Lady Raiders win swim sectional

By Greg Keim

Neither the small number of swimmers nor some midweek adversity could derail the Northridge High School girls swimming team from capturing its ninth consecutive sectional title Saturday afternoon at Concord.

The Raiders won six events, including 1-2-3 finishes in two, and amassed 355 points.

Concord was second at 296, followed by Elkhart Central 151, Wawasee 119, Goshen 114, DeKalb 99, NorthWood 70, Elkhart Memorial 69, East Noble 45 and Angola 29.

“Earlier in the week I didn’t know what to expect. We had some adversity and didn’t know how the girls would respond,” Northridge coach Joe Keller said. “They pulled it together and got the job done.”

Raider senior Emily Wisolek said, “This was an extremely impressive team performance. We only had 12 girls swimming. Every point we scored was important.”

Event winners, plus swimmers meeting state standards, qualify for the state meet preliminaries on Friday in Indianapolis. The top four divers advance to a regional Tuesday at South Bend Riley.

“From top to bottom this is the most impressive sectional win in the history of our girls program,” Keller said. “We have five girls who are not yet fully rested.

“We honestly did not set any goals at the beginning of this season. Instead we talked about doing things every day in order to get better. We also focused on being a family. We told the girls if they did those things good things would happen.”

Goshen senior Mia Miller placed second in the 100 freestyle (52.90) and third in the 50-yard free (24.50), but qualified for state in each by exceeding the standard.

“The 100 free was one of the better races I have seen in a long time,” Goshen coach Scott Garvin said. “Mia’s time was her lifetime best. She also had a great race in the 50. She didn’t win but is going on to state.”

Goshen sophomore Julie Jesse finished second in diving (328.95 points).

“Julie has been fighting a muscle injury and was off a little bit ,” Garvin said.

GHS junior Kayla Hussey was third in the 500 free (5:13.45) and was also below the standard.

“It was not Kayla’s best time, but she is still going to state,” Garvin added.

Wawasee sophomore Brittany Robinson defended her sectional titles in the 50 free (23.89) and 100 butterfly (55.97). She broke her own records from last year’s sectional.

She was trailing DeKalb junior Carlena Magley in the 50 free with about 30 yards remaining.

“I just put my head down and didn’t breath the rest of the way,” Robinson said.

Northridge senior Jillian Welch led a 1-2-3 Raider finish in the 100 backstroke, finishing in 1:01.82.

“I was a little nervous about the back. All of the times were close,” Welch said. “I wasn’t expecting us to go 1-2-3. We’ve gad some struggles recently. Our focus was about being a family.”

Keller said about the 1-2-3 finish, “The back was a great race. I knew we were capable of going 1-2-3, but figured the odds of doing it were probably 50-50.”

Raider senior Annie Cohoat topped a 1-2-3 Northridge finish in the 200 individual medley.

“I’ve had a lot of success. This will be my fourth time to state, but this is the first time I’ve won an individual race,” she said. “But I was more excited about our 1-2-3 finish than my winning.”

Concord started off the meet by taking first in the 200 medley relay (junior Alexa Little, junior Abigail Linn, sophomore Mia Leas and senior Lauren Hardy in 1:50.38). The Raiders were second in state qualifying time of 1:50.95.

Keller said, “Concord has an awesome medley relay. We were excited about our time. I knew after that event it was going to be a good day for us.”

Northridge answered in the 200 free with a 1-2 finish by junior Sarah Griffin (1:53.45) and Wisolek (1:55.51) and a 1-2-3 from Cohoat (2:11.44), Welch (2:15.90) and junior Kate Fisher (2:18.21) in the IM.

Wisolek, who is going on to swim at Ball State next season, won the 500 free in 5:05.63, breaking the meet record Concord sophomore Audra Burtch set in the prelims.

“I didn’t mind getting beat by Sarah in the 200,” Wisolek said. “The 500 has been my goal all year and this is one step closer to that goal.”

Linn captured the 100 breaststroke (1:08.12).

“Northridge swam a great meet,” Concord coach Tom Johnson said. “We had our good moments and others that were a little uneven. We didn’t qualify as many girls as we had hoped. Seniors Lauren Hardy and Madison Freeze had great days.”

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