FLOYDS KNOBS
Coach Dave Boggs says he likes surprises from members of his Seymour swim teams.
Saturday afternoon his 200-yard freestyle relay team surprised him by placing first in the Hoosier Hills Conference meet.
Aaron Drake, Clayton Greenawalt, Bryce Miller and Pedro Cerino came into the meet seeded third, but teamed up to swim a 1;32.50 to win.
Members of that foursome also placed in several individual events to help the Owls finish fifth in the team meet with 184 points.
Floyd Central won the HHC for the fifth year in a row with 247 points, with Columbus East second with 221, New Albany third with 204, and Madison ahead of the Owls for fourth with 194 points.
“We knew we would have a good shot to win it and that it would take four legs, and they pretty much hit their projected times I needed them to hit,” Boggs said. “They came through very well. They can go faster with the taper.”
Miller, the only senior among the four, said he was proud to be on the awards stand and that his hard work paid off.
“It felt great,” Miller said. “I’ve been looking forward to it for the past couple years now, looking at the podium for my time to shine. Today, I felt really good.”
He said helping the relay team place first is his biggest win in swimming.
He placed second in the 50 freestyle at 22.33, second in the 100 free at 49.44, and teamed with Paul Montgomery, Greenawalt and Cerino to place third in the 400 free relay at 3:26.77.
“I love the sprints,” Miller said. He said the dives into the water are different from individual events than they are in relays.
“I like both,” he said when asked if he likes relays or individual events better. “I like individual events because I can just focus on myself. And swim my heart out. Relays are fun because I’m with my teammates and you get excited.”
Miller said he previously swam in the lead-off position in the relay, but this season he has locked in at the No. 3 position.
“I think what I need to work on is getting the tempo down for the sprints,” Miller said. “I’m not too far off first place, and for the relays it’s just better takeoffs.”
Greenawalt placed sixth in the 500 freestyle and ninth in the 200 free.
The Owl junior said of the 200 relay, “This is up there for excitement. We were surprised with the win because we were seeded third. We’ve been working on our takeoffs and our finishes, trying to work on the small details.
“I put most of my effort into my 200. It didn’t quite go as planned. I didn’t completely apply myself for the 500. I saved my energy for the 200 relay, which ended up paying off.
“I would like to find a happy medium where we could still get first place in the 200 relay and I can also be placing higher in the 500.”
Cerino placed third in the 200 IM in 2:04.36 and third in the 100 butterfly in 55.56.
“Fifth is about where I had us from the cheat sheet points,” Boggs said. “We moved up quite a bit, so we had a real good day today for not really doing anything special for this meet.
“We swam well throughout the whole meet. We did a very good job today of taking care of business.
The sectional is Feb. 13 and Boggs said the boys “just need to do some tweaking their strokes and work on technique, work on the details, the small things, and just rest.”
Boggs said the Owls enjoy swimming in the Floyd Central pool.
“We had a god dual meet here, the girls had their conference here, and the boys had a good conference here, so their confidence level should be very high,” he said. “This is like a second pool to us now.”
The team has benefited from staying healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We check in every day and take temperatures every day,” Boggs said. “We go the extra mile in that. We’re doing all we can to stay healthy. We wear our masks to our lanes, put them on tables, jump in, do the workouts and get out get our masks back on and head home,”
The boys have a home meet with Trinity Lutheran and Providence Feb. 8.
The girls’ sectional will be at Floyd Central this week, with trials Thursday and finals Saturday.
At Floyd Knobs
Teams: Floyd Central 247, Columbus East 221, New Albany 204, Madison 194, Seymour 184, Bedford North Lawrence 141, Jeffersonville 72, Jennings County 52
Firsts plus Seymour results:
200-yard medley relay: Columbus East 1:41.57; 6-(Paul Montgomery, Chaze Combs, Blake Stark, Aaron Drake) 1:57.97
200 freestyle: Evan Dickson (Jef) 1:49.38; 9) Clayton Greenawalt 1:58.76, 11) Grant Smith 2:01.67
200 IM: Brady Bayer (CE) 1:58.54; 3) Pedro Cerino 2:04.36, 11) Stark 2:22.54
50 free: Kaleb Kruer (NA) 22.06; 2) Miller 22.33, 5) Drake 23.84
Diving: Asher Gibson (FC) 489.05; 7) Kaleb Brown 264.10
100 fly: Mason Curry (CE) 53.87; 3) Cerino 55.56, 9) Stark 1:01.51
100 free: Kruer 48.46; 2) Miller 49.44, 8) Montgomery 52.34, 12) Smith 55.91
500 free: Payton Bowman (FC) 5:09.58; 6) Greenawalt 5:25.08, 8) Larry Simons 5:30.99
200 free relay: Seymour (Drake, Greenawalt, Miller, Cerino) 1:32.50
100 backstroke: Kent Geron (NA) 56.85; 7) Montgomery 1:04.35, 9) Drake 1:07.37
100 breaststroke: Beyer 1:00.56
400 free relay: Columbus East 3:23.10; 3) Montgomery, Greenawalt, Miller, Cerino) 3:26.77