Bluffton’s Isaac Wheeler swims during the 200-yard freestyle race Tuesday night at Adams Central High School. Wheeler won his race, helping secure the Tigershark’s win over the Jets and improve to 5-0 on the season. (Photos by Ryan Walker)
Tigershark Lucia Corkwell during the breaststroke portion of the 200-yard IM.
By RYAN WALKER
MONROE — Bluffton earned a split in the swimming pool against conference foe Adams Central Tuesday night.
The Tigershark boys kept their winning ways going, improving to a 5-0 record in a 129-56 win against the Jets. The girls fell in their meet 129-56.
The two Bluffton squads have vastly different teams and therefore, want to accomplish other things.
The boys’ team is loaded with returning talent and 13 freshmen on the team. The goal for them is to win their 10th straight ACAC championship.
For the girls, it’s all about hard work and getting better despite low numbers.
The scores reflect that for the Tigershark girls, as they only had six swimmers competing on Tuesday with three out due to injury. With many events voiding spots in the lanes, the team score makes it hard to win when the night is over.
But that hasn’t stopped this group from being one of the most competitive in spirit for head coach Hunter Cunningham.
“They are very encouraging,” Cunningham said. “I would say that this is one team that might be small but they are the hardest working team that I’ve had in a long time. I’ve always had good hard workers, but just in general, they all want to be there. They all want to get better. They ask questions. They work, which I think also helps them be positive too because they can see the progress in practice. So when it comes to a meet, they’re very good at not looking at the score. I told them we don’t pay attention to the score.”
Due to their willingness to compete and get better each week in practice and in meets, the team stands a fighting chance when the opponent also has lower numbers. Last week, the Tigershark girls won both matches against Blackhawk and Bishop Luers — teams that also lack a big roster.
“We did get a win last week, which was a huge accomplishment because when we are even with a team, we come out on top because we’re very motivated to work, and that hard work is paying off too,” said Cunningham.
For the boys, it was business as usual. As mentioned before, the Tigersharks are aiming for their 10th title in a row in the conference. In the 73-point win, head coach Justin Upgraft was pleased to see his team come out on top but knows there’s definitely more in the tank to unlock for the rest of the season.
“We’re doing some really good things, but we still have to work on some of the small things,” Upgraft said. “That’s what separates the really good teams from the decent teams is doing those really small things really well. Right now, we’re not there yet, but we’re competing, which is a good thing.”
Last year, Upgraft was surprised about how the team matured so quickly. The team also held a competitive fire in them to beat their best times in practices and a strong will to shave off time.
The team has carried that leadership over to this season, he shared, that the returning swimmers are starting to take a lead-by-committee approach.
Upgraft has three team captains, but he said that most of the upperclassmen have a handle on the team and help the younger swimmers get on track showing the high school varsity ropes.
“Those first three weeks are kind of brutal getting into the pool, especially for a team this big, and 13 of them being freshmen,” Upgraft said. “Being in the middle school workouts going to the high school workouts — it’s a big jump for them. So, I think a lot of those freshmen are starting to find their form in practice and in the pool during competition.”
Bluffton will be at Blackford at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7.
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Event winners:
Boys
• Noah Brooks, Dalton Rodgers, Isaac Wheeler and Wes Frettinger in the 200-yard medley relay.
• Wheeler in the 200-yard freestyle and in the 100-yard breaststroke.
• Rodgers in the 200-yard IM and in the 100-yard butterfly.
• Brooks in the 50-yard freestyle and in the 100-yard backstroke.
• Ashton Arnett in the 100-yard freestyle.
• Jackson Meyer in the 500-yard freestyle.
• Arnett, Athan King, Elijah Robles and Frettinger in the 200-yard freestyle.
• Brooks, Arnett, Rodgers and Wheeler in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Girls
• Lucia Corkwell in the 200-yard IM.
• Zoey Schmidt in the 500-yard freestyle.
