SYRACUSE - The 400 freestyle relay team of seniors Steven Lowrance, Jason McClintock and Nate Long and junior Nate Taylor has been strong all season for Warsaw's boys swim team.

Saturday was no different.

With the Tigers leading rival Wawasee by one point, 313-312, heading into the final event of Saturday's Wawasee Sectional, the Tigers' talented foursome came through when their team needed them, taking first place with a time of 3:15.49.

Their time was two seconds faster than their preliminary round time and three seconds faster than the second-place quartet of seniors Brian Doty, Zac Conley and Steve Dingeldein and junior Aaron Phillippe from Wawasee.

The win qualified the Tiger foursome for this weekend's state finals and propelled Warsaw to the sectional championship, while Wawasee came up eight points short of its fifth straight sectional title.

"The 400 freestyle relay has been good for us," said Warsaw coach Terry Aukeman, who was voted sectional coach of the year by his peers. "We have a lot of good 100 freestylers. I knew if it came down to the last even we could win."

The Tigers won the team championship with 345 points, while Wawasee was second with 338 points.

While there were 12 teams that scored points Saturday, it was more or less a two-horse race between the Tigers and host Warriors.

"This really was a group effort," said Aukeman. "The wins were huge, obviously, but everyone did a great job. This was a total team effort. We lost to Wawasee in the dual season and finished behind them at the conference meet. It's nice to come here and win the sectional."

Culver Academies finished third with 225 team points, followed by Plymouth (125), Knox (70), Columbia City (66), Manchester (63), Rochester (56), Tippecanoe Valley (31), Oregon-Davis (26), Northfield (23) and Fairfield (3).

The sectional champions in the 11 swimming events, as well as those who made the state cut time, advanced to the state finals, which will take place Friday and Saturday at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis.

The top four divers from Saturday's Wawasee sectional - Tippecanoe Valley's Trenton Newsome, Warsaw's Nate Wilson and Wawasee's Chris Cavell and Justin Crosby - advanced to Tuesday's diving regional at Penn High School.

The Tigers took first place in eight of the 11 swimming events Saturday, while Wawasee got a first-place finish from Aaron Phillippe in the 500 freestyle and a win from Chris Szynal, Jordan Rantz, Conley and Phillippe in the 200 freestyle relay.

Tippecanoe Valley's lone first-place finisher was Newsome, who won the diving competition with 360.9 points. Wilson was second for Warsaw with 325.6 points, followed by Warrior teammates Cavell (322.95) and Crosby (302.95).

Taylor and Lowrance each had two individual sectional championships for the Tigers.

Lowrance won the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle races, while Taylor was a winner in the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley.

Warsaw was able to finish one-two in the 100 freestyle and 200 individual medley, as Thad Wallin followed Taylor in the 200 I.M. and Long followed Lowrance in the 100 freestyle.

Wallin took first for Warsaw in the 100 backstroke, while Long was a winner in the 200 freestyle.

The foursome of Kyle Marose, Wallin, Taylor and Lowrance swam a sectional championship time of 1:37.55 in the 200 medley relay, the first event of the day.

"We had a lot of first-place finishes, but it was depth that was our strength today," said Aukeman. "We won a lot of races, but there's got to be a lot of consistency there. A lot of people stepped up when we needed it. Like I said, this was a group effort."

WAWASEE SECTIONAL

Team scores - Warsaw 345, Wawasee 338, Culver Academies 225, Plymouth 125, Knox 70, Columbia City 66, Manchester 63, Rochester 56, Tippecanoe Valley 31, Oregon-Davis 26, Northfield 23, Fairfield 3

Note - Top 6 finishers were in the final; places 7-12 were in the consolation. Sectional champions in swimming events, as well as those who met the state standard, advance to this weekend's state finals at IUPUI. The top four finishers in diving advanced to Tuesday's Penn Regional.

200 medley relay - 1. Warsaw (Wallin, Taylor, Marose, Lowrance) 1:37.55, 2. Wawasee 1:41.39, Culver Acad. 1:43.13, 4. Plymouth 1:48.73, 5. Manchester 1:55.00, 6. Knox 1:55.29, 7. Rochester 1:56.13, 8. Columbia City 1:59.25, 9. Oregon-Davis 2:08.63, 10. T. Valley 2:25.64

200 freestyle - 1. Long (War) 1:46.17, 2. Phillippe (Wawa) 1:46.45, 3. Conley (Wawa) 1:51.50, 4. McClintock (War) 1:53.49, 5. Bourgraf (CulvAc) 1:55.21, 6. Hoffman (Wawa) 1:56.16, 7. Esterline (CC) 1:54.08, 8. K. Munsch (War) 1:59.53, 9. Simpson (Roch) 2:00.27, 10. Metzger (CulvAc) 2:02.28, 11. Tosi (CulvAc) 2:02.59, 12. Hippensteel (Manch) 2:04.60

