Eastern's Brovont, Western's Butcher headed to diving regional
Feb. 21—Eastern senior Porter Brovont and Northwestern junior Caleb Champion led the local contingent at the Carmel Boys Swimming and Diving Sectional, which wrapped up on Saturday.
Three-time state finalist Brovont won the diving competition with a score of 470.5. The top four divers qualified for Tuesday's Fort Wayne South Regional and Brovont will be joined in the Summit City by Western's Evan Butcher, who took second with a score of 376.9.
"Highlight of the meet was Porter's win making him a three-time sectional champ in his four years of high school," Eastern coach Erin Stiner said.
Swimmers have a different path with all sectional champions qualifying for state, along with those who reach the state cut time in a given event. After those groups take spots, remaining tickets to state go to the next-fastest swimmers from around the state.
Champion was fifth in the 100 breaststroke at :58.41 and the top four swimmers in that event reached the state cut time. Northwestern expects that when the final three sectionals wrap up today, Champion's time will be good enough to get in the field.
"I've done the math," NW coach Donita Walters said. "[Contenders from other sectionals] are sitting at 1:01, 1:02s. Even if two guys in each sectional go ahead of :58 — which that's not going to happen — we're still in at 31st spot. I believe he'll seed in at 17th.
"The exciting thing is it's been 25 years since Northwestern sent a boy to state, and it's been 35 years ... since Northwestern had a boy and a girl. We train boys and girls together and those kids push each other. Our girls and boys ... truly they earn their spots because they're not handed out freely in this sport. They're hard to come by and super duper proud of them."
State superpower Carmel won the team title of the 10-team sectional with a score of 551, won every event except diving and went 1-2, or 1-2-3 in each of the individual swimming events. Western was fourth at 204, Northwestern fifth (151), Kokomo seventh (127), Tipton eighth (113), Maconaquah ninth (106) and Eastern 10th (71).
The top eight finishers from Thursday's preliminary round competed in the championship finals on Saturday, and the next eight competed in the consolation finals.
Western's Pete Bradshaw had two top-eight finishes in the championship finals. He took sixth in the 50 free (:22.29) and seventh in the 100 free (:49.77). Western had the top local result in two relays. Bradshaw, Kole Shock, Avery Berryman and Luke Mawbey took third in the 200 free relay (:1:32.59). And Bradshaw, Taylor Rathbun, Berryman and Mawbey took fourth in the 400 free relay (3:26.03).
"We had a great Thursday night and they managed to have an even better Saturday," Western coach Brad Bennett said. "Lots of good time drops and gaining positions and points.
"Highlight of the day and the best finish was Evan Butcher in the diving, second place [and] a spot at regional. Just dove exceptionally well. Wasn't able to get first place to compete with [Brovont] but definitely earned a spot at Fort Wayne South Side Regional. Diving was our best individual event with Milan Bennett also making the podium at seventh."
The Panthers led the six Tribune-area schools in the team race.
"I was really happy with our seniors, Pete, Taylor and Tanner [Vance]," Bennett said. "All those guys really kind of led the charge in their events, and we had a lot of young guys swimming, a lot of freshmen and sophomores swimming and earning points with the leadership with those guys having to help them understand what to do and how to navigate that meet.
"I feel like we ended a really good season on a really positive note."
Northwestern had four finishes in the top eight on Saturday. Caleb Champion was also sixth in the 200 IM (2:03.24). Ethan Champion was eighth in the 50 free (:23.2) and sixth in the 500 free (5:04.06).
"We had a great day," Walters said. "I'm super pleased with what we did. We'll be down at state."
Kokomo's top individual result was Andrew Jay taking eighth in the 500 free (5:10.27). The Katfish team of Jay, Isaac Elkin, Isaac Flamino and Gabriel Booher had the top local finish in the 200 medley relay, taking fourth in 1:48.19. Elkin was fifth in diving, just missing advancing by one spot.
"Andrew Jay had a big-time swim in his 500 free," Kokomo coach Trevor Trimpe said, noting time drops across the squad. "He dropped 5.5 seconds from his prelim time, where he cut 2.5 seconds, swimming to a new lifetime best.
"Swimming is a very tough sport and to end our season with dozens of lifetime bests is a huge accomplishment."
Tipton's Stone Conaway was fifth in the 50 free (:22.16) and seventh in the 100 butterfly (:53.74).
Maconaquah's best result was Walker Hayes taking 11th in the 50 free (:23.68).
After Brovont's diving title, Eastern's next-best finish was the team of Charlie Kendall, Tim Cauthern, Philip Beedham and Eli Huston swimming to eighth in the 400 free relay (3:50.16).
"I'm very proud of the work the guys have done this season and [Saturday]," Stiner said of the entire Comet squad. "They really put their best foot forward in their events."
