Boys swimmers will hit the postseason waves this week looking for berths to the IHSAA state finals.
Bloomington North, South and Edgewood will head to the Columbus North Sectional for preliminaries on Thursday, Feb. 19, with the finals on Saturday. Let’s take a look at the area’s swimmers to watch this week.
Robert Cole, South, Fr.
Diving: Will be area’s top competitor in diving in his first trip to sectionals. Placed fourth at Conference Indiana meet at 305.80.
Bryan Huang, North, So.
100 breaststroke: No. 2 seed in his top event behind Seth Thomas from Milan. Both sophomores were 5-6 at last year’s sectional. Huang switched from the 100 free to the 200 IM where, he’s a ninth seed. Will also swim on medley and 200 free relays for Cougars.
Sam Kohne, Edgewood, Jr.
100 butterfly, 100 backstroke: Seeded sixth in the fly and seventh in the back. His seed time in the fly is two seconds ahead of his finals time from last year and he’s made a similar drop in his back. Was part of the school record setting medley relay that comes in seeded fourth.
Peter Kovacs, South, So.
50, 100 freestyles: Top seed in both. Four-time state medalist, including second in the 100 freestyle, as a freshman and he’s in position to do it again, switching out the 200 free for the 50 free despite breaking the school record in the 200 last year. He’s already met the state standard in both events this season at 20.57 in the 50 and 45.49 in the 100. His best 100 last year was 44.85 in the finals, just .41 off the school record. He’ll also anchor the medley relay and 400 free relays, which are poised for state cuts in the finals.
Alex, Jacen, Ty Madeira, North, Srs.
200, 500 freestyles, IM, back, fly: Cougar triplets are going to pile up a lot of points. Jacen owns the highest seed, second in the 500 free, but is unlikely to catch Joshua Pendleton of Columbus East, who was third last year at 4:39 but comes in with a seed time of 4:43, 21 seconds ahead of the field. Jacen is also seeded fifth in the IM. Alex is a fourth seed in the fly, sixth in the back. Ty is seeded third in the 200 free and seventh in the fly, having switched from the 500. All three swam together on the 400 free relay at the Conference Indiana meet.
Gabriele Marchionne, South, So.
200 individual medley, 100 breaststroke: He’s seeded fifth in the breast and sixth in the IM. Bigger load on him this year after competing only in the breast at sectionals finals last year. He was on the Conference Indiana champ medley and 400 free relays.
Wyatt Norrick, North, Jr.
50, 100 freestyles: Seeded second in both events, improving strongly over last year in the 50 (22.44 final) and switching from the back to the 100 free. He’ll be chasing South’s Kovacs in both sprint frees, but has a shot at state cuts, his seed time of 21.86 in the 50 is .44 off and 48.37 in the 100 is 1.40 off. He’ll be key factor for medley relay and second seeded 200 free relay as well.
Cam Seidenfaden, South, Jr.
100 backstroke, 200 individual medley: Seeded second in the IM (2:02.90), he’ll be shooting for a cut time with top seed Nash King of Oldenburg Academy well ahead of the field after a 1:50.97 in last year’s final left him second behind the eventual state champ David Kovacs of South. He is also seeded fifth in the back.
Jackson Schmalensee, Edgewood, Jr.
200 individual medley, 500 free: He’s a sixth seed in the IM and seventh in 500 free and looking for two A finals bids after a B Finals swim in the fly last year. Look for him on the medley relay that wants to lower its school record (1:45.85) from earlier this year.
Jackson Thompson, South, Jr.
50, 100 freestyles: Top-eight seed in both sprint frees. He had a strong showing at the Conference Indiana meet for two winning free relays with splits of 22.88 and 52.65.
Dillon VanSant, South, So.
100 breaststroke, 200 individual medley: Seeded fourth in each event, he won the Conference Indiana title in the breast. He’ll help out on two relays as well
Easton Xiao, South, So.
200 freestyle, 100 backstroke: Top seed in the 200, No. 2 seed in the back. He’s one of only two racers in the 200 field who broke 1:50 this season. He’ll have some work to do to catch top seed Nash King of Oldenburg Academy in the back. He’s a key piece for both free relays.
