Tiger Cubs continue dominance at conference meet, wins by 25 - The Banner-Graphic

The Greencastle boys' swim team celebrate after it was announced it had secured its 15th straight WCC title.

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Greencastle's boys' swim squad recorded its 15th straight WCC title at DePauw University Saturday afternoon while avenging a previous loss to second-place North Putnam with a 330-305 score.

South Putnam placed third in the team score, 28 points better than fourth-place Cascade.

Greencastle won 10 of the 12 events, including all three relay races, edging out the Cougars on the back of strong performances from Nathan Gardner, Nash Firebaugh, Mitchell Ball and Elijah Brattain.

Gardner won the 100 back, Firebaugh took the 100 fly and 50 free, Ball claimed the 200 IM and 100 breast, while Brattain 100 and 200 free races. All four were also a part of two of the three relays.

Taylor Secrest, Isaac Harms and Alex Briones also were members of the winning Greencastle relay squads.

Greencastle head coach Kent Menzel afterward said that his squad had to gamble and had luck with them Saturday.

"When we looked at the dual meet results against North Putnam, we knew that we had to do something. When the relay solution came to us, it was a very big risk," Menzel said.

"To put a freshman (Taylor Secrest) in as the anchor of the medley relay, in the first WCC meet of his life, was very scary. But, that meant we could use Elijah Brattain in the final relay.

"Elijah was thefastest 100 free swimmer on the day and I knew he was going to speed up that final relay. We also pulled Nathan Gardner out of the 200 free relay and replaced him with Isaac Harms, swimming off of the 500 free, which was another huge risk as to how that would work out for us," Menzel added.

"The combined effect of that, to win three relays, really does help to increase the confidence of the team. It helps them get a sense of momentum and allows one swim to build on the next swim and then to build on the next.

"The risks we took today paid off for us and we got to see some very mature swims from Elijah, Taylor, Isaac and Nathan.

"We also had a talk on Friday about what they thought they could swim and what I thought they could swim. I threw out a lot of times for them and I said I didn't care where they were, this is what I wanted them to swim," Menzel said.

"I told them I believed it, but I need you to believe it and then do it. The backstroke swim Nathan was a good example of them believing in themselves. The result was amazing. Nathan had a great swim, breaking a minute for the first time."

North Putnam wasn't able to catch Greencastle in this meet as the relays they won in the dual meet in December went the other way, but the Cougars still had a strong day.

Two second-place relay finishes in the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay were augmented with seconds place results from Hunter Logan in the 50 free, Joe Lehr in the 200 IM and Taylor Thornell in the 500 free.

Logan finished third in the 100 free, while Dane Gray picked up third place finished in the 200 free and 100 backstroke. Jared James also placed third in the 100 breaststroke.

North Putnam head coach Tony Gray said that, despite the finish, the day was a success for the Cougars.

"The guys had a great day. The result was a little bit flip-flopped from the previous meet with Greencastle but I can't fault a single effort we had out there," Gray said.

"We set one school record in the 200 free relay. We were .03 seconds off our school record in the medley relay.

"Every kid swam personal bests or season bests, but Greencastle was just a little bit better than us today," Gray added.

South Putnam got one first place finish from Sam Gould in the diving competition. The Eagles found top spots hard to come by, as Gould finished second in the 100 breaststroke and Tayler Arnold finished second in the 100 back.

Arnold grabbed third in the 50 free, while Matt Lund placed third in the 100 fly. The Eagles also placed third in the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay.

South Putnam head coach Matthew Edwards said the competition was strong and the squad competed well.

"We had a lot of momentum coming in from our last meet and we were hoping to continue it in this meet. We knew that all three schools we were competing against were going to put up a good fight and they sure did," Edwards said.

"Everybody swam well in the pool today and I feel like our kids competed very well. We dropped time across the board again, which is really all that we can ask for. I'm very pleased with the times."

With a month and a half before the sectional, the county coaches looked ahead to a strong month of results.

"We're going to look at the areas where we can improve. It's really hard to get a perfect meet and we'll take what we learned, the pros and the cons, and we'll keep working on them," Edwards said.

"We'll keep the yardage up, keep working on the technique and keep dropping times every meet. So far, in the last few meets, we've done a good job of that," he added.

"I think as a coach I probably could have rested them a little bit more, but our big goal is where we finish at sectional. We'd have loved to have won today," Gray said.

"Maybe I made the mistake in not giving them enough rest, but we're swimming fast. Times are dropping quickly and we're definitely headed in the right direction," Gray added.

"It's a question of getting our kids to believe in themselves. The best thing that happened today was that they did believe in themselves. That's worth six months of training right there," Menzel said.

"We got a very nice sense of momentum today. We can start to really bear down in training for the next month with the boys before tweaking it down for the sectional.

"I think that they're going to surprise themselves again when it comes to the end of the season because we've established some very good things."

