Columbus North and Columbus East may have been shut out of Girls Swimming State Finals qualifiers, but the Olympians have a diver still alive in her quest to make it to state.
East freshman Gabbie Meier broke her own school record with a score of 399.00 to win the diving competition in Saturday’s North Sectional. She advances to Tuesday’s Jasper Diving Regional, where the top eight finishers will qualify for state.
“I felt really good about,” Meier said. “I was nervous this whole week, but my coaches really helped me.”
Bloomington South won the team title with 458.5 points. Bloomington North took second with 357, followed by Columbus North (307), Columbus East (230) and East Central (203).
The Bull Frogs were led by third-place finishes from Paige Maddox in the 500-yard freestyle (5 minutes, 36.93 seconds) and Adeline Rush in the 100 backstroke (1:01.12. Riddhi Garg took fourth in both the 50 freestyle (24.68) and 100 freestyle (55.10), and Brooke Meek was fourth in the 200 freestyle (2:06.29). Maddox also finished fifth in the 200 freestyle (2:06.34).
Garg, Rush, Meek and Paige Sherlock teamed to finish second in the 400 freestyle relay (3:49.81).
“It was a great finish to the season,” Columbus North coach Logan Schaefer said. “We accomplished our big team goal, which was third at this meet. I’m really proud of our ladies for how they swam this weekend. We had a significant amount of (personal records). That’s what our goals are — best times and great swims.”
For the Olympians, Marin Wieneke finished second in the 50 freestyle (24.63) and fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:11.06), and Ellie Proffitt took third in the 100 butterfly (1:00.85) and fourth in the 200 individual medley (2:17.34). Karissa Miller was fifth in the 100 freestyle (55.85).
“Gabbie was phenomenal, and that was a great start for us,” Columbus East coach Jill Arnholt said. “The girls swam fantastic. They dropped time. The all had fantastic swims. We had a lot of highlights. We moved up two places from last year, so I’m very proud of these girls this year.”