What to know for sectional
Action in the preliminaries starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, with the top 16 in each event coming back for the finals on Saturday, top eight in the A Finals, next eight in the B Finals. All diving competition will take place starting at 9 a.m. while the swimming finals commence at 1 p.m.
The winners and those who meet the state cut in each swimming event advance to the state finals in Indianapolis, while the top four divers move on to the Jasper Regional on Feb. 24.
Competing teams are Bloomington North, Bloomington South, Edgewood, Batesville, Columbus East, Columbus North, East Central, Greensburg, Lawrenceburg, Milan, Oldenburg Academy, Rising Sun, South Dearborn, South Ripley and Trinity Lutheran.
South will be the strong team favorite with all three entrants in all-but two individual events seeded in the top eight.
COLUMBUS NORTH SECTIONAL TOP SEEDS
Top qualifier and area seeds (state cuts in parenthesis)
50 freestyle (21.42): 1. Peter Kovacs, BS 20.57; 2. Wyatt Norrick, BN 21.86; 3. Connor Schmeckebier, BS 22.52; 6. Ryder Colford, Ed 23.46; 8. Jackson Thompson, BS 23.97. 100 freestyle (46.97): 1. Kovacs, BS 45.49; 2. Norrick, BN 48.37; 3. Schmeckebier, BS 50.15; 6. Thompson, BS 52.27; 8. Henry Tayloe, BN 53.21. 200 freestyle (1:42.78): 1. Easton Xiao, BS 1:46.64; 2. Joshua Pendleton, CE 1:48.03; 3. Ty Madeira, BN 1:53.18; 5. Noah Simon, BS 1:57.33; 6. Heath Davis, BN 1:57.37; 7. Kristian Stone, BS 1:57.56; 8. Mason Wilson, Ed 1:58.04. 500 freestyle (4:42.52): 1. Pendleton, CE 4:43.52; 2. Jacen Madeira, BN 5:04.10; 4. Ricky Eakin, BS 5:25.94; 5. Ben Simon, BS 5:26.69; 6. Jackson Schmalensee, Ed 5:28.73; 7. Stone, BS 5:33.30; 8. Quinn Corbit-Clarkson, BN 5:35.74.
100 backstroke (51.63): 1. Nash King, OA 51.97; 2. Xiao, BS 53.96; 5. Cam Seidenfaden, BS 54.67; 6. Alex Madeira, BN 56.31; 7. Sam Kohne, Ed 59.71. 100 breaststroke (58.35): 1. Seth Thomas, Milan 1:00.56; 2. Bryan Huang, BN 1:02.08; 3. Ethan Teders, BN 1:03.30; 4. Dillon VanSant, BS 1:04.11; 5. Gabriele Marchionne, BS 1:05.31; 6. Hudson Scholl, Ed 1:06.10. 100 butterfly (50.96): 1. Maxwell Mossburger, RS 52.29; 3. Erik Jensen, BS 56.85; 4. A.Madeira, BN 56.88; 6. Kohne, Ed 57.74; 7. T.Madeira, BN 58.12; 8. N.Simon, BS 58.36. 200 individual medley (1:55.24): 1. King, OA 1:50.47; 2. Seidenfaden, BS 2:02.90; 4. VanSant, BS 2:04.87; 5. J.Madeira, BN 2:07.11; 6. Marchionne, BS 2:07.94; 7. Schmalensee, Ed 2:12.72.
200 medley relay (1:36.83): 1. Bloomington South 1:40.70; 2. Columbus North 1:43.10; 4. Edgewood 1:45.85; 6. Bloomington North 1:46.06. 200 freestyle relay (1:28.09): 1. Bloomington South 1:31.45; 2. Bloomington North 1:33.94; 5. Edgewood 1:40.95. 400 freestyle relay (3:13.65): 1. Bloomington South 3:16.82; 2. Greensburg 3:25.00; 3. Bloomington North 3:28.49; 6. Edgewood 3:39.47.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington area swimmers to watch at the Columbus North boys sectional
Reporting by Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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