After three straight sectional titles, the Warsaw Tigers' dominance ended at Saturday's Warsaw Sectional.
The Tigers finished fourth at the meet with 170 points, trailing Logansport (262), Plymouth (235.5) and Huntington North (173)."They're obviously excited, and I'm excited for them," Logansport coach Jon-Myckle Price said about his girls who were fresh off throwing him in the pool. "They came out and competited, and just did a great job. We had so many fantastic times. It's just exciting."
Logansport entered the meet as one of the favorites, but perhaps not the clear-cut favorite.
"Warsaw and Plymouth were the top teams coming in and Culver (Girls Academy) was right behind them, and I think that's how it played out," Price said.
Warsaw coach Terry Aukeman shared Price's assessment of the sectional, only hoping that his team could have scored a few more points.
"I thought it would be close between Logansport, us and Plymouth," Aukeman said. "We didn't have the best Thursday night (at prelims), and that kind of hurt us a little bit."
Along with trying to win a sectional title, coaches were also looking for their girls to either win her respective event or make the state cut in order to compete at Friday's state finals at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis. For Aukeman, his lone state swimmer will be senior Karli Slater, who placed third in the 100 backstroke, but her time of 59.29 was well below the state cut of 1:00.33.
"We had three very good backstrokers here," Aukeman said of the event, which was won by Columbia City's Haley Richter with Plymouth's Kenzie Miller taking second. "Coaches talked about that being one of the better races, because we have three people down at state."
State prelims will begin at 6 p.m. Friday, with Slater taking part in the the fifth of five backstroke heats. The Warsaw senior had the 19th-fastest time in the state Saturday, but at the state meet, she'll look to place in the top 16 to move to Saturday's finals.
"She's been there all four years, but this will be her second time swimming the backstroke down there," Aukeman said of Slater. "Last year, she finished 17th, so hopefully this year, we'll go top 16 or even top eight."
Warsaw sophomore Audrey Petro had a good showing at sectionals, placing second in the 50 free and third in the 100 free.
"Petro did a good job today," Aukeman said. "We were hoping she may be able to win the 50, which she got second in. She's a sophomore and a good competitor, so she will be back."
Another girl Aukeman had hopes of qualifying for the state meet was Leah Moore. In the 100 butterfly, the freshman took second in a time of 1:03.72, just behind Huntington North's Amy Marion, who won the event in 1:03.70.
"Leah Moore missed the state cut by two one-hundreths of a second, so we could have gotten more people down to state," Aukeman said. "But I'm real happy where we're at, and we have a lot returning next year."
Tippecanoe Valley and Manchester were also represented at the meet, with Valley scoring 82 points and Manchester finishing with 34. A good chunk of Valley's points were scored by junior Jenny Harner, who placed fourth in the 200 free (2:09.46) and fifth in the 100 free (58.57).
So with one area girl advancing out of the Warsaw Sectional, Aukeman had hoped for more, but is still happy to take a senior to her final high school swim meet.
"We were hoping for a sectional win," he said. "We had won three in a row, so another one would have been nice. We're not quite as deep as we've been in the past.
"I'm exicted about Karli Slater going to state in the 100 backstroke," he added. "Overall, the girls did well today. We're young and inexperienced, so we've made some mistakes. But we're going to learn from those."
Team Scores - Logansport 262, Plymouth 235.5, Huntington North 173, Warsaw 170, Culver Academy 164, Columbia City 143, Tippecanoe Valley 82, Rochester 59, Pioneer 39, Manchester 34, Argos 3.5
200 Medley Relay - 1. Logansport (L. Zehner, E. Fawcett, S. Fawcett, P. Zehner) 1:53.17, 3. Warsaw (Slater, Kuhn, Moore, Petro) 1:56.06, 6. Valley (Kitch, Wright, Harner, Muser) 2:04.90, 8. Manchester (Flora, Bradford, Eberly, Minnix) 2:16.62
