Columbus East freshman Gabbie Meier competes in the state diving finals on Saturday Feb. 13 at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis.
Scott Roberson | For The Republic
After several years of Columbus North dominating local girls swimming, Columbus East upset the Bull Frogs in the teams’ dual meet last season. North returned the favor by finishing ahead of the Olympians in the North Sectional.
The two teams figure to have a couple more close battles this year. While the boys season and the North girls don’t get underway for a couple more weeks, the East girls start Saturday morning at home against Bloomington South.
Here is a look at those girls teams, along with Jennings County, the only other area school with a swimming program:
Columbus East
The Olympians return several swimmers and a state-qualifying diver from a team that finished fourth in both the Hoosier Hills Conference and the sectional.
“Everything has gone really well,” East coach Jill Arnholt said. “We have a lot of kids back, so we’ve been hitting it pretty hard right from the get-go. We’ve been doing a lot of technique work, but we’ve really been pushing them, trying to see who’s going to be able to do what in what events for us.”
Sophomore Gabbie Meier won the sectional diving title and finished seventh in the Jasper Diving Regional and 29th in the state finals. Meier also swims the 50-yard freestyle.
Senior Ellie Proffitt was the HHC champion in 100 butterfly and finished third in the 100 butterfly and fourth in the 200 individual medley in the sectional. Senior Karissa Miller finished fifth in the 100 freestyle and seventh in the 100 backstroke in the sectional.
Seniors Kerigan Greathouse and Halle Herbert and juniors Claire Brooks and Josie Havenaar were consolation finalists at the sectional.
“I think that will give us a good beginning to filling out that roster,” Arnholt said. “Then, we have a lot of sophomores and juniors that will round it out. We’re working on diversifying and making sure everybody can swim every event to help fill those events.”
Other top returners include sophomores Grace Hale and Kira VanValkenburg and junior Josie Franks. Freshmen Maddie Beyer and Hannah Dean are the top newcomers.
“Of course, we want to do better at conference and sectional and end up with a winning season,” Arnholt said. “We hope the girls have a good time and build a really strong program and improve on what we did last year.”
Columbus North
Columbus North’s Paige Maddox competes in the 500-yard freestyle championship heat during the swimming and diving sectional finals at Columbus North High School on Saturday Feb. 6 in Columbus, Ind.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
The Bull Frogs have an interim coach this year in Brett Findley after Logan Schaefer left to take a position with a club team in Mason, Ohio.
Findley started Franklin Regional Swim Team and was the coach at Franklin High School from 2006-12. He now is the principal at CSA-Lincoln Elementary.
“I’m only here for one season, so the goal is to make it a great season,” Findley said.
Findley has 24 total athletes — 14 swimmers and 10 divers. North will look to improve on an 0-7 record in dual meets, a fifth-place finish in Conference Indiana and a third in the sectional.
“Obviously, we’d love to get a win in a dual meet and drop a lot of time at sectional,” Findley said. “There’s only 14 swimmers, so it’s going to be hard in dual meets. We want to do well in the championship meets and drop time and have some fun.”
The Bull Frogs will be led by seniors Paige Maddox and Brooke Meek. Maddox finished third in the 500 freestyle and fifth in the 200 freestyle in the sectional last season, while Meek was fourth in the 100 freestyle and 11th in the 500 freestyle.
Junior Karissa Bevis in the 50 freestyle and senior Lauren Brault in the 500 freestyle were sectional finalists last season. Other top returners are senior Emma Walker and sophomore Abigail Henderson.
Freshmen Nicole Brault, Kara Buntin and Katie Frazier head the list of newcomers. Junior Helen Alderfer and senior Emily Martin lead the diving contingent.
“It’s a good group of girls,” Findley said. “We’re going to keep working hard. Right now, we’re just focused on training and getting in shape.”
Jennings County
Morgan Webster, a 2015 Jennings graduate and former swimmer, takes over the program from Leah McLeod.
The Panthers return three sectional finalists. Senior Reagan Brown finished second in the 100 breaststroke and sixth in the 200 individual medley, sophomore Tatum Brown took eighth in the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle and senior Braylee Moore was seventh in the 500 freestyle and eighth in the 50 freestyle in the Floyd Central Sectional.
“We had a little bit smaller team last year, and we had a lot of big gets over the offseason,” Webster said. “We have a fairly large freshman class, and we have a couple of swimmers that moved to Jennings County that have swam for fairly large clubs. We have older members of the team that have helped bring in this new crop of talent, and we hope this will be a big year for us.”
Sophomore Avery Witt moved in from Hamilton Southeastern, freshman Alyssa Monnin moved from Ohio and freshman Alexa Mollenhoff, Moore’s step-sister, also could make an immediate impact. Senior Kenzie Newkirk returns, and senior Grace Kirchner is back swimming for the first time since she was a freshman.
Jennings finished seventh in the HHC and fifth in the Floyd Central Sectional last season.
“Just based on where we were last year, I would expect a lot of improvement,” Webster said. “I’m really looking forward to the season.”
The 2021 girls swimming schedules for Columbus East and Columbus North:
Columbus East
Saturday;Bloomington North;10 a.m.
Tuesday;at New Albany Relays;6:30 p.m.
Dec. 2;at Shelbyville;6 p.m.
Dec. 7;Columbus North;5:30 p.m.
Dec. 11;at Shelbyville Relays;1 p.m.
Dec. 18;New Albany;10 a.m.
Jan. 6;at Bedford North Lawrrence;6 p.m.
Jan. 11;at Madison;6 p.m.
Jan. 15;HHC at Jennings County;1 p.m.
Jan. 20;Seymour;6 p.m.
Jan. 22;Jeffersonville;10 a.m.
Jan. 25;Greensburg;6 p.m.
Columbus North
Nov. 23;Franklin;5:30 p.m.
Nov. 27;at North Central;10 a.m.
Dec. 2;at Seymour;5:30 p.m.
Dec. 4;Center Grove;10 a.m.
Dec. 7;at Columbus East;5:30 p.m.
Dec. 21;Bloomington South;5:30 p.m.
Dec. 30;at Bloomington South Invitational;10 a.m.
Jan. 6;Bloomington North;6 p.m.
Jan. 8;at Bloomington North Invitational;9 a.m.
Jan. 22;Conference Indiana at Terre Haute South;9 a.m.
