Columbus North will enter this weekend’s Boys Swimming State Finals with a chance to capture an individual event victory for the third consecutive year.
Freshman Michael Brinegar enters Friday’s preliminaries as the top seed in the 500-yard freestyle, based on his winning time of 4 minutes, 29.91 seconds from Monday’s North Sectional. Fishers junior Glen Brown is seeded second at 4:31.07.
“It makes me feel a little bit better, knowing that I can place high and score points for the team,” Brinegar said. “We have some really fast seniors in the state. I want to get top four at least so I can get points for the team.”
Brinegar also is seeded 10th in the 200 freestyle at 1:41.7.
“He’s in two great races with some great young men,” North coach Jim Sheridan said. “I think he will have the same opportunity everybody else has. He’s going in as one of the favorites in both of those races, and it’s kind of fun. It makes it fun when you’re up there racing and on top, and he’s always taken that route that if they’re going to beat him, they’re going to go really fast.”
North senior Matt Freudenthaler, junior Chase McQueen, senior Kevin Zhang and Brinegar are seeded 14th in the 200 freestyle relay (1:27.49). Freudenthaler, junior Jared Imlay, McQueen and Brinegar are seeded 16th (3:13.15).
“As prepared as these guys are, we can drop time, and others add time, and that’s what makes it exciting,” Sheridan said. “I’ve seen No. 1 seeds drop out of the top 16 all together, and I’ve seen kids that are in the 20s and in the first heat score in the top eight. It’s who shows up mentally and physically ready to go.”
McQueen and Freudenthaler also qualified in an individual event. McQueen is seeded 19th in the 100 freestyle (47.38), while Freudenthaler is 20th in the 100 butterfly (51.29).
“If Matt brings that mindset and feels that shave like everybody else does when he gets in the water, I think he has a shot at going under 50 seconds, and if he does that, he’s going to be in the top eight,” Sheridan said.
“Chase has room to drop,” he said. “He missed his last wall (at sectional), and he does a great job finishing that last 25. I think we’ll see more out of him.”
Bull Dogs get defensive
Just how good was Columbus North’s defense against top-ranked Bedford North Lawrence in Tuesday’s girls basketball regional final?
Consider that in the No. 2 Bull Dogs’ 48-40 win, they held the Stars to 17 points below their scoring average for the season. BNL, ranked No. 3 in the country by USA Today, came in averaging more than 57 points a game.
The Stars entered the regional shooting 50 percent from the field and 35 percent from 3-point range. Tuesday, the Bull Dogs harassed them into 30 percent (13 of 43) shooting from the field, including 19 percent (3 of 16) from long distance.
North post players Debie Gedeon, Elle Williams and Imani Guy were instrumental in holding 6-foot-2 Purdue recruit Dominique McBryde and 6-3 Michigan State recruit Jenna Allen to combined 9-for-26 shooting from the field.
“Our defense (Tuesday) night sure was good,” North coach Pat McKee said. “Debie Gedeon was tremendous. I don’t think she made more than two mistakes the whole game.”
The Bull Dogs weren’t immune to the shooting woes, at least from the free-throw line. They won, despite going only 15 of 29 from the stripe.
Columbus North (26-1) will play Class 4A No. 3 Lawrence North (27-1), the only team to beat the Bull Dogs this season, in the Richmond Semistate around 3 p.m. Saturday. The winner advances to the March 7 state finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Patberg named All-American
Columbus North senior Ali Patberg is one of 10 girls selected to this year’s Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-America team, which was released Wednesday.
Patberg, a Notre Dame recruit, leads the Bull Dogs with 25.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 3.3 steals a game. She also was a Naismith Award semifinalist and has been chosen to play in the McDonald’s All-American game April 1.
Olympian, Jet honored
Columbus East senior Nate Nolting and Hauser senior Zach Johnson have been selected to the 2015 MainSource Bank All-Academic team.
Nolting was recognized prior to Friday’s East win at Madison, and Johnson was honored before Tuesday’s Hauser loss against Knightstown. They are two of 14 student-athletes from 14 central and southern Indiana schools to be named to the squad.
Hauser senior wins award
Hauser senior Sarah Anderson has been selected as the Southern Indiana Fellowship of Christian Athletes Character Counts Award winner from Eastern Greene’s Toby Yoho Classic.
Southern Indiana FCA picked winners from 13 boys and girls basketball tournaments in the southern part of the state during the 2014-15 holiday season. It said the purpose of the award is to recognize individuals who excel in FCA’s four character traits — integrity, service, excellence and teamwork.
Gymnastics meets moved
The Conference Indiana gymnastics meet, which was snowed out Saturday, has been rescheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday at Bloomington North.
Third-ranked Columbus North is the favorite. The Bull Dogs’ top competition likely will come from No. 9 Bloomington South.
Also, No. 2 Columbus East’s meet scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday against Roncalli has been moved from Roncalli to East.
