BROWNSTOWN
From very little to fully grown, swimmers from three southern Indiana programs met at the Brownstown Pool on Saturday.
Packed to the fences with spectators, the Brave Wave swim team put together one of their strongest performances of the season.
The Brave Wave swim team topped Mitchell by 373 points for first place at the South Central Indiana Swim Conference meet.
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The girls team scored 293 points while the boys amassed 307 to combine for the victory.
Mitchell scored 263 points and the Scottsburg YMCA totaled 63 for third place.
The conference meet had boys and girls events, as well as mixed events in the relays. The Brave Wave took first place for 56 events on the morning: 26 for the girls and boys and all four mixed relays.
“The kids swam really well,” Martha Lasher, a Brave Wave assistant coach, said. “They had some good times and a lot of people got some best times. We’re really proud of them.”
“This conference meet is a culmination of their season. It shows all the hard work they did and brings all the teams together. It’s fun and there’s camaraderie.”
At the event, kids aged five to 18-years-old competed in the pool.
“What I love too about this program is the five-years-old and 18-years-old have a bond,” Lasher said. “It brings them all together.”
“It’s very rewarding to us that we can share our love of the sport with them and they are as excited about it as we are. When they do this well we know they have that same passion.”
For incoming Brownstown Central senior Sterling Hayden, it was his last conference meet.
Hayden starting swimming with the Brave Wave when he was 6 years old.
“I like swimming and competing,” Hayden said. “The meets and conference are all great. You can meet a lot of people.”
Hayden spends most of his time during the summer at the pool competing and working.
“It’s disappointing to end my career, but it has been really fun these 12 years,” Hayden said. “I’m around here all summer, every summer. I lifeguard here. This is basically my summer.”