Rileigh Atwood and her Wawasee teammates had a big day at the Elkhart Girls Swim Sectional. (File photo by Mike Deak)

ELKHART – Northridge’s blitz of the Northern Lakes Conference a month ago forced a lot of area coaches to focus on the state standards.

Boy, or perhaps, girl, did they ever.

Nine non-champion times met the IHSAA state standard at Saturday’s Elkhart Girls Swim Sectional, and several others will be very interested in the state heat sheets that will be released in the coming days.

Seven of the nine standards went to Concord, including all three of its relays, both Ella Lantz and Kiran Stauffer in the 200 free, Stauffer in the 500 free and Grace Brenneman in the 50 free, who was within a half-second of defending 2019 state champion and 2020 sectional champion Elsa Fretz of Northridge.

Wawasee had the other two, seeing its medley relay qualify with a 1:47.80 and Alexis Mishler break the mark in the backstroke in a runner-up 57.23. Mishler will be awaiting a call about her 100 freestyle, which at 52.63 is firmly on the bubble, just four-tenths off the state cut.

The Warriors otherwise in general put on a good show, taking third in the team standings with 278 points, only trailing Northridge’s championship 538 and Concord’s 465. Kiah Farrington placed fourth in the 50 and seventh in the fly, Cammy Kryder took sixth in the 100 free and Ella Park and Lily Tyler went 6-7 in the 500 free among a full day of battle.

Wawasee’s 400 free relay was third, as was its medley relay, and the 200 free relay was fourth.

Rileigh Atwood had a consolation win in the individual medley, as did Ella Sommers in the breaststroke.

Northridge had all three of its relays win titles, and pulled doubles from Fretz in the 50 and butterfly, and Syd Nethercutt in the 200 free and 500 free. Jenna Nethercutt added a win in the breaststroke. The Northridge divers went 1-2-4, led by Kaitlin Simons, followed by Jiselle Miller and Evie Long.

Concord got championships from Audrey Lantz in the IM, Brenneman in the 100 free, and Ella Lantz in the backstroke.

NorthWood had reason to celebrate for freshman Elle Roberts, who won the consoles of the 50 free.