By RYAN WALKER
Both Tigershark swim teams won Thursday night at home over Manchester.
The boys remained a perfect 8-0 on the season in its 134-31 victory. Despite the Squires having a limited number of swimmers (which gave points to Bluffton), head coach Justin Upgraft still found ways to challenge his team by mixing up the rotation a bit.
“The guys swam really well. I changed up the lineup a little bit,” he said after the meet. “It’s good to see guys still competing even though there were a lot of racers where it was Bluffton versus Bluffton. It’s good to see that inner-squad competition.”
He added that he values a well-rounded swimmer and that the team enjoys mixing it up every once in a while. The morale booster helped when the team got out of the swing of things after Christmas break when there were no events to compete in for three straight weeks.
The Tigersharks haven’t missed a beat since the break. They’ve won three regular season meets in a row over South Adams, Marion, and now Manchester. To add to the success, the boys placed second out of 14 schools in the Jay County Invitational.
“As of recently, these guys have been really awesome. Just the continual determination to drop time and really get some really good swims,” he said.
The team will have to attempt to extend its hot streak over the next few weeks at the Allen County Athletic Conference meet next Friday, and the sectional is next month. Bluffton has already won against all three ACAC schools so far this season.
Individual events winners for the boys were:
• Elija Robles, Gavin Yergler, Isaac Wheeler, Braden Lemler, Max Worth, Dalton Rodgers, Ethan Hunt, Noah Brooks, and Ashton Arnett
On the girls’ side, they won in a close one, 87-81. So close, in fact, that it came down to the final event – the 400-meter freestyle relay. Head coach Hunter Cunningham took it as a challenge for her team, and they answered the bell.
“It came down to the last relay,” she said after the meet. “If their two relays would have places, we would have lost. They knew that going into it, and I just said, ‘who wants it more’ and that’s something we’ve been talking about in practices — we have to fight, and we have to want it. They came out, and they showed up.”
Cunningham admitted that she didn’t expect to be competing on the scoreboard as much as they did. Her team was outnumbered by Manchester, which would give the Squires free points on the board and make it difficult to make up for the empty spots.
The girls’ program has been on the rise this year — growing in numbers and finding its identity. At this point in the season, the team is dropping times seemingly every week. That can be positive for the most part but peaking too early, when the bigger events are looming, might have a negative effect.
“They’ve grown a ton,” she said. “I would say, this past weekend, the Jay Invite and Marion, we saw the most time drops — which is a good thing, but I also got nervous. We don’t want to be dropping time right, not in a sense. “I just want to redeem ourselves at conference and beat South Adams. Hopefully, beat AC (Adams Central), and compete with Jay County.”
The conference meets for both teams will be at Jay County starting at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20.
Individual event winners for the girls were:
• Lucia Corkwell in the 100-yard freestyle.
• Annika Linderwell in the 500-yard freestyle.
• Olivia Preister, Zoey Schmidt, Annika Linderwell, and Corkwell in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Bluffton will host Wayne at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19
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