Columbus North swimmers sweep Cougars

After an 18-day hiatus from competition, the Columbus North swim teams got back into the pool Thursday night with both teams coming out victorious against Bloomington North.

The Bull Frog girls came out on top 112-73, and the North boys prevailed 119-66.

“This is a good balance for us forward into the 2018 year. Having a long period of training to put under our belts and then come and compete,” Columbus North coach Logan Schaefer said. “It was nice to have that chunk of time as a team to put in a lot of work and come and train.”

The girls team got victories from Olivia Morlok in the 200-yard freestyle (2 minutes, 2.37 seconds) and 500 freestyle (5:21.46). Betsy King won the 50 freestyle (24.98) and 100 freestyle (55.12).

Morlok, Erica Samuel, Riddhi Garg and King captured first in the 200 freestyle relay (1:46.07). King, Samuel, Morlok and Kaitlyn Niebrugge also won the 400 freestyle relay (3:51.19).

Niebrugge also claimed first in the 200 individual medley.

The Bull Frog boys claimed first in every event, led by their 200 medley relay team of Paxton Rush, Nico Jones, Thomas Goble and Ayush Panda in 1:49.90. Goble also helped the 200 freestyle relay win (1:30.80), with teammates Evan Patterson, Jared Carroll and Sam Russell. The same foursome also finished the night off by winning the 400 freestyle relay (3.21:18).

Patterson also won the 200 freestyle (1:47.65) and 100 freestyle (48.52), while Russell placed first in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke (1:02.86). Goble took the 50 freestyle (23.49), Blake Shaffer captured the diving (157.80) and Panda won the 500 freestyle (5:12.09).

Schaefer was impressed with the spark that Carroll gave his team in the meet by winning the 100 butterfly (53.39) and 100 backstroke (56.39).

“He decided he was going to go out and set the tone for our team and for the new year,” Schaefer said. “To continue to get better, no matter how he felt, tired or not tired from the great training. He went out and gave his best tonight and inspired his teammates to do even more.”

Coming off the long break to put together a dominating performance, Schaefer believes this meet will help propel his team into a good position moving into the backstretch of the season.

“I think this meet is going to motivate us even farther going into 2018, to come back next week against Franklin Central and be even better and to continue to improve throughout the month of January,” Schaefer said.