FLOYDS KNOBS — Seymour seniors Paul Montgomery and Kaleb Brown were all smiles at the conclusion of the Floyd Central boys swimming and diving sectional Saturday afternoon.

They were happy because they had just turned in strong performances in their specialties — Montgomery in the freestyle sprints and Brown in diving — to advance to the next level.

In Brown’s case, it is the Jasper diving regional Tuesday night, and in Montgomery’s case, it is the state finals in Indianapolis on Friday night.

They helped the Owls place second in the team standings with 320 points. Floyd Central won the sectional with 508.5 points, and Madison was third with 280 points.

This will be Montgomery’s third trip to the state finals, and this will be Brown’s second trip to the regional.

Montgomery was a sectional champion in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.23. He was second in the 100 free with a time of 47.26, which was a new school record, breaking the old mark of Kameron Chastain of 47.48.

Brown finished second in diving with a score of 300.90, which was his best score of the season.

Coach Dave Boggs said not only did Montgomery and Brown perform admirably, but the whole team stepped up.

“Overall, we did really well,” he said. “We had nothing negative at all. It was just a great meet both days. I couldn’t be any prouder of the boys right now.

“It was Paul’s goal to set the school record,” Boggs added. “He missed it last year by .22. He had such a big drop. We were real happy with that. He really wanted to get that record. It’s a great way to go.”

The swimming trials will be held at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis on Friday night.

“I just want to see Paul advance to Saturday and score,” Boggs said.

“Kaleb did have a good series of dives,” Boggs said. “He had a good, solid meet today, nothing really bad. He nailed a couple of dives really well that had high DD (degree of difficulty). I think Kaleb is very pleased how he dove today.”

Two of Paul’s older brothers and his older sister were all part of school records, but those came in relays, Boggs said, so Paul is the first of those to hold an individual school record.

Montgomery said, “I couldn’t be happier. In the 50, I thought about the things I needed to do to improve. It was the start and the turn. The 50 really has to be a perfect race, and I feel like I did it as well as I could.

“The 100 was a great race. I told myself going in that I was going to sprint the whole thing, and I did. The Floyd Central guy (Jadyn Gomes) beat the state cut (swimming a 46.53), and hopefully, I make the top 32.”

Montgomery learned Sunday afternoon that he did in fact have one of the 32 fastest times, so he will also be doing the 100 free this week at state.

“The natatorium is always exciting. It is a wonderful pool,” he said.

Paul’s older brothers, David, Sam and John, and his sister, Sarah, all swam in state meets.

“Swimming is a big family tradition, and I’m happy,” Paul said.

Brown said he was in second place through prelims and semifinals.

“We took a break after eight dives and came back and did these final three dives. I did pretty well throughout the whole thing,” he said. “There was one dive during semifinals that I didn’t do too well on, but that was only one dive, and you’ve just got to move on from it.

“My score was definitely better than I did at conference, and I think I got a new PR for 11 dives. I’ve got to work on certain dives (today at practice) that will get me the most points for regional because regional is going to be a lot tougher. I’m trying to do higher DDs. The board at Jasper is definitely a lot different than what you see here (at Floyd Central) or at conference. Whatever place I get, I’ve just got to be happy with it.”

Boggs said, “It was just a lot of fun today, the whole meet. I couldn’t be happier with them and for them.”

Floyd Central Sectional

Team scores: Floyd Central 508.5, Seymour 320, Madison 280, Jeffersonville 243, Jennings County 167.5, New Albany 163, Providence 105, Henryville 84, Salem 83, Switzerland County 74, Scottsburg 54, Charlestown 51, Shawe Memorial 26, Silver Creek 4

Seymour results:

200 medley relay: 5-(Will Proffer, Chaze Combs, Lane Mellencamp, Caden Harriss) 1:49.38

200 free: 8-Grant Smith 1:54.13, 9-Larry Simons 2:01.70, 10-Lucas Jablonski 2:04.99

200 IM: 7-Will Proffer 2:13.83, 9-Combs 2:12.24, 15-Wes Proffer 2:21.98

50 free: 1-Paul Montgomery 21.23, 10-Aaron Drake 23.58, 10-Harriss 24.09

Diving: 2-Kaleb Brown 300.90, 5-Cole Simmons 189.35

100 fly: 8-Mellencamp 57.10, 13-Wes Proffer 1:04.94, 15-C.J. Polley 1:07.39

100 free: 2-Montgomery 47.26, 11-Smith 52.25, 13-Drake 54.78

500 free: 5-Simons 5:11.35, 7-Mellencamp 5:14.25, 8-Polley 5:32.81

200 free relay: 3-(Montgomery, Harriss, Drake, Mellencamp) 1:32.01

100 back: 8-Will Proffer 1:02.25, 12-Harriss 1:05.04, 15-Micah Jablonski 1:08.62

100 breast: 8-Combs 1:07.36, 15-Tristan Dowell 1:17.52, 16-Ben Feldes 1:20.81

400 free relay: 2-(Montgomery, Drake, Smith, Will Proffer) 3:26.66