Seymour senior Grant Smith knew going into the 100 yard breaststroke, the penultimate event in Monday’s tri-meet with Providence and Henryville, that it would be his last time swimming a meet in the Owls’ aquatic center.

He made the most of his final home race.

In the final 25 yards, Smith used a big kick to catch Henryville’s Mason Tolliver and take home first place with a time of 1:14.34.

“I saw him at the first wall, and I saw he was ahead of me and I knew that going into it because his time was two seconds ahead of me,” Smith said. “When I saw him at the 50 wall, I saw that I closed the gap, so I knew I had a shot. I gave it my all my last 50. At the 75, I saw him under water at the wall, and I knew I had it.”

Smith used his long arms to outstretch Tolliver and touch the wall first to get the win.

“That’s the last race I will ever swim here, and I knew that going in,” Smith said. “What a race to end on.”

Smith’s first-place finish was one of many that the Owls’ boys team racked up during Monday’s meet. Seymour defeated Providence by a score of 135-43 and beat Henryville 137-37.

Seymour took home first place in every event except for one. Paul Montgomery won the 50 free in 22.69, Will Proffer won the 100 free (53.31) Chaze Combs won the 200 free (2:04.25), Combs won the 500 free (5:43.27), Montgomery won the 100 butterfly (58.12), Lane Mellencamp won the 200 IM (2:12.83) and Kaleb Brown won the 1-meter dive (180.15).

In the relays, the team of Will Proffer, Smith, Combs and Wes Proffer won the 200 freestyle in 1:43.83. Caden Harriss, Mellencamp, Montgomery and Aaron Drake won the 200 medley in 1:51.16, and the team of Larry Simons, Lucas Jablonski, CJ Polley and Jadrix Zumhingst won the 400 freestyle in 4:00.96.

Mellencamp, who was part of the medley relay and won the 200 IM, has been having a solid season in his first year with the Owls.

“Definitely consistency at practice, just keeping up the good work that Dave gives us,” he said on his success.

Mellencamp swam a 2:12.83, which he was satisfied with, but he’s been dealing with an injury to his pectoral muscle, so he’s not quite where he wants to be right now.

“I’m as happy as I can be about it,” Mellencamp said. “I would like to be around the 2:05-ish area, which was my goal this season.”

In addition to having their own teammates and coaches cheer them on, the Owls also had “Coach Brutus” the gorilla back on the deck with them this season.

It’s a mascot that Polley said his older brothers used when they went to Seymour, so he brought it back for the past couple of seasons.

Mellencamp said he’s seen a lot of teams have mascots like this, such as Floyd Central using a duck.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Mellencamp said. “I saw at conference a lot of teams had mascots and stuff like that, so I think it’s a pretty cool addition.”

Seymour’s girls team, who just finished up sectionals last weekend, didn’t have a mascot this year. That’s thanks in large part to the boys team, but Smith said Brutus is always around for the boys.

“It’s amazing,” Smith said. “It goes everywhere we go. The girls tried to make a replica last year, but we broke it on ‘accident.’ They didn’t bring one back this year, but ours is indestructible.”

Seymour’s real head coach, Dave Boggs, and the Seymour boys will now turn its focus to sectionals next week, starting with the prelims next Thursday at Floyd Central High School at 6 p.m. The finals will be at Floyd the ensuing Saturday at 1 p.m.

Smith said he’s swimming the 200 free and 100 free. In the 200, he swam a 1:53 last year, so he wants to get down to 1:50 this year.

As for Mellencamp, his big focus is the 500 free.

“I’ve been working on it at practice every day, so I can try to get that sectional state time,” he said. “I think I can get it personally.”

The Owls had a couple state qualifiers one season ago and hope to replicate some of that success next week.