North relays prove double trouble for sectional field

Ben Dixon and Jay Stewart were each four-time sectional champions on Saturday, they just took different routes to get there.

While Stewart, along with Ben Buehler and Jack Steiner, went all in on three relays for Bloomington North, with one individual event, Dixon went the usual two and two, winning the 100 and 200 freestyle titles and helping both free relays to titles as well. The plan worked perfectly.

The Cougars carded state cuts in all three relays, which score twice as much as individual events and ended up with 415 points to win a fourth straight boys' team title at East Central. Bloomington South also had its share of success, with David Kovacs winning two races and breaking a sectional record. The Panthers also got a state cut in the medley relay.

All three county schools will send a diver to the Jasper Regional on Tuesday as North's Max Miller repeated as sectional champ with Edgewood's Quinn Balcam taking third and South's Michael Tierney fourth.

"Great meet. Fantastic. A lot of fun and great to watch," North coach Max Irwin said. "And we're sending a lot of folks to state."

Relay racers

Irwin hatched his plan back in December.

The result, North went 1:35.79 in the 200 medley relay (Stewart, Hunter Tang, Steiner, Buehler), with Buehler's 21.08 free finish pulling the Cougars to a .24 win over South (1:36.03), which also had a state cut.

Then Stewart (21.29), Steiner, Dixon and Buehler took care of the 200 free in 1:26.12, just .68 ahead of East Central, which also had a state cut. It was the one Irwin was most nervous about, but no split was over 21.77. Then came the capper, a big win in the 400 (Steiner, Dixon, Buehler, Stewart) with a 3:10.59 that was just .29 off last year's school record. That's 120 points on the board.

"I figured we'd do well in the relays," Irwin said. "So I talked to the team mid-season. 'I think we could have three realy good relays if you're up for it.' They were. We love relays. Who doesn't love relays?

"They were willing to give up their other individual events to be on the relay teams and it paid off. Getting all three relays on top of the podium, that was really big."

Dixon also changed his lineup from a 50-100 free combo to 100-200 and it paid off as well. First, Dixon took care of the 200 title, charging into the lead with an impressive 26.70 third 50 to win by a healthy margin in 1:45.57. Then Dixon (46.99) and Buehler (47.46) dominated the 100.

"That third 50 he dropped the hammer and took off," Irwin said. "I'm glad we put him in there instead of the 50. He's better on the longer races. The 50 is a roll of the dice anyway."

North's other champ was Stewart, who won the 100 butterfly in a career best 49.56.

"Jay looked super strong," Irwin said. "He had great underwaters. And any day you break a big barrier like that a minute or 50 seconds, that's a big deal him getting down to the 49s. That makes him the second fastest in North history (behind Irwin). He looked so strong."

Kovacs leads South

Kovacs, last year's H-T Boys' Swimmer of the Year, is headed that direction again after a terrific performance that included a sectional record 49.70 to win the backstroke title by over five seconds. He broke the old record by a second and it's just .02 from Ian Finnerty's school record.

It was the second victory of the day for the sophomore, after starting his day with an even more dominating win in the 200 individual medley, going 1:52.50, .18 faster than his career PR from the state finals in 2022. He won by 6.1 seconds.

Kovacs also got the Panthers' medley relay off to a great start as Leo Nelson, Lukas Paegle and Gabriel Arthur carried the squad to a state cut of 1:36.03 and second place. South was fourth in the 200 free relay and third in the 400, with a strong chance at a call-up after missing the state cut by only .2 with a 3:14.08.

Paegle was a runner-up in the 50 (22.01) and fly (51.39), another race that could produce a call-up.

Botund Kun (4:46.68) might also get a call-up after taking second in the 500 with Kian Kadlec third (4:50.03). Both were PRs. Kadlec also took second in the 200 (1:47.26) and Kun fifth in the fly (54.82) and Arthur sixth. Nelson was fourth in the IM (2:04.04).

Cougar points

North had plenty of other strong performances, including a second place finish in the breaststroke from junior Jeremiah Boshears in 58.42, just .1 off his career best from two years ago despite just a half-season of training. He took the lead with a 26.95 but was caught in the back half by Columbus East's Brady Beyer, the 500 champ.

"It was a tremendous race to watch and we had three in the A Final (Tang and William Foley went 4-5)," Irwin said. "I said, 'Imagine if you'd been swimming last year, you'd have been there the whole way.' But it was a beautifully executed race.

"He really focused in practice on what he needs to do and pays attention to detail. I knew with missing a year he had to work on the technical things and he nailed all four walls. He had super fast turns."

North also saw Steiner take fourth in the 50 (22.13) and Ty Mayer fourth in the 500 (5:03.89).

Diving trio to regional

While Miller repeated as diving champ with a 393.55 to win by 23.6 points, Edgewood's Balcam and South's Tierney had some work to do to advance.

Balcom overcame last year's heartbreak in the sectional finals when he was passed by teammate Oliver Headdy for fourth. He sat fourth going into the finals this year and pulled himself into third with a 321.30.

Meanwhile, Tierney (sixth last year) was sitting fifth, down 15 points going into the finals and piled up a meet best 102.95 to move up to fourth at 316.75 with an 11-point cushion over fifth.

"He really snuck it out there," South diving coach Alex Burns said. "He was a little bit hesitant at first, then got that adrenalin boost for the finals and made the grade.

