The Bellmont Braves have been forced to vacate their home pool and have dealt with canceled practices and a loss of training time in recent weeks. The team has even resorted to dry land training in the face of adversity caused mostly by a mechanical breakdown at the Bellmont pool, but they had plenty of reasons to celebrate Saturday at the NE8 meet as they captured two events.
-Logan Whitacre became the second consecutive conference diving champion from Bellmont after Mason Mankey set the conference record last season. The freshman finished 6.95 points ahead of East Noble senior Gage Marzion.
-Oliver Werling came out of nowhere to register an outstanding 1:02.70 and win the backstroke.
-As he has done much of the year, Whitacre also anchored the medley relay team and the Braves finished third with a season-best time of 1:54.28. Joining Logan were Oliver Werling, Hudson Krull and Zayne Roop.
-Rylan Heyerly (Norwell) swam a season best to take second in the 200. He missed out on first place by .3 seconds.
-Bellmont’s Oliver Goble swam three seconds faster than his previous PR to take eighth in the 200.
-Norwell junior Kale Meredith won the IM with a season-best time of 2:11.41, edging out DeKalb’s Trenton Getts by .33 seconds.
-Oliver Werling cut major time in the IM from his previous season best and swam a PR of 2:18.25 to take third place for the Braves.
-Parker McCartney swam a season-best time for Norwell and was fifth in the IM.
-Colten Strunk surpassed his PR from last year’s sectional finals to win the butterfly Saturday in home waters by nearly three seconds.
-Zayne Roop set a new PR for himself with his third-place time for the Braves.
-Norwell freshman Rylan Heyerly made up for his close loss in the 200 with a conference title in the 100 with an enormous performance, cutting 2.73 seconds off his previous season best to win in 51.09.
-Bellmont’s Taufeeq Ally swam his best time of his first high school season to take 13th place in the 100 Free.
-Oliver Goble trimmed 14 seconds from his season best and also set a PR to take sixth in the 500.
-The team of Strunk, Reinhard, Meredith and Heyerly combined to win the 200 Free Relay for the Knights with a new season-best time of 1:38.49.
-The Knights took second in the final event of the day, the 400 Free Relay, and Ethan Williamson, Braden Hoag, Gage Reinhard and Rylan Heyerly swam their season best.
-Bellmont’s 400 relay team also set a season mark and finished fourth. Goble swam the first leg, followed by Zayne Roop and Hudson Krull. Oliver Werling capped off his extraordinary day with the anchor leg.
Team Scores
Huntington North 269, Norwell 251, Columbia City 214.5, Bellmont 174, DeKalb 132.5, East Noble 128
1M Diving
1. Logan Whitacre-B 273.95
2. Gage Marzion-EN 267.00
200 Medley Relay
1. Huntington North 1:49.16
3. Bellmont 1:54.28
Werling-Krull-Roop-Whitacre
4. Norwell 1:55.92
Williamson-McCartney-Strunk-Meredith
200 Free
1. Cooper Kowalski-HN 1:53.36
2. Rylan Heyerly-N 1:53.66
8. Oliver Goble-B 2:15.31
9. Braden Hoag-N 2:17.08
10. Keaton Blinn-N 2:17.87
13. Samson Owens-B 2:30.14
14. Colten Gerber-B 2:36.57
200 IM
1. Kale Meredith-N 2:11.41
3. Oliver Werling-B 2:18.25
5. Parker McCartney-N 2:28.40
50 Free
1. Caden Bergman-CC 23.28
5. Hudson Krull-B 25.65
6. Gage Reinhard-N 25.91
7. Colten Strunk-N 26.21
12. Taahir Ally-B 28.95
13. Mikah McCartney-N 29.28
14. James Miller-B 29.61
100 Fly
1. Colten Strunk-N 1:00.55
3. Zayne Roop-B 1:06.03
5. Brayden Hoag-N 1:10.00
100 Free
1. Rylan Heyerly-N 51.09
10. Keaton Blinn-N 1:00.39
13. Taufeeq Ally-B 1:04.65
15. James Miller-B 1:07.67
17. Taahir Ally-B 1:08.64
500 Free
1. Cooper Kowalski-HN 5:14.53
3. Ethan Williamson-N 5:52.66
4. Gage Reinhard-N 5:57.42
6. Oliver Goble-B 6:05.66
8. Samson Owens-B 6:51.21
200 Free Relay
1. Norwell 1:38.49
Reinhard-Strunk-Meredith-Heyerly
6. Bellmont 1:54.05
ThrAlly-TfqAlly-Goble-Whitacre
100 Back
1. Oliver Werling-B 1:02.70
2. Reed Alexander-CC 1:03.79
6. Ethan Williamson-N 1:07.97
7. Zayne Roop-B 1:08.32
12. Franklin Bales-N 1:23.71
15. Colten Gerber-B 1:40.28
100 Breast
1. Kale Meredith-N 1:06.94
2. Will Arnold-CC 1:08.17
3. Hudson Krull-B 1:09.00
4. Parker McCartney-N 1:12.70
8. Taufeeq Ally-B 1:20.83
9. Mikah McCartney-N 1:20.90
400 Free Relay
1. Huntington North 3:40.82
2. Norwell 3:43.24
Williamson-Hoag-Reinhard-Heyerly
4. Bellmont 3:55.53
Goble-Roop-Krull-Werling