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Wawasee boys swim coach Roger Karns said it. Tippecanoe Valley coach Steve Doerscher said it. And then Warsaw coach Chris LaLonde agreed with them.
Warsaw is the team to beat in this year's Wawasee boys swim sectional.
The preliminary round of the sectional will get underway tonight at Wawasee Middle School beginning at 5:30 p.m. The top six swimmers will advance to Saturday's 2 p.m. championship round, while places 7-12 will compete in the consolation round. The diving competition will get underway Saturday at 9 a.m.
The Tigers won the sectional a year ago and come into tonight's competition with an 11-1-1 record.
"We're seeded well," LaLonde said. "The boys have been swimming strong in all events lately."
LaLonde says her team's strongest events may be the 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke and the 100 breaststroke. Warsaw has two swimmers seeded in the top six each of those events.
"We have two in the top six of those events," LaLonde said. "Compared to the other teams, we're pretty strong in the stroke events."
Junior Kiel Beehler is seeded second for the Tigers in the breaststroke with a time of 1:05.17. Wawasee senior Robbie Trame is the top seed with his time of 1:04.43.
Junior Brandon Moore is seeded second for Warsaw in the 100 butterfly event with a time of 58.82 seconds. Culver Military Academy junior Rodrigo Sanchez is the top seed with his time of 57.73 seconds.
Moore and sophomore Mike Thallemer are Warsaw's top six seeds in the 100 backstroke. Wawasee sophomore Guy Simmons is the top seed in the event.
"We have No. 1 seeds in Guy Simmons and Robbie Trame," Karns said. "I hope our team effort across the board will help us. We don't have one event where we're gonna dominate."
The host Warriors enter tonight's competition with an 8-4-1 record.
LaLonde also listed sophomore Dex Anglin (diving), junior Brett Moore (100/200 freestyle) and senior Michael Jenks as swimmers that have a good shot at making Saturday's championship round.
"They're the returning champs for one," Karns said of why he chose Warsaw as the sectional favorite. "Nobody in the sectional field has beat them, and they always swim real well at the sectional."
Wawasee's 10-team sectional field is made up of Bremen, CMA, Huntington North, Manchester, Plymouth, Rochester, Tippecanoe Valley, Triton, Warsaw and Wawasee.
Valley enters tonight's preliminary round with an 0-13 record. The Vikings have struggled with numbers this season and currently have but six swimmers.
"We're down in numbers right now. We only have six guys," Doerscher said. "The girls' numbers are up, but the boys' numbers are down. The kids have been working hard, and the seniors want to go out knowing they did the best they could."
Doerscher lists junior Brett Kollin as having a possibility of making Saturday's championship round in the 200 and 500 freestyle events. He also said senior Chris Mitterling should have a strong showing in the 50 and 100 freestyle events.
NorthWood will compete in the 10-team sectional at Penn. Angola, Concord, DeKalb, East Noble, Elkhart Central, Elkhart Memorial, Goshen, Northridge and host Penn make up the rest of that field.
