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SYRACUSE - Wawasee senior Brad Wear had never swum the 100 breaststroke in a meet before this year. Saturday he finished second in the sectional, and it went a long way in helping host Wawasee win the 2001 team title.
Wear finished second with a time of 1:05.92, while classmate Rob Chalfant's time of 1:02.19 was a first-place finish for the Warriors.
"That was definitely huge," Wawasee coach Roger Karns said of is team's finish in the breaststroke, the 11th of 12 events. "To go one-two in a race is pretty important, I was real pleased. Brad has only swam that event this year, he responded real well."
The Warriors finished the day with a team score of 249, finishing nine points ahead of second-place Warsaw, the defending sectional champion and this year's favorite in the nine-team field.
Bremen finished third with 216, while Huntington North was fourth with 196. Culver Military Academy (159), Plymouth (157), Tippecanoe Valley (60), Manchester (41) and Rochester (33) rounded out the field.
The winner in each swim event, as well as those who meet the state standard, advance to this weekend's state finals in Indianapolis. The next fastest number of swimmers that would bring the total to 32 will also advance to the state finals. The top four divers from the Wawasee Sectional advance to Tuesday's regional at Oak Hill.
Wawasee was the only local school to take first in any of Saturday's events. To go with Trame's win in the breaststroke, Wawasee also got firsts in the 200 medley relay with Nik Conley, Guy Simmons, Curtis Valentine and Trame, in diving with Regg Beer, in the 200 freestyle relay with Conley, Simmons, Trame and Mike Taylor, and in the 100 backstroke with Simmons.
"I felt like we had a chance," Karns said of winning Wawasee's first sectional since 1997. "It might be somewhat of an upset, but I thought we had a chance. We had to have some things work out, and they did."
Karns, along with Warsaw coach Chris LaLonde, was named sectional coach of the year.
Warsaw moves on in one event, the 200 freestyle relay. Wawasee took first with a time of 1:29.91, but second-place Bremen (1:31.14) and Warsaw's third-place team of Brett Moore, Kiel Beehler, Ryan Munsch and Cory Gackenheimer (1:31.99) were invited to fill the state field to 32.
"It's disappointing (not to have won), but the guys swam with all heart," LaLonde said. "We knew Wawasee was going to be close. Wawasee swam outstanding. It was the best sectional I've ever seen, it wasn't a case of one team dominating."
Warsaw's Dexter Anglin advanced to Tuesday's diving regional at Oak Hill after finishing third with a score of 313.70. Wawasee's Regg Beer won with 370, while teammate Mark Speakman advanced with his fourth-place score of 300.65.
