Both Crawfordsville coach Kevin Hedrick and North Montgomery coach Erin Yeager knew that the county swim meet on the girls side would be a great race for both teams to see who claimed the county title on Saturday. The county title came down to the final race of the afternoon and when the scores were tallied it was the Athenian girls who narrowly edged out North Montgomery by just three points 264-261 for the county title. Southmont girls scored 82 to finish in third. The Crawfordsville boys maintained their dominance over the county and scored 316 points and more than doubled up second place North Montgomery who scored 146. Southmont finished in third with 124.
In the final event of the day in the 400 freestyle relay, CHS came in leading by just a single point. The Chargers needed to win in order to take home their second straight team title but the four-some of Sophia Melevage, Melanie Dowd, Katherine Novak, and Ellie Walker were the ones to deliver the county title to the Athenians as they finished nearly seven seconds ahead of North’s Annabel Anderson, Kylie Sankey, Dusty Robinson and Brooklyn Kerns. CHS scored 30 total points for also taking fifth place while the Chargers also earned 30 of their own for finishing second and third respectively.
“County is always that first leg that we want each year,” Crawfordsville coach Kevin Hedrick said. “We talked about wanting to swim well today more than winning and we had plenty of season bests and lifetime bests today. We had some girls step up who have been struggling a little bit as of late. For these girls it’s a testament to their hard work that they’ve put in to get to this point. I couldn’t be more proud of their efforts today.”
Yeager tipped her cap to the Athenians for a very well swam meet while also still noting how it was a great day for her girls team despite coming up short by a single point.
“Everyone saw two great teams competing for a county title today,” she said. “Both teams were aggressive and going after it. I saw some amazing swims from some of our girls who I did not expect and I also saw some things we have to work on too. It was a tight meet all the way through and I’m proud of the way our girls battled until the very end.”
Two events that stood out for CHS girls was the 50 and 100 freestyle where Horton and Marie Hesler came in seeded second and third behind North’s Anderson in the 50 and Horton and Ellie Walker who second and third in 100. The Cville duo raced to finish first and second while Anderson took third and the same thing happened in the 100 with Horton winning the county title and Walker taking second.
“Every single one of our girls who swam today contributed to this county title,” Hedrick said. “We have a few new swimmers like Alayna Schroeter and Samaya Mason who both got to experience their first county meets as freshman. We hope every year this a meet where our new swimmers feel the excitement. Every single one of these points counted today and it was a group effort from the top down.”
On the boys side of things Crawfordsville won 10 out of the 11 events. Whitman Horton broke two county records in the 100 backstroke and the 200 IM. Horton swam a 1:56.17 in the IM breaking Chad Ames record that was set back in 1999. In the backstroke Horton broke his own record that he set back in 2021 at 53.11. He swam a 52.28 to set the new record.
The lone win the Athenians didn’t get came in the 100 butterfly as Southmont’s Clay Allen claimed the county title with a time of 1:01.34. Southmont coach Dan McCormick noted how the race by Allen is something the entire team can be proud of.
“The 100 fly is something that Clay has begun to really excel at,” McCormick said. “We threw him in when Mason Cass got hurt earlier this season and honestly the best part is in that 100 fly you have three turns and two of his were not good and he’d be the first person to tell you that. But we were proud of him for still being able to hold on and win and we’re expecting him to get even better and have some much bigger swims for us the rest of the way.”
Yeager was also proud of her boys team who keeps improving and battled hard to earn that second place finish.
“I’m so proud and excited for how they swam,” she said. “It’s beyond exciting to see them take second place. We knew that Crawfordsville was almost a lock to win so for my boys being able to beat South is like winning the whole thing for them. Josh (Hunsberger), Avery (Wright), and Jack (Rogers) all swam well and some of our younger guys had their first big county meet experience and swam well too.”
Hedrick concluded his comments by saying how his boys knew the task at hand and was proud of them for winning yet another county title.
“We have 10 boys who are freshman and five have never swam before so we’re blessed to have 24 boys swimmers which is something we’ve never had before,” he said. “You combine them with the seniors we have and it’s a special combination. We were able to exert some muscle today and now look forward to the next goal which is conference.”
North Montgomery swept the diving county titles with Sam Sheetz and Anabelle Verduin bringing home the Charger wins.
