By RYAN WALKER
With a clean sweep from both the girls’ and boys’ swim and dive teams Saturday afternoon, Norwell repeated as back-to-back Northeast 8 Conference champions.
“Everybody was really excited and pretty pumped up – they came in pretty pumped up this morning,” said Stephanie Scott, the head coach of the boys’ and girls’ teams. “Obviously, they’re really excited right now and looking forward to sectional, hopefully, repeating last year.”
The Knights took first in its home pool, and it wasn’t even close. The girls scored 363.5 to win by over 100 points to second place Columbia City (228), Huntington North (196.5), East Noble (185), Bellmont (143), and DeKalb (80).
The boys scored 319, followed by Columbia City (244), Huntington North (188), East Noble (169), Bellmont (147), and DeKalb (80).
After the scores were tallied, the public address announcer went from six-place up to first, each time Norwell erupting in cheers with the realization of victory. Shortly after the boys’ results were revealed, Scott was pushed into the pool (fully clothed with no swimming gear on) in celebration.
“That’s just what they like to do when they big win meets — push the coach in the pool!” she explained.
Scott added that she does not know who the culprit was that had pushed her in, only that she and the two assistant coaches, Justin Grant and Quinn Biberstein, had a splash. She mentioned that Grant and Biberstein are a big part of the program and helped make the championship possible.
In 2022, Norwell not only was the conference champs, but the Knights also won the sectional that year for the first time in over a decade. On Saturday, the mentality throughout the day was that the job wasn’t finished, no matter the results.
“We’ve been talking about that (the sectional) throughout the day,” Scott said. “We didn’t taper for this, so even after a hard week of workouts, we reminded them that we’re only two-thirds of the way through the season — we’re not done yet. So whether they had a good swim or they had a bad swim, what’s our ultimate goal? And they all know that our ultimate goal is sectionals, so we’ve kept that in our sights.”
In the sectional, Jay County will host some familiar faces and some unfamiliar to the Knights through previous dual-meets and weekend invitationals on Feb. 2 and 4 — Adams Central, Bellmont, Blackford, Bluffton, Delta, Huntington North, Jay County, Muncie Burris, Muncie Central, Norwell, South Adams, and Union City.
Individual placers for the girls were:
• Emerson Meredith first, Kayleigh Hartup third, and Jacquelyn Mayer fourth in the one-yard diving events.
• Jillian Melcher, Ella Krug, Haleigh Reinhard, and Meredith in the 200-yard medley relay.
• Cassie Coyne second, Emma Page fourth, and Karrigan Melcher fifth in the 200-yard freestyle.
• Krug first, Rilynn Ervin fifth in the 200-yard IM.
• Melcher second in the 50-yard freestyle.
• Krug second, Ryleigh Huffman fourth in the 100-yard butterfly.
• Meredith first, Fraze sixth in the 100-yard freestyle.
• Page, Krug, Fraze, and Kayla Reich second in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
• Melcher second, Ervin sixth in the 100-yard backstroke.
• Reinhard third, Olivia Daniel sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke.
• Coyne, Melcher, Fraze, and Page were first in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Individual placers for the boys were:
• Michael Reidenbach III, Kale Meredith, Samuel Peterson, and Rodrigo Segovia first in the 200-yard medley relay.
• Marin Melcher third, Ethan Williamson sixth in the 200-yard freestyle.
• Peterson second, Meredith third in the 200-yard IM.
• Segovia first, Emerson Graft in the 50-yard freestyle.
• Peterson first, Reece Lobsiger fourth, Colten Strunk sixth in the 100-yard butterfly.
• Reidenbach first, Segovia fourth in the 100-yard freestyle.
• Coyne fifth, Page third, Melcher sixth in the 500-yard freestyle.
• Melcher third, in the 500-yard freestyle.
• Singleton, Graft, Peterson, and Segovia second in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
• Reidenbach first, Lobsiger second, in the 100-yard backstroke.
• Meredith first in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Graft, Singleton, Meredith, and Reidenbach were first in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Norwell will be at Huntington North at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17.
