By RYAN WALKER
JAY COUNTY — For the first time in school history, Bluffton has a swimming sectional champion.
The boys’ team, who won by over 100 team points, was able to hoist the sectional trophy Saturday night, something neither the boys’ or girls’ programs haven’t done.
With 425 points to second place Delta’s 291, the Tigersharks didn’t need to sweat out until the end to find out they would get it done. Parents were texting head coach Justin Upgraft during the day with live score updates, but he knew after his 200-yard medley relay team won, that was it. The medley relay is also the first race of the day.
“As soon as we jumped in the pool for the medley relay, and we won the medley relay, we didn’t look back,” Upgraft said.
Even with the domination, the Tigersharks were thrilled to accomplish the sectional title. Upgraft said it still hasn’t even sunk in yet
It’s not like the Tigersharks haven’t had a good team, winning their 10th Allen County Athletic Conference in a row this year, but this team had an it factor like never before.
A few weeks prior to the sectional, Upgraft was worried about where and who to place some of his guys in the lineup. There were events that had multiple swimmers within a second or two of one another.
But that is what separates years from the past, the depth on this team was thick top to bottom. In fact, all 15 boys that entered the competition Thursday in preliminaries bussed down to the finals on Saturday. Not everyone makes it to the final rounds, but all of Bluffton’s team did.
“I’ve always wanted a deep team, and I’ve had deep teams in the past, but I was one or two guys away from being deep all the way through,” Upgraft said. “This year is spots one through three, it could have been a coin flip on who is going to touch first.”
Their success didn’t just stop there with the team, it was individuals too.
To advance to the state finals, an event must finish first or hit the cutoff time. At the Jay County sectional, the swimmers almost always miss the time necessary to move on, so they must finish first. Bluffton will be sending two relay teams and two individual events next week to the state championships on Friday at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis.
The relay teams were the 200-yard medley of Noah Brooks, Dalton Rodgers, Elija Robles and Isaac Wheeler and the 400-yard freestyle of Brooks, Griffin Linderwell, Rodgers and Wheeler.
In the individual events, Brooks qualified in the 100-yard backstroke, and Wheeler in the 100-yard butterfly. Robles also will move on to the regional next week in the diving events.
Upgraft has seen it in Brooks, now in his sophomore year the talent he has and was quick to mention his name.
“Coming on the scene last year as a freshman, I knew he was going to be special,” Upgraft said. “But he’s a freshman, so he’s really raw in his actual ability, but I could see it in him … Then he came back and one of the first weeks of practice he’s like, ‘Coach, I worked really hard this summer on working on my technique. I’m gonna go hard this year. I’m gonna go to state this year. I’m going to win backstroke.’ and he did.”
Upgraft also mentioned Wheeler, who he had returned to the butterfly after taking him out previously. Wheeler had done butterfly for the majority of his life, and after a year off, Upgraft wanted him to give it a go. His goal was to get him under a minute in the race. Saturday, his time was 55.51.
Now in his sixth season with the boys’ team, Upgraft has built a strong program that now is set to new expectations. The boys know what they’re capable of and what the hard work can do for them.
When he was hired, Upgraft didn’t even think his team could get to this point. Six ACAC titles and a sectional later, it happened.
“Yeah, not a chance,” Upgraft said when asked if he thought he would eventually be a sectional champ. “I would have said Yeah, right. You’re kidding me. Then here I stand.”
ryan@news-banner.com
Top finishers:
Bluffton
• Noah Brooks, Dalton Rodgers, Elija Robles and Isaac Wheeler first in the 200-yard medley relay.
• Wheeler second in the 200-yard IM.
• Robles fourth in the diving events.
• Wheeler first in the 100-yard butterfly.
• Brooks third in the 100-yard freestyle.
• Grifin Linderwell second and Jackson Meyer fourth in the 500-yard freestyle.
• Brooks first, Rodgers third and Rhett Gerber fourth in the 100-yard backstroke.
• Brooks, Griffin Linderwell, Rodgers and Wheeler first in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Norwell
• Rylan Heyerly first in the 200-yard freestyle.
• Kale Meredith third in the 200-yard IM.
• Colten Strunk fourth in the 100-yard butterfly.
• Heyerly first in the 100-yard freestyle.
• Ethan Williamson third in the 500-yard freestyle.
• Meredith, Gage Reinhard, Strunk and Heyerly second in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
• Meredith third in the 100-yard breaststroke.
• Braden Hoag, Meredith, Reinhard and Heyerly third in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Team Scores:
Bluffton 425, 2. Delta 291, 3. Muncie Central 263.5, 4. Norwell 238, 5. Huntington North 202, 6. Muncie Burris 183, 7. Adams Central 150, 8. Bellmont 144.5, 9. Blackford 120, 10. Jay County 115, 11. South Adams 81.
