To swim under the bright lights of the IUPUI Natatorium is the goal for all swimmers as the begin their seasons. Monday evening was the moment of truth as Crawfordsville hosted the Girls Swimming Sectional. The Athenians, Mounties and Chargers all looked to see their swimmers have one more week as the formula to a state finals appearance is simple. Win and you’re in.
Crawfordsville would place second (274 points) behind sectional champion Western Boone (439). North Montgomery would earn a fourth place finish with 243 points while the Mounties ended their season with a sixth place (193) performance.
Both the Chargers and Athenians are sending girls to the IHSAA State Finals as CHS senior Alyx Bannon will make her fourth appearance as she was the sectional champion in both the 50 and 100 freestyle. Bannon will be joined by freshman teammate Sophia Melevage who took home first in a thrilling 100 butterfly race. Melevage edged out Western Boone’s Micaela Stiber by two one-hundredths of a second with a time of 1:02.24.
“We’re just very blessed to have the talent that we do,” Crawfordsville coach Kevin Hedrick said. “We really fed off Alyx tonight. She’s just as solid and consistent of a competitor as they come and she just got the job done.”
Bannon will get to end her swimming career with another state finals appearance while Melevage in just her freshman campaign will get to experience the Natatorium for the first time. Hedrick says the fact that the duo will be going together will make all the difference in the world.
“I think they’ll rejoice getting to warm up and enjoy the experience together,” he said. “It can intimidating when you go there by yourself and just have your coaches there when you’re being surrounded by all those talented swimmers. The experience for Sophia will be invaluable and having someone like Alyx whose been there before will help. She’s really fun to watch swim and that race she won was very tough and I’m just proud of her for getting through.”
Crawfordsville will also send two divers in Trinity Deck and Ella Hudson to the diving regionals this evening which will take place at Plainfield High School.
The Chargers will send the tandem of Gracen Schwabe, Annabel Anderson, Maggie Michael, and Brooklyn Kerns to Indianapolis after they were victorious in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:45.01 narrowly edging out second place Western Boone (1:45.10). Charger coach Erin Yeager was full of emotion after seeing her girls qualify.
“All of the girls in that relay went best times in their separate swims and they needed to,” she said. “Maggie stepped up big after coming out of competing in the 500 and just having one relay to rest. I’m just really excited for them that they get to continue on and have another week.”
Michael, Anderson, and Schwabe have experience of competing in the state finals just a year ago. Kerns who is a freshman will get her first experience in the state finals. Yeager talked about how it is always at this time of the season just getting to enjoy the experience of the State Finals.
“It’s just about celebrating the fact that you have one more week of working hard,” she said. “I’m still in shock a little bit and are just over the moon for them because they deserve it and have earned this experience.”
While the Mounties won’t be sending anyone to the state finals, coach Jane Coudret still was pleased with how her team competed as they’ve continued to have girls in and out of the lineup.
“At times it’s hard to build a consistency with not knowing who you may have available,” she said. “I still think we put together a good end of the season meet. Most of our swims today were personal bests and Faith Allen and Marley Jones both had really good meets. A lot of other kids also stepped up and were able to have good swims.”
Southmont will graduate two seniors and Adri Smith and Bailey Barker and Coudret talked about their leadership and how they’ll be missed among the program.
“They’ve been great leaders and have made us a really close knit group,” she said. “They’ve done some fun things with the team and we will miss them a lot.”
The state finals prelims are scheduled to get underway Friday night at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis beginning at 6 p.m.
