Wawasee, Warsaw Swimmers Position For Glory
The girls swim teams from Wawasee and Warsaw high schools set themselves up for big Saturday afternoons after a big night in IHSAA sectional preliminaries at Northridge and Warsaw.
At Northridge, Wawasee took the top slot in six of the 11 swims, including both the 200 and 400 free relays and a pair of freestyle swims from Breanna Robinson, the relays both having Robinson swimming.
The spotlight of the Northridge Sectional will come in the 200 freestyle, where the top two swimmers in the state will go head-to-head once again. Robinson won the prelim battle with a 1:53.96 while Brittney Walters of Northridge is right behind at 1:54.74. Walters holds the top time in the state at 1:50.75 and beat Robinson with that time at the Northern Lakes Conference championship on Jan. 12.
Robinson holds the top time in the 100 at 53.17 while Walters is tops in the 500 at 5:08.79. Robinson helped the 200 free relay to a 1:43.34 and the 400 free relay to a 3:49.04. Wawasee also has the top time in the 50 free by Kendra Miller at 25.39 and Betsy Rozow in the backstroke at 1:02.58. Sister Rachel Rozow is seeded second in the breaststroke and nearly broke a school record with her 1:11.60, just .11 off the mark set by Krista Spearman.
At Warsaw, the Lady Tigers have four top times, but Culver Academy had a big night as well.
The medley relay (1:56.08) and 200 free relay (1:48.46) were claimed by Warsaw and a pair of individual swims by Cynthia Juarez in the 500 (5:39.55) and Ashley Van Wormer in the breaststroke (1:10.01) put the Lady Tigers in position to head to the big dance.
Culver Academy, which are the defending sectional champions, have five top times and are primed to defend its title. Eberle Miller led the Cadets with tops swims in the 200 free and backstroke.
Tippecanoe Valley have its 200 free relay in the finals and Katelyn Gunter qualified for the final of the butterfly.
Overall, the Lady Tigers have 16 swimmers in the finals for Saturday plus any divers that qualify from Saturday morning’s preliminary session. Culver Academy has 17 individuals in the finals in what should be a close finish between the two sectional powers.
Wawasee have 15 swimmers in championship swims, but Concord lead the sectional with 16 in the finals and defending champion Northridge have just 13 in the final. Northridge had won 10 sectionals in a row until Concord won the title last year.