It’s become an annual rite of winter, Columbus North sending girls swimmers to the state finals.
That tradition is in jeopardy of being halted this season. As the North Sectional begins tonight, neither the host Bull Frogs nor Columbus East have swimmers in position to qualify for next weekend’s state meet.
The goal for both teams is to put on their best performances of the season.
“That’s our main focus every year,” North coach Logan Schaefer said. “Different years, we have different ladies putting our Columbus North cap on. But our goal is to come in ready to race and do our best times.”
The sectional preliminaries begin at 5:30 p.m. today. The top eight in each event qualify for Saturday’s championship finals, while the ninth-through-16th times in each event make the consolation finals.
The championship and consolation finals begin at 1 p.m. Saturday. Winners of each event and anyone else making the state-cut standard automatically qualify for state. Beyond that, if those automatic qualifiers from the state’s 20 sectionals are less than 32 in an event, the next-best times from around the state are added until a field of 32 is reached.
Columbus’ best chance at advancement might be in diving, where East freshman Gabbie Meier is one of the top competitors. Diving prelims begin at 9 a.m. Saturday with the first eight dives, and the divers’ final three attempts will take place at around 1:30 p.m. within the swimming finals. The top four divers qualify for Tuesday’s Jasper Diving Regional.
The best shot at a state qualifier in a swimming event could be the 50-yard freestyle. East senior Marin Wieneke is seeded second at 25.42 seconds, just 22-hundreths of a second behind top seeded Karen Tabbal of Bloomington North. Columbus North senior Riddhi Garg is seeded fourth at 25.60, just four-tenths of a second behind Tabbal.
East junior Ellie Proffitt is seeded third in both the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly. Junior Karissa Miller is fourth in the 100 freestyle, Wieneke is fourth in the 100 breaststroke and junior Kerigan Greathouse is fifth in the 200 freestyle.
The Olympians are seeded third in the 200 freestyle relay, fourth in the 200 medley relay and fifth in the 400 freestyle relay.
“These meets that we’ve been in, the girls have been swimming fantastic,” East coach Jill Arnholt said. “They’ve been dropping time and racing really well. We’re going to tweak things and fine tune things — starts, turns, finishes — and we’re really looking forward to some fast swims at sectional.”
For the Bull Frogs, junior Paige Maddox is seeded fourth in the 200 freestyle and fifth in the 100 butterfly. Garg also is sixth in the 100 freestyle.
Columbus North is seeded third in the 400 freestyle relay, fourth in the 200 freestyle relay and fifth in the 200 medley relay.
The Bull Frogs haven’t competed since finishing fifth in the Conference Indiana meet on Jan. 9.
“Training has been great,” Schaefer said. “We’ve stayed healthy. It’s been consistent, and we’re prepared to have a great meet this week.”
Defending champion Bloomington South is the top seed in six of the 11 swimming events, while Bloomington North is seeded first in four events and East Central in one.
Columbus North, which finished third last year, and East, which took sixth, figure to battle with East Central, Greensburg and Lawrenceburg for the third spot in the team standings this season.
“I hope we can get in the top three,” Arnholt said. “That’s the goal. We’ve had great teams that are good in different ways, and we have top swimmers in different events. This year, I think that my new swimmers and swimmers that don’t swim year-round are really coming up and getting some places for us, so I’m really pleased with what they’re doing.”
