By RYAN WALKER
Norwell earned another sweep in the swimming pool in both boys’ and girls’ matchups against the Jay County Patriots Thursday night.
The boys finished with a 107-64 win, while the girls had a 141-42 win.
Like Bluffton’s swim teams, the Knights have one team that’s in a rebuilding phase and one that’s in an all-or-nothing stage.
The boys are the squad that is retooling its team, coming off a thrilling season in which they won the Northeast 8 Conference and Sectional championships. The team also sent multiple events and swimmers to the state meet.
“The boys, it’s kind of been a rebuilding team this year because we lost a lot of graduating seniors, a foreign exchange student, (and) one moved, but they’re doing really well and training hard,” Norwell head coach Stephanie Scott said after the meet. “We see some of the younger ones making big improvements, so that’s exciting.”
Filling in some of the slots this season, as mentioned by Scott, are Rylan Heyerly, Gage Reinhard and Colten Strunk, who contributed to five event wins for the night. But in reality, Scott said that the whole team has stepped up so far. “Really, they all have.”
Ethan Williamson, Kale Meredith, and Parker McCartney all are returning veterans to the team and have won their fair share of events.
For the girls, the team won the Northeast 8 but narrowly fell to Delta in the sectional by 15 points and returned all but just one starter. The team feels like it has unfinished business.
In this particular meet, the girls beat the defending ACAC champ Patriots by a wide margin and seemingly have picked up right where they left off from last season.
In the sectional loss, the girls’ team has a fire to get back on top. The passion stems from that final meet of the season that took place at Jay County’s home pool last February. Scott said the team was disappointed in the result, as they were favored to win the sectional and came up short.
In between those long 10 months, the girls have had that feeling bottled up and used it during the offseason. Many of the swimmers over the summer competed for the Wells County Swim Team to keep in shape, but Scott shared that they were all eager to get back into the high school season.
And perhaps, Scott had a trick up her sleeve ready to unload at the beginning of the season.
“I think last year when they ended by losing by just that little bit at sectional, we had them write letters to themselves because they were all excited for this next season, but we didn’t want to lose that (feeling),” Scott shared. “And we gave them back during the first week of practice, pulled those out and they read them.”
Clearly, what was wrote in those letters has paid off. Norwell is 5-0 with an invitational win already.
In other Norwell swim news, “The Moat” got a revamp over the summer.
The bottom of the pool was redone and repainted, along with the walls in a blue and white contrast.
The walls are bare now, but soon, Scott said that they will be filled with art. On the far end of the pool will be the Norwell Knight head logo. On the far side will be high school and middle school records.
Norwell will be hosting the boys’ invitational this weekend at 9 a.m., then, both teams will host Snider and Wayne at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12.
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Event winners:
Boys
• Ethan Williamson, Colten Strunk, Parker McCartney and Kale Meredith.
• Rylan Heyerly in the 200-yard freestyle and in the 100-yard freestyle.
• McCartney in the 200-yard IM.
• Kale Meredith in the 50-yard freestyle and in the 100-yard breaststroke.
• Strunk in the 100-yard butterfly.
• Williamson in the 500-yard freestyle and in the 100-yard backstroke.
• Strunk, Gage Reinhard, McCartney and Heyerly in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
•.Reinhard, Meredith, Strunk and Heyerly in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Girls
• Jillian Melcher, Ryleigh Huffman, Marlee Meredith and Emerson Meredith in the 200-yard medley relay.
• Cassie Coyne in the 200-yard freestyle and in the 500-yard freestyle.
• Haleigh Reinhard in the 200-yard IM.
• Melcher in the 50-yard freestyle and inn the 100-yard backstroke.
• Huffman in the 100-yard butterfly.
• Emerson Meredith in the 100-yard freestyle.
• Renee Fraze, Coyne, Marlee Meredith and Emerson Meredith in the 200-yard freestyle.
• Marlee Meredith in the 100-yard breaststroke.
• Karrigan Melcher, Coyne, Huffman and Melcher in the 400-yard freestyle.
