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Practice makes perfect. That's the lesson that the Warsaw boys and girls swimming teams learned Tuesday in wins over Valley.
The boys meet was close early but the Tigers pulled away for a 117-62 win, while the girls dominated from the beginning on their way to a 108-70 win.
Neither Warsaw nor Valley had swum in competition since Dec. 16.
"We swam straight through the entire break except for a few days off," Warsaw girls coach Eric Mohler said. "Most of the girls swam pretty well considering how tired they were from those practices. The ones that swim the hardest are the ones that are always dropping their times."
Mohler's girls team jumped out to a 12-0 lead after the first event, the 200 medley relay, after Valley's only relay team was disqualified. The Vikings also went without a diver as Warsaw won that event 13-0 to extend a 39-20 lead.
The difference in the meet was very easily evident - depth. The Valley girls took first place in seven of 12 events but Warsaw continued to rack up points for second, third, fourth and fifth place. Those were the points that made the outcome a blowout. The Tigers placed second in nine events and third in nine events.
For Valley, Eve Boggs took part in four first-place finishes. She won the 200 and the 500 freestyle competitions and then helped Valley relay teams in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays to first place. Amber Drudge and Hilary Vanlaningham each won three events.
Warsaw was led by Katie Beehler, who took first place in three events. She won the 200 individual medley and the 100 freestyle and took place in the winning 200 medley relay team.
"We've won two conference meets already and we're encouraged by that," Mohler said. "But we have our harder meets coming up in Concord, Wawasee and Northridge. Those are all powerhouses this year. We have some girls that are swimming really good times, but it's going to be intense for the next few meets."
On the boys side, the difference was also depth. Valley jumped out to an 8-6 lead early as Guilherme Grava, Charlie Wise, Jason Paris and Matt Haussmann swam to a first-place finish in the 200 medley relay. Warsaw only led 35-27, but Valley didn't have a diver and Warsaw jumped out to a 58-29 advantage after Mike McCammon, John Sincroft,and Corban Quance took the top three places in the 100 butterfly for the Tigers.
Both teams took first place in six events, but Warsaw took second in 11 events and third in eight events. McCammon placed first in the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke, and Justin Lowrance won the 100 freestyle and the 200 freestyle relay.
Charlie Wise and Jason Paris each took first place in four events for Valley. Wise helped the 200 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay teams to victory. He also took first in the 50 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. Paris also swam on both relay teams and won the 200 individual medley and the 500 freestyle.
"The lay-off was really long and I wasn't sure how we were going to swim," Warsaw head coach Chris LaLonde said. "We were really sluggish at the start except for the 200 freestyle. Then after that I thought we got really sluggish again. We still have to work on a few things."
In that 200 freestyle, Nick Leininger won with a time of 1:59.42 and Jed Wandland took second with a time of 1:59.93. It was the first time all year any swimmer for Warsaw had broken two minutes in that event.
"They're starting to mold in really well," LaLonde said. "The team has so much energy it's wonderful. When it comes time to really swim, they'll put all their effort into it. The next three meets are really tough and we'll get our eyes opened up if we don't get with it."
The Warsaw boys team is now 6-0 and the girls are 6-2. The Tigers will swim at Concord on Saturday at 10:15 a.m. Valley will host Rochester on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
