It was great day for Columbus North senior Chase McQueen at Saturday’s Columbus North boys swimming sectional.
He felt a little under the weather, but that did not stop him from qualifying for a state berth in two events.
McQueen captured a sectional title in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:54.01. He also placed first in the 100 freestyle with a time of 47.55 seconds.
This is McQueen’s third trip to the state championships, but he said he still has a lot to improve on if he wants to do well.
“I am really looking forward to next week,” McQueen said. “It’s been kind of a roller-coaster season, and it is really good seeing everything finally pay off.”
Bloomington South captured the sectional team title with a 507.5, while Columbus North was runner-up with a 460. East Central was third with a 247 and Bloomington North scored 244 for fourth place.
Columbus East took fifth place with 137 points.
McQueen is not the only Bull Frog advancing to state. Angel Torres Martinez scored a huge victory in the 50 freestyle (21.93). He barely edged out his competition, winning by just .08 seconds.
Martinez, who is a junior, is making his first trip to state.
“It’s very exciting, and it is something I haven’t done before,” he said. “Everyone on the team motivates each other, and that helped push me forward.”
Jared Imlay and Adam Zhuang will join McQueen and Martinez at state as well, as the quartet qualified in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:27.66. Martinez, Imlay, McQueen, and Jared Carroll finished second in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:12.34, but qualified for state as they were below the 3:13.45 cut line.
“It was a great meet all around,” Columbus North coach Bridger Bell said. “We performed at our peaks and had a lot of great times.”
East coach Dave Fribley was proud of how hard his guys competed every day this season.
“These guys were fired up, had a lot of energy and were ready to swim,” he said. “They swam really well today. We had some (personal records) and this was an amazing group of guys to work with.”
Columbus North’s Kaemon Jiles won the diving competition with a 406.20, and East’s Cordell Glass finished runner-up with a 397.80. Both of them will compete in the Bloomington North diving regional Tuesday.
“I’m happy that I won, but I know have to stay more consistent if I want a good outlook at regionals,” Jiles said.
