SYRACUSE - Surprisingly, the coach picks up the phone.

The state swim finals are more than 100 miles away but less than 12 hours away. But Wawasee coach Roger Karns' baritone voice is on the other end of the line in a rare free moment.

And he does mean moment. When asked if he has time to answer a few questions about the upcoming state finals, Karns says, "Yeah, about a minute."

The Wawasee Warriors scored 404 points and nabbed eight of 12 first places in last Saturday's Warsaw Sectional. The 404 points doubled second-place Plymouth.

That's 404 points and eight first places. That's good for two school records, isn't it, Coach?

"Oh yeah," Karns says. "That's unusual for somebody to score 400 points at a championship meet. Eight first places were the most by a long shot."

Here's who will compete for Wawasee in this evening's state meet, which starts at 6 on the IUPUI campus: Laura Lundin in the 100 and 200 freestyles, Kristine Shivers in the 50 freestyle, Jenny Marty in the 100 butterfly and Tiffany Miller in the 500 freestyle.

The Warriors also send all three relay teams. Stacy Naugler, Jennifer Ganshorn, Marty and Shivers swim in the 200 medley relay. Laura Lundin, Marty, Shivers and Naugler swim in the 200 freestyle relay. Theresa Lundin, Laura Lundin, Carrie Grothaus and Naugler swim in the 400 freestyle relay.

Just how competitive will the state meet be? Well, 32 girls swim in each event. First and eighth places in a short swim like the 50 freestyle will be separated by less than half a second.

With that in mind, Coach, how do you think your girls will fare?

"I think they all can do well," he says. "Our highest-ranked swimmers are probably in the 200 freestyle relay."

But?

"I hate to make predictions," he says. "They can come back to haunt you."

Take the beginning of the season, for instance. This didn't exactly haunt Karns, but he predicted before the season that his girls' team would be better than his boys' team.

The girls did well with an 11-1 record. The boys went 12-0 and were ranked No. 13 in the latest poll.

Karns figures the girls were ranked someswhere between No. 20 and No. 25 throughout the season. The poll that comes across the wire services shows only the top 20.

See? You never know with these predictions.

"Yeah, I did think that," he says. "And really, the girls might be a better dual meet team. It's like comparing apples and oranges. The girls are an awfully, awfully deep team. That's been their strength all year." Depth helps during dual meets, but at the state finals, depth means little. The bottom line now is turning in outstanding times.

"We just want everybody to swim faster than they did at the sectional," Karns says. "It's hard to set a goal, because you can't control what other people do."

But his girls, Karns says, are fine. They were doing so well he recently canceled a practice just days before the sectional.

"This has been a real good, hard-working, goal-oriented group," he says. "They've had a lot of fun. They've been a lot of fun to work with. They're confident in their abilities." [[In-content Ad]]