INDIANAPOLIS — The Conference Indiana boys swimming trophy is back in Bull Frog hands.
Columbus North won its first conference title since 2015 Monday, and it did it in dominating fashion at Southport. The Bull Frogs racked up 471 points to 377 for runner-up Terre Haute North.
“It’s been a long road,” North coach Logan Schaefer said. “I don’t know if there’s been a single key, but the biggest difference this year has been our boys team believing that they can achieve it and doing the things not only weekly, but doing the things daily in practice that it was going to take to get us here. We’re not done yet, but this was a great step.”
The Bull Frog girls finished second with 394 1/2 points. Bloomington South won with 423.
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Columbus North’s boys won six of the 12 events in rolling to the title in their last big meet before the sectional.
“It’s really fun because with sort of the postseason aspect of getting into the later meets, it really does show what training can do to an athlete,” senior Sam Russell said. “I think we’ve shown that if you train day in and day out, you can really turn around a team and really show the power that everyone has throughout the whole year.”
Russell led the Bull Frogs Monday with wins in the 200-yard individual medley in 1 minute, 55.89 seconds and the 100 breaststroke in 59.18.
“Sam Russell had a fantastic performance in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke,” Schaefer said. “He’s continued to inspire our team with his swims, with his leadership on the deck, and he had two very good swims tonight.”
Kyan Jiles won the diving competition with 312.25 points. Christopher Lee took the 100 freestyle in 49.17.
Lee, Russell, Jared Carroll and Rafael Spear won the 200 medley relay in 1:38.72. Spear, Nick Green, Ayush Panda captured the 200 freestyle relay in 1:30.15.
“I was really excited and proud of myself, and I’m just really proud of the team and how we pulled it out together because we can’t do any of this stuff if we aren’t a team and a family,” Lee said.
Green also finished second in both the 200 freestyle (1:48.33) and 500 freestyle (4:57.56). Carroll took second in the 100 butterfly (22.52), and Lee was second in the 100 backstroke (55.71).
Carroll, Green, Panda and Russell finished second in the 400 freestyle relay (3:18.91).
“It’s great,” Schaefer said. “They did a great job from top to bottom. Every swim mattered for us tonight, and they really put everything into every swim.”
Olivia Morlok led the Columbus North girls with wins in the 200 freestyle (1:59.48) and 500 freestyle (5:09.22). Betsy King, Riddhi Garg, Erica Samuel and Morlok took the 200 freestyle relay (1:43.26).
Morlok, a junior, has won conference titles in the 500 freestyle all three years, but this was her first conference 200 freestyle victory.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Morlok said. “I broke 2 minutes for the first time this season, so that was good. I think that puts me in a really good place going into the 200 at sectional. I feel like my 200 is improving, but I’m definitely still stronger in the 500.”
King finished second in the 50 freestyle (24.61) and third in the 100 freestyle (53.98). Erica Samuel took second in the 200 IM (2:19.56), Karlie Brown was second in the 100 butterfly (1:04.74) and Ella Anderson tied for second in diving (312.50). Morlok, Samuel, Garg and King finished second in the 400 freestyle relay (3:45.15).
The Bull Frogs led Bloomington South by nine points with only the 400 freestyle relay and the diving still to be completed. The diving, which was held simultaneously as the swimming was finished about 35 minutes after the final swimming event.
“Bloomington South matched up really well with us swimming and diving, and we knew it would be really close if we brought our very best,” Schaefer said. “We have another meet in about 12 days, and the girls are going to give it their all. They’re very hungry for their first sectional title in a long time. We’re going to take what we learned tonight to make us better in a couple weeks.”
The conference meet originally was to be held Saturday at Indiana University, but was postponed because of inclement weather.
“I think the team had a lot of fun racing, especially with going from a postponed meet Saturday to this day,” Russell said. “I think it was hard on the guys, but I think we really turned around, and we raced really well and I’m excited for that.”
