INDIANAPOLIS — Columbus North left the IUPUI’s Indiana University Natatorium with four individual Conference Indiana swimming champions on Saturday, including one double-event winner in Sam Russell.
Russell and Evan Patterson’s combined three conference titles helped the Bull Frog boys team place second overall with 390 points behind Bloomington South’s 471.
Olivia Morlok’s win in the 500-yard freestyle helped the girls finish third with 328 points behind Bloomington South (433) and Franklin Central (369).
“We took a lot of steps forward across the board as a girls and guys team,” North coach Logan Schaefer said. “It’s a building block for us going into the sectional championship for the girls in about 12 days and the boys in about three weeks.”
Morlok finished the 500 freestyle in 5 minutes, 19.0 seconds. Patterson won the 100 freestyle 47.95 seconds, just 15-hundreths of a second faster than Max Grogg of Bloomington South and also placed second in the 200 freestyle (1:44.96).
Russell was seeded 16-hundreths of a second behind Bloomington South’s Seth Glasscock in the 200 individual medley, but touched the wall one-hundreth of a second faster than Glasscock by finishing in 1:58.98. Russell also edged out Bloomington South’s Gavin Loucks by 27-hundreths of a second with his 1:01.77 finish in the 100 breaststroke.
“We’re putting in a lot of work in practice, and we’re really starting to focus in on our end-of-the-season goals,” Russell said. “They’re really coming together as a whole … We just see the results that we really want to see in the end.”
Grant Fehribach finished second in the diving competition (366.75), while Kyan Jiles was right behind him in third (324.85).
Other top finishes for the boys came from Thomas Goble, who placed second in the 50 freestyle (22.63) and fifth in the 100 butterfly (56.99). Jared Carroll’s 53.39 time helped him place second in the 100 butterfly, and he also placed fourth (56.80) in the 100 backstroke. Nick Green (4:55.35) and Aidan McAlister (5:10.59) finished second and fifth in the 500 freestyle.
Morlok also brought home a second-place finish for the girls in the 200 freestyle (1:59.99), while teammate Erica Samuel placed third (2:05.57). Samuel also finished behind Morlok to place second in the 500 freestyle (5:34.96).
Betsy King earned a second-place finish in the 100 freestyle (54.61) and a third in the 50 freestyle (25.04).
“I think as a girls team, it’s a good place for us to come in before sectional to get another race and racing some good teams in our conference because a lot of them we’ll see them again at sectional,” Morlok said.
