SEYMOUR — First-year Columbus North coach Bridger Bell decided to mix things up in a dual meet at Seymour on Thursday.
“We look at dual meets as information gathering,” Bell said. “We want to be able to put together for our championship meets. We had some (boys) swimmers in events that weren’t their usual events. They took it really seriously, stepped up and raced really hard — and some had some breakout performances tonight.”
The North boys squad edged Seymour 123-63 while the girls fell 99-86.
On the boys side, the Bull Frogs’ Chase McQueen won the 50-yard freestyle in 22.21 seconds and the 100 backstroke in 57.82. Adam Zhuang took the 200 freestyle (1:58.81), Jared Carroll captured the 100 butterfly (57.51), Thomas Goble won the 100 freestyle (53.80) and Angel Torres Martinez took the 500 freestyle (5:21.71).
In the diving well, North claimed the top four spots behind strong performances by Kaemon Jiles, Devin Ramsey, Grant Fehribach and Blake Shaffer. The Bull Frogs also picked up wins from Goble, Carroll, Zhuang and Ben Thompson in the 200 freestyle relay (1:37.22) and from Carroll, Sam Russell, Jared Imlay and Torres Martinez in the 400 freestyle relay (3:29.34).
The Bull Frog girls had five first-place finishes in the 12 events. Darby Coles won the 200 individual medley (2:22.14), Mackenzie Fry took the 100 butterfly (1:01.41) and Alex Nusawardhana bested teammate Kaitlyn Niebrugge by 10 seconds (5:48.69) for first in the 500 freestyle.
Nusawardhana, Cori Taylor, Coles and Fry combined for a time of 1:44.92 for a top finish in the 200 freestyle relay. The 400 freestyle relay team of Coles, Niebrugge, Fry and Taylor swam a 3:57.10 to top the Owls.
“The girls kept driving forward and keeping their attention on the next race,” Bell said, listing his team’s strengths at the meet,” Bell said. “(The team) gave us some great races. I was excited that we were able to out-touch (Seymour). That’s what competition is all about — helping to elevate each other.
“Seymour swam a great meet, and next year, we will have to battle a little harder,” he said.
