Crawfordsville, Southmont and North Montgomery swimming and diving teams will compete in one of their biggest meets of the season Saturday as all three schools converge for the annual county swim meet at Crawfordsvilel High School. And bragging rights are again at stake.
The boys side has been dominated by Crawfordsville as the Athenians will look to extend their streak of seven consecutive county titles to eight.
Last season the Athenian boys, even though short-handed, ran away with the county title with 212 points compared to second place Southmont’s 81.
“We have quite a bit of confidence going into county,” Crawfordsville coach Kevin Hedrick said. “We hope to use the excitement of the county meet to swim as many life time bests as possible.”
For the Mounties on the boys side, they have a fairly young team and they will be looking to gain experience.
“Right now, we are just trying to get everyone healthy,” she said. “We have a lot of inexperience on the team, but I continue to see improvement and that is what is important.”
The Charger boys team is in a similar position. Coach Erin Yeager has always been focused on the improvement of her swimmers and ahead of a big county matchup, that focus hasn’t changed.
“My boys team is very young. Of the 10 of them, five are freshman and two are sophomores,” Yeager said. “So Saturday will be a chance for them to test themselves and start to mentally prepare for the later part of the season. We will swim several big meets at Crawfordsville (conference, sectional) so this is the opportunity to start mentally prepping for those meets.”
On the girls side, Southmont is looking for their third straight county title. A season ago the Mounties edged out North Montgomery 276-250 to defend their crown.
Coudret isn’t focused on a season ago and instead having her swimmers focused and prepared is the top priority.
“We will approach this meet like any other meet,” she said. “We talk a lot about good racing skills and improving on the things we can control. It is hard to compare what happened last year with lots of quarantined swimmers from different teams.”
For the Athenians they have added a talented crop of freshman that includes Sophia Melevage, Ellie Walker, Guinever Schmiitzer-Torbert and more.
Along with those freshman, Hedrick is seeing more consistency throughout the entire girls team and is hopeful for a successful outing.
“We are definitely getting more consistent as we progress,” he said. “Those who are putting in the work will reap the benefits. Depth will always be the biggest consideration for county, and we hope to have everyone healthy for Saturday and being a little undermanned is always part of the challenge and hopefully we will use it as incentive to dig deep.”
The Charger girls have spent the season slowly progressing towards this meet. Yeager hopes that progression pays off Saturday.
“The girls have been working hard this year in the pool and in the weight room,” she said. “We have been focusing on getting a little bit better each time, hopefully that will help us do well at the county meet.”
The girls side seems pretty wide open while the Athenian boys will once again be heavy favorites.
The county meet starts at 10 a.m Saturday at Crawfordsville High School.