"It was exciting to watch. It kept me on the edge of my seat. He was barely a couple points behind the kid from East Central and he stepped up on his last few dives. The freshman's last dive was not as good as Michael's and that's what put him in. His last dive is a pretty consistent one for him, so it worked in his favor."

EAST CENTRAL SECTIONAL

Team scores: 1. Bloomington North 415; 2. Bloomington South 368; 3. East Central 313; 4. Columbus East 299½; 5. Columbus North 263½; 6. Greensburg 130½; 7. Batesville 115½; 8. Milan 114; 9. Oldenburg Academy 61; 10. South Ripley 49; 11. Lawerenceburg 44; 12. South Dearborn 19; 13. Edgewood 16.

Winners and those who meet state standard (in parenthesis), denoted with *, advance to state finals

50 freestyle (21.26): 1. Ayden Ketchem, EC, 21.60; 2. Lukas Paegle, BS, 22.01; 3. Jack Steiner, BN, 22.13; 4. Henry Strotman, EC, 22.17. (9. Gabriel Arthur, BS, 22.87; 10. Walter Harvey, BN, 23.38; 11. Landon Mobley, BN, 23.72; 14. Earle Clive, BS, 23.84).

100 freestyle (46.78): 1. Ben Dixon, BN, 46.99; 2. Ben Buehler, BN, 47.46; 3. Strotman, EC, 48.68; 4. William Johnson, Bate, 49.08; 7. Carter Warren, BS, 49.75. (12. Mobley, BN, 51.85; 14. Tyler Peterson, BS, 52.60; 15. Connor Schmeckebier, BS, 52.91).

200 freestyle (1:42.89): 1. B.Dixon, BN, 1:45.57; 2. Kian Kadlec, BS, 1:47.26; 3. Judah Nickoll, CE, 1:47.91; 4. Kaden Cummins, EC, 1:49.07; 6. Peterson, BS, 1:50.82. (9. Charles Weida, BN, 1:53.63; 11. Leo Friedman, BS, 1:53.87; 13. Ty Mayer, BN, 1:56.02).

500 freestyle (4:42.53): 1. Brady Beyer, CE, 4:35.67; 2. Botund Kun, BS, 4:46.68; 3. Kadlec, BS, 4:50.03; 4. Mayer, BN, 5:03.89; 7. Ty Madeira, BN, 5:09.81. (10. Jacen Madeira, BN, 5:10.24; 12. Friedman, BS, 5:12.42).

100 backstroke (51.64): 1. David Kovacs, BS, 49.70 (sectional record; old record, 50.70, Christopher Lee, Columbus North, 2021); 2. Nickoll, CE, 55.03; 3. Prathamesh Badve, CN, 55.11; 4. Kyle Goodwin, EC, 55.96; 7. William Whitaker, BN, 58.01. (9. Alex Madeira, BN, 58.70; 10. Warren, BS, 59.63; 11. Rice Laughlin, BS, 1:00.61; 13. Evan Fons, BN, 1:02.48).

100 breaststroke (58.12): 1. Beyer, CE, 56.94; 2. Jeremiah Boshears, BN, 58.42; 3. Dylan Thomas, Mil, 58.44; 4. Hunter Tang, BN, 1:01.23; 5. William Foley, BN, 1:01.76; 6. Leo Nelson, BS, 1:02.15. (12. Aiden Halloran, BS, 1:05.81; 16. Caleb Oliver, BS, 1:09.26).

100 butterfly (50.86): 1. Jay Stewart, BN, 49.56; 2. Paegle, BS, 51.39; 3. Goodwin, EC, 52.72; 4. Mikhail Machavariani, CE, 53.69; 5. Kun, BS, 54.82; 6. Arthur, BS, 56.21. (14. Tyler Gentry, BN, 59.63; 15. A.Madeira, BN, 59.69).

200 individual medley (1:55.20): 1. Kovacs, BS, 1:52.50; 2. Machavariani, CE, 1:58.60; 3. Thomas, Mil, 1:59.22; 4. Nelson, BS, 2:04.04; 7. Luke Miller, BN, 2:06.16. (11. Laughlin, BS, 2:11.50; 12. J.Madeira, BN, 2:12.13; 15. Leo Wang, BN, 2:15.09.

Diving (top 4 advance to regional): 1. Max Miller, BN, 393.55; 2. Gavin Day, CE, 369.95; 3. Quinn Balcam, Edg, 321.30; 4. Michael Tierney, BS, 316.75; 6. Teagan Hojem, BN, 266.55. 9. William Steiner, BN, 211.65.

200 medley relay (1:37.03): 1. Bloomington North (Stewart, Tang, J.Steiner, Buehler), 1:35.79; 2. Bloomington South (Kovacs, Nelson, Paegle, Arthur), 1:36.03*; 3. Columbus East, 1:37.44; 4. Columbus North, 1:40.74.

200 freestyle relay (1:27.72): 1. Bloomington North (Stewart, J.Steiner, B.Dixon, Buehler), 1:26.12; 2. East Central, 1:26.80*; 3. Columbus North, 1:32.24; 4. Bloomington South (Arthur, Nelson, Kun, Friedman), 1:33.65.

400 freestyle relay (3:13.88): 1. Bloomington North (J.Steiner, B.Dixon, Buehler, Stewart), 3:10.59; 2. East Central, 3:13.95*; 3. Bloomington South, 3:14.08; 4. Columbus East, 3:16.92.

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com or 812-331-4381 and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: North relays prove double trouble for sectional field