Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
AKRON - Excluding four years, Tippecanoe Valley's Steve Doerscher has coached swimming since 1972.
Take into consideration the 21 girls Valley has on its team this year and multiply that by the 24 years Doerscher has been coaching, and he would have coached 504 girls.
Wednesday afternoon he was asked where one of his current swimmers would rank among all the girls he's coached.
"She's definitely the best freestyler I've ever had," said Doerscher. "She's probably the most dedicated swimmer I've ever had."
Doerscher, Valley's coach since 1986, was talking about Amber Drudge, the 16-year-old, brown-haired, blue-eyed junior who will compete in three events in Friday's state finals preliminaries at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis.
Only those individuals or relay teams that finish first in the sectional or meet the state standard compete in the state finals.
Not only did Drudge take part in three first-place finishes at Satuday's Warsaw Sectional, but there are now three new school records with her name beside them.
Drudge will compete individually in the 100 freestyle, after she edged Wawasee's Laura Karns with a 56.12 seconds. Karns will compete in the 50 freestyle Friday after edging Drudge and winning the sectional with a time of 25.58 seconds.
"I think she had a pretty good sectional. You always wanna be first," said Wawasee coach Roger Karns. "The 50 is a very competititve race, very close. I think she's gonna go down and have a good meet. We'd like to see her meet or beat her lifetime best of 25.35 seconds, and I think that's in range."
Asked what kind of performance at state in the 100 freestyle would satisfy her, Drudge said: "I'll be satisfied with my best, to know that I tried my hardest."
Drudge said she thinks she can take a half second off her sectional time.
The soft-spoken junior will team up with Hilary Vanlaningham, Alyssa Anglin and Kyleigh Gast for the 200 and 400 freestyle relay events.
The Vikings won the 200 relay at the Warsaw Sectional with a time of 1:46.17. They followed that up with a first-place finishing time of 3:51.33 in the 400 freestyle relay.
Angela Weller is an alternate on the two relay teams.
"They're a close-knit group. They care about each other," said Doerscher, when asked to describe Valley's state qualifiers. "They root for each other. Obviously they work hard, and I think they enjoy swimming. We have 21 girls on the team this year and they really enjoy being with each other."
It might be that they enjoy being together because they've been together so long.
"Those girls have worked hard," said Doerscher. "Amber's been swimming since she was 8. Hilary's been swimming since she was 8. Kyleigh's been swimming since she was 8 or 9. Anglin dropped out a couple years but came back, and I think she enjoys it more now. They're ready to come on strong."
According to Doerscher, Drudge is the first Viking swimmer in school history to make it to the state finals in three events.
"We were in two events last year," said Doerscher. "We had a relay, and Amber swam the 100 butterfly. We've had a boy, Scott Whetstone, who's swum in two events before.
Whetstone, who graduated in 1997, advanced to the state finals in all four years of his high school career.
In nearly 15 meets this year, Drudge says she can only remember four or five times that she didn't place first.
Of her list of accomplishments and most memorable swimming moments, Drudge said: "At the Wawasee Invitational this year I got Outstanding Swimmer of the Day."
Drudge appeared nervous during the interview for this story, saying "I don't know" when answering a couple questions. After advancing to the state finals a year ago she knows what it's like to be in the spotlight, yet she hints how hot the spotlight is.
"I'll be nervous, that'll happen," said Drudge. "I'm just gonna take it as it comes. Whatever happens, happens."
Besides the Viking representatives and Karns, other local swimmers to advance to the state finals Friday include Warsaw 18-year-old senior Katie Beehler in the 100 backstroke and NorthWood's Julia Warnken in the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly.
Beehler took top honors at sectionals in the backstroke with a time of 1:02.83
"At the sectional she was still sick, but I was happy with how she did," said Warsaw coach Eric Mohler of Beehler. "She came back with a 1:02, which I was happy to see. A week later I think she's still a little sick, but I think she's swimming well. What she's shooting for is the school record, and she has a chance to do that."
Warsaw's school record in the 100 backstroke is 1:01.07. Beehler's best time is a 1:01.47.
Beehler is going to the state prelims for the second straight year. Last year Beehler went in the backstroke but failed to make it out of Friday's prelims and into Saturday's finals. Beehler placed 24th, and only the top 16 make it into the finals.
"I will have to have my best swim of the year to make it into Saturday's finals," she said. "I will have to drop a half-second off my best time to be in there.
"We're having shorter practices this week with harder sets. The coaches are working with me on faster flip turns and better starts."
Warnken won the 200 individual medley at the Penn Sectional with a time of 2:09.09 and the 100 butterfly with a time of 59.48 seconds.
"Right now I think she's seeded seventh and ninth in her two events," said NorthWood coach Mary Robertson. "According to the times she swam last year, she'd finish third or fourth in the fly and third or fourth in the I.M. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if she swims those times."
Preliminaries for the state finals will begin Friday at 6 p.m.
