment for me to see her come back in the 500 and get that win. She struggled with her confidence at times, and to see her get that back is fun to watch.”
Wawasee comes home Saturday to see what it can do against the field at the Wawasee Swim Invite.