By JOSH BURRIS
PORTLAND – The Norwell Lady Knights scored 375 points to capture their first sectional championship in girls’ swimming since 2010 on Monday night.
The Knights have come close in the past as they have finished second the last four seasons.
Coach Tanner Lesh thought this could be the season they take first and told his team at the start of the year the opportunity was there.
The girls started off on Saturday with a strong performance during prelims, and seized that opportunity on Monday during the finals.
“I’m really proud of the girls. They really came together,” Lesh said after the meet. “Saturday was awesome, but we told them the total means more on Monday. And they did it.”
Norwell also had two of its relays advance to this weekend’s state finals at IUPUI. The 400 freestyle relay of Emma Page, Aubreyan Heyerly, Ella Krug, and Jillian Melcher finished first with a time of 3:56.29. Its the fifth straight season Norwell’s 400 relay has qualified for state.
That 400 relay will be joined by Norwell’s 200 medley relay of Melcher, Riley Meredith, Krug, and Emerson Meredith. That team finished first with a time of 1:56.04.
All first-place sectional winners qualify for the state finals, along with contestants that meet the state standard time.
Norwell had 18 more top-eight finishes in the meet, including four runner-up finishes.
Melcher finished second in the 100 with a time of 57.11 and second in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:03.18. Krug finished second in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:02.84. Page finished second in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:52.27 and fourth in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:08.51.
Page, Riley Meredith, Heyerly, and Emerson Meredith finished third in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:48.47.
Emerson Meredith finished third in the 50 freestyle with a time of 26.35 and fourth in diving with a score of 287.65. Cassie Coyne finished fourth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 6:01.64 and fifth in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:09.65.
Riley Meredith finished sixth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:35.64 and eighth in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:18.11.
Heyerly finished seventh in the 50 freestyle with a time of 26.93. Haleigh Reinhard finished seventh in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:17.72 and eighth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:39.39.
Ainsley Melcher finished eighth in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:13.61. Karrigan Melcher finished eighth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 6:11.47. Addyson Heyerly finished eighth in the 100 backstroke with at ime of 1:13.7.
Delta followed Norwell in the team standings with 271 points, followed by Jay County with 255.5, Huntington North with 233.5, Muncie Central with 224.5, Adams Central with 179, Muncie Burris with 167, South Adams with 154, and Bellmont with 151.
Bluffton came in 10th with 96 points and five top-10 finishes.
Olivia Priester, Kiersten Mayer, Zoey Schmidt, and Annika Linderwell finished sixth in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 4:16.77. Those four also finished 10th in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:56.65.
Linderwell finished sixth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 6:10.79 and 10th in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:14.62.
Lucia Corkwell finished ninth in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:12.59.
With just nine girls competing in the meet, the Lady Tigers still managed to do better than coach Hunter Cunningham expected.
“We had six out of our nine girls move on to the finals, which was a huge accomplishment,” Cunningham said. “Between prelims and finals, every girls earned their personal best. I was very proud of this group of girls. With adjusting to this small of a team, the girls were more dedicated than ever and it showed tonight in the finals.”
After Bluffton it was Blackford in 11th with 61.5 points, and Union City in 12th with 40 points.
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