The Norwell and Bluffton girls’ swim teams started part one of their sectional journey in the preliminary rounds at Jay County Thursday night.
There were 12 total events with multiple heats that ranged from two to five.
To advance to the finals, which will be at 9 a.m. for diving events and 1 p.m. for the rest of the events Saturday, at Jay County, the individual swimmer or team must place in the top 16 finishers out of all the participants. Then, the 16 will compete in two heats in Jay County’s eight-lane pool to determine who will be going to the state finals.
Norwell will be well-represented Saturday with participants in all 12 events. In the individual races, they will have two or three in each event
Event qualifiers for Norwell on Saturday:
• 200-yard medley relay: Jillian Melcher, Ella Krug, Haleigh Reinhard, and Emerson Meredith.
• 200-yard freestyle: Cassie Coyne, Emma Page, and Karrigan Melcher.
• 200-yard IM: Krug, Reinhard, and Rilynn Ervin.
• 50-yard freestyle: Melcher, Renee Fraze, and Sawyer Peterson.
• 100-yard butterfly: Krug, Ryleigh Huffman, and Alaina Barnhart.
• 100-yard freestyle: Meredith, Fraze, and Addyson Heyerly.
• 500-yard freestyle: Page, Coyne, and Melcher.
• 200-yard freestyle relay: Fraze, Peterson, Page, and Coyne.
• 100-yard backstroke: Melcher, Ervin, and Barnhart.
• 100-yard breaststroke: Reinhard and Olivia Daniel.
• 400-yard freestyle relay: Melcher, Page, Krug, and Meredith.
Bluffton will have nine swimmers participating on Saturday in the eight events.
Event qualifiers for Bluffton on Saturday:
• 200-yard Medley relay: Lydia Athan, Libby Arnett, Kiara Sammons, and Claire Craighead.
• 200-yard IM: Olivia Priester.
• 100-yard butterfly: Priester.
• 500-yard freestyle: Zoey Schmidt and Annika Linderwell.
• 200-yard freestyle relay: Lucia Corkwell, Emma Frauigher, Linderwell, and Corkwell.
• 100-yard breaststroke: Arnett.
• 400-yard freestyle relay: Linderwell, Priester, Schmidt, and Frauigher.