Boys' Results

Greencastle 330, North Putnam 305, South Putnam 259, Cascade 231

200 Medley Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Gardner, Ball, Firebaugh, T. Secrest) 1:46.86; 2. North Putnam (Lehr, James, Gray, Logan) 1:52.98; 3. South Putnam (Arnold, Gould, Lund, McCammack) 1:53.53; 4. Cascade (Franchville, Pence, Mahan, VanWinkle) 2:12.34

200 Free -- 1. Brattain (G) 1:57.55; 2. Gilmore (C) 1:58.11; 3. Gray (N) 1:58.21; 4. Harms (G) 2:09.78; 5. Thornell (N) 2:11.81; 6. Albright (S) 2:14.57; 7. Skillern (N) 2:29.18; 8. Whicker (C) 2:30.84; 9. Smedley (C) 2:37.00; 10. Fields (S) 2:38.23; 11. Johnson (G) 3:00.65; 12. C. Evens (S) 3:10.41

200 IM -- 1. Ball (2:15.82; 2. Lehr (N) 2:26.07; 3. Dugan (C) 2:26.07; 4. Lund (S) 2:32.40; 5. Troyer (N) 2:32.85; 6. Briones (G) 2:32.96; 7. VanWinkle (C) 2:37.82; 8. Nees (S) 2:42.83; 9. Ford (N) 2:43.65; 10. Z. Secrest (G) 3:22.38

50 Free -- 1. Firebaugh (G) 23.05; 2. Logan (N) 24.11; 3. Arnold (S) 24.49; 4. Shorter (N) 25.75; 5. Cecil (C) 26.16; 6. Franchville (C) 26.91; 7. Ummel (G) 27.20; 8. Hinners (N) 27.80; 9. Dotson (S) 28.98; 10. Pitts (S) 29.94; 11. McConnell (C) 30.32; 12. Dunbar (G) 39.47

Diving -- 1. Gould (S) 189.35; 2. Trent (C) 178.55; 3. Archer (C) 157.85; 4. Crosby (S) 131.40; 5. Neumann (S) 123.85; 6. Kaufman (N) 105.10; 7. Shorter (N) 104.00; 8. Lewis (G) 91.75

100 Fly -- 1. Firebaugh (G) 52.31; 2. Gardner (G) 1:01.96; 3. Lund (S) 1:06.37; 4. James (N) 1:08.91; 5. Troyer (N) 1:14.30; 6. VanWinkle (C) 1:15.57; 7. Franchville (C) 1:18.56; 8. Nees (S) 1:19.14; 9. Watson (G) 1:28.67; 10. Ballard (N) 1:32.89

100 Free -- 1. Brattain (G) 53.69; 2. Gilmore (C) 55.22; 3. Logan (N) 55.59; 4. Cecil (C) 58.51; 5. McCammack (S) 59.63; 6. T. Secrest (G) 1:00.32; 7. Albright (S) 1:00.46; 8. Kaufman (N) 1:00.54; 9. Volland (N) 1:05.93; 10. Dotson (S) 1:06.24; 11. Dunbar (G) 1:31.94

500 Free -- 1. Dugan (C) 5:48.88; 2. Thornell (N) 6:00.65; 3. Harms (G) 6:01.74; 4. Z. Evens (S) 6:14.92; 5. Briones (G) 6:18.78; 6. Crosby (S) 6:20.81; 7. Ford (N) 6:52.44; 8. Skillern (N) 6:59.71; 9. Smedley (C) 7:02.76; 10. Johnson (G) 8:12.94

200 Free Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Ball, Brattain, Harms, Firebaugh) 1:37.62; 2. North Putnam (James, Gray, Kaufman, Logan) 1:38.84; 3. South Putnam (Arnold, McCammack, Albright, Lund) 1:42.09; 4. Cascade (Cecil, Dugan, Gilmore, Trent) 1:45.41

100 Back -- 1. Gardner (G) 59.84; 2. Arnold (S) 1:01.03; 3. Gray (N) 1:01.30; 4. Lehr (N) 1:03.17; 5. Ummel (G) 1:14.29; 6. Ballard (N) 1:24.42; 7. Fields (S) 1:25.03; 8. Pence (C) 1:27.90; 9. Whicker (C) 1:28.73; 10. Z. Secrest (G) 1:35.19

100 Breast -- 1. Ball (G) 1:08.07; 2. Gould (S) 1:10.31; 3. James (N) 1:14.89; 4. T. Secrest (G) 1:17.29; 5. Hinners (N) 1:19.31; 6. Neumann (S) 1:21.37; 7. Watson (G) 1:21.58; 8. Z. Evens (S) 1:21.61; 9. Volland (N) 1:22.63; 10. Mahan (C) 1:29.10; 11. McConnell (C) 1:29.40

400 Free Relay -- 1. Greencastle (Gardner, Briones, Harms, Brattain) 3:49.38; 2. Cascade (Cecil, Dugan, Franchville, Gilmore) 3:54.53; 3. North Putnam (Lehr, Kaufman, Troyer, Ford) 3:57.63; 4. South Putnam (Albright, Gould, Crosby, McCammack) 4:08.89