200 individual medley - 1. Taylor (War) 1:57.75, 2. Wallin (War) 2:00.79, 3. Rantz (Wawa) 2:03.52, 4. Dingeldein (Wawa) 2:03.89, 5. Medlin (CulvAc) 2:06.78, 6. Marose (War) 2:17.60, 7. Larkin (CulvAc) 2:09.83, 8. Smith (Wawa) 2:13.16, 9. McNeeley (Manch) 2:18.36, 10. Statler (Roch) 2:22.79, 11. Jenkins (CulvAc) 2:24.24, 12. Wickens (Ply) 2:28.91

50 freestlye - 1. Lowrance (War) :21.50, 2. Krantzberg (CulvAc) :22.14, 3. Doty (Wawa) :22.90, 4. Szynal (Wawa) :22.96, 5. Hanson (War) :23.56, 6. Wolf (Wawa) :23.80, 7. Revere (:24.58), 8. Voronstov (Ply) :24.63, 9. Colalillo (CulvAc) :24.25, 10. Newsome (TV) :24.83, 11. Osterday (Fairfield) :24.94, 12. Brock (CC) :25.07

Diving - 1. Newsome (TV) 360.90, 2. Wilson (War) 325.60, 3. Cavell (Wawa) 322.95, 4. Crosby (Wawa) 302.95, 5. Spoor (Ply) 286.85, 6. Furnivall (Roch) 281.05, 7. Teaney (CulvAc) 280.70, 8. Thompson (Wawa) 272.15, 9. Jefferis (War) 253.85, 10. Voronstov (Ply) 253.10, 11. Sharp (War) 241.20, 12. Manns (Knox) 238.10

100 butterfly - 1. Vervynckt (Ply) :54.00, 2. McLaughlin (CulvAc) :54.74, 3. Marose (War) :55.05, 4. Dingeldein (Wawa) :55.46, 5. Szynal (Wawa) :55.69, 6. Bourgraf (CulvAc) :58.54, 7. Tryonis (Knox) :58.79, 8. Colabillo (CulvAc) :59.92, 9. Wear (Wawa) 1:00.09, 10. Smoker (War) 1:00.10, 11.Martz (War) 1:00.11, 12. McLiver (Ply) 1:04.51

100 freestyle - 1. Lowrance (War) :47.48, 2. Long (War) :48.00, 3. Krantzberg (CulvAc0 :50.13, 4. Doty (Wawa) :50.32, 5. Gunderson (Wawa) :50.87, 6. Hanson (War) :54.13, 7. Esterline (CC) :52.10, 8. Wolf (Wawa) :52.94, 9. Slomski (CulvAc) :53.28, 10. Tomaro (CulvAc) :55.06, 11. Hippensteel (Man) :55.22, 12. Lockwood (Ply) :55.80

500 freestyle - 1. Phillippe (Wawa) 4:55.91, 2. Stearley (NF) 5:05.26, 3. Larker (CulvAc) 5:10.84, 4. Conley (Wawa) 5:11.07, 5. McClintock (War) 5:12.70, 6. Hoffman (Wawa) 5:13.13, 7. K. Munsch (War) 5:20.55, 8. Metzger (CulvAc) 5:27.06, 9. Suhany (War) 5:35.15, 10. Tosi (CulvAc) 5:37.87, 11. Keller (Ply) 5:58.65, 12. Carpenter (Ply) 5:59.84

200 freestyle relay - 1. Wawasee (Szynal, Rantz, Conley, Phillippe) 1:30.44, 2. Warsaw 1:32.11, 3. Culver Academies 1:39.02, 4. Columbia City 1:39.97, 5. Plymouth 1:40.28, 6. Rochester, 7. Knox 1:44.84, 8. Manchester 1:46.23, 9. Oregon-Davis 1:50.17, 10. T. Valley 1:55.69

100 backstroke - 1. Wallin (War) :54.27, 2. Vervynckt (Ply) :55.22, 3. Tryonis (Knox) :56.22, 4. Marose (War) :56.60, 5. Stearley (NF) :58.16, 6. Gerhart (Wawa) :58.44, 7. Wickens (Ply) :59.03, 8. Wear (Wawa) :59.10, 9. Marose (War) :59.34, 10. Slomski (CulvAc) 1:00.39, 11. Tomaro (CulvAC) 1:00.90, 12. Osterday (Fairfield) 1:00.92

100 breaststroke - 1. Taylor (War) :58.71, 2. McLaughlin (CulvAc) :59.74, 3. Rantz (Wawa) 1:00.20, 4. Medlin (CulvAc) 1:03.21, 5. Smith (Wawa) 1:04.34, 6. Gunderson (Wawa) 1:04.37, 7. Schenkel (War) 1:07.96, 8. Brock (CC) 1:08.54, 9. McNeeley (Man) 1:10.32, 10. Liu (War) 1:10.87, 11. Eberly (Man) 1:12.84, 12. Lappin (Ply) 1:13.81

400 freestyle relay - 1. Warsaw (Lowrance, McClintock, Long, Taylor) 3:15.49, 2. Wawasee 3:18.76, 3. Culver Academies 3:22.44, 4. Plymouth 3:42.05, 5. Manchester 3:42.20, 6. Knox 3:51.60, 7. Columbia City 4:00.71, 8. Oregon-Davis 4:14.78, 9. Rochester 4:31.90

Coach of the Year - Terry Aukeman (Warsaw) [[In-content Ad]]