Valley’s Makena Smith won the individual title in the breaststroke Friday night at the Three Rivers Conference Girls Swim Championships. InkFreeNews file photo by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

BUNKER HILL – Maconaquah is used to the podium at the Three Rivers Conference Swim Championships. The Lady Braves stood as repeat team champions Friday night after besting five other TRC programs in the conference tournament.

Maconaquah scored 349 points to stay well ahead of runner-up Rochester’s 269 points. Tippecanoe Valley was third at 189, followed by Manchester at 164, Wabash at 116 and Northfield at 25.

Maconaquah scored key points in sweeping all three relays, taking the medley (2:08.44), 200 (1:51.67) and 400 (4:08.21), as well as presenting the only three divers, led by Brionna Jernagan’s 343.55. Kaylinn Teegardin also had a pair of wins for the Lady Braves, winning the 50 free (27.71) and coming back in the 100 free (1:00.46).

Manchester had a monster night from its sister act of Josie and Halle Briner, the two each won a pair of conference titles. Josie won the 200 free (2:02.46) and butterfly (1:02.47) and Halle claimed the individual medley (2:13.36) and backstroke (1:00.76).

Rochester and Tippecanoe Valley also had championship swims. Makenna Beall won the 500 freestyle for the Zebras at 5:34.19 and Makena Smith came through for Valley in the breaststroke at 1:17.21.

Smith also was among a handful of top threes for the Vikings at the TRCs, placing third in the fly (1:13.38), while Shayleigh Honeycutt was second in the IM (2:34.29), Kendall Craig was third in the 100 free (1:03.77) and the Valley medley relay was third (2:14.67).

The boys will take center stage Saturday back at Maconaquah in their half of the TRC Championships.