North swimmers roll on senior night

As he prepared to dive into the water on senior night, Angel Torres Martinez looked back three years when seniors Cody Taylor and Sam Loescher were leading Columbus North to a fourth-place state finish.

Thursday night, Torres Martinez got to experience senior night and noticed how far he’s come as a swimmer during those past three years. He won the 200-yard freestyle (1 minute, 58.08 seconds) and 100 butterfly (57.08) to lead the Bull Frogs to a 154-21 win against Oldenburg Academy.

“It’s a huge throwback to when I was a freshman, and I looked up to seniors and how well they did back then,” Torres Martinez said. “As I moved up, I looked at myself and saw myself up there doing just as good as those seniors.”

North’s girls won 139-37 in their final tuneup before next week’s sectional. The Bull Frogs were led by a pair of double-winning seniors.

Darby Coles took the 200 freestyle (1:58.44) and 100 backstroke (1:02.06). Alex Nusawardhana captured the 50 freestyle (25.40) and 100 breaststroke (1:16.25).

“This really means a lot to me,” Nusawardhana said. “I’ve been with this team for four years, and to be able to end our dual meets on a good note, it’s amazing.”

Other winners for the North girls were Olivia Morlok in the 200 individual medley (2:23.91), Sarah Towsley in the diving competition (226.65), Allison Collins in the 100 freestyle (1:00.36) and Kaitlyn Niebrugge in the 500 freestyle (5:44.33). The Bull Frogs swept the 200 medley (2:09.03), 200 freestyle (1:49.44) and 400 freestyle (3:22.77) relays.

Evan Patterson won the 200 IM (2:10.33) and 500 freestyle (5:07.31), and Sam Russell took the 100 freestyle (50.66) and 100 breaststroke (1:04.04) to join Torres Martinez as double-winners in the boys meet. Jackson Nagel won the 50 freestyle (23.43), Grant Fehribach took the diving (247.45), Thomas Goble captured the 100 backstroke (1:04.79) and North swept the 200 medley (1:51.94), 200 freestyle (1:33.05) and 400 freestyle (3:22.77) relays.

“Senior night is always a fun night for the athletes,” North coach Logan Schaefer said. “They get to reminisce on their careers. It’s a great night.”

The Bull Frog boys have a quick turnaround for Saturday’s Conference Indiana meet at Terre Haute South.

“They’re very excited to swim fast and have been looking forward to this meet since the beginning of the year,” Schaefer said. “This conference meet is a steppingstone for us to our championship season.”