It was six years ago Friday that the Columbus North girls swimmers had last beaten Bloomington North.
The Bull Frogs ended that drought Thursday in picking up a 104 to 73.5 win against the Cougars. Barr-Reeve, with one girl, scored 6.5.
Bloomington North won the boys meet 131-52.
The girls win for Columbus North was its first against the Cougars since Jan. 9, 2020.
“It’s pretty awesome, very exciting,” Columbus North coach Mike Cunningham said. “I thought the girls did awesome. We came off a real tough couple weeks of winter break of dealing with sick and cold and all kinds of crazy weather. They really adapted and worked hard.”
The Bull Frogs were led by a pair of double-winners. Cora Tregoning took the 200-yard freestyle in 2 minutes, 9.93 seconds, and 500 freestyle in 5:52.77, and Mridula Muthukumaran captured the 200 individual medley (2:19.31) and 100 butterfly (1:07.57).
Mridula Muthukumaran
“I think we did a really good job,” Muthukumaran said. “I know over winter break, the team has been working hard and for our first meet back, I think that was really amazing. We had a lot of PRs and a lot of people getting best times, and it was really just a good meet.”
Caroline Crawford won the 100 backstroke (1:13.92) and finished second in the 100 freestyle (1:03.70). Advika Badve, Tregoning, Muthukumaran and Abby Proffitt too the 200 medley relay (2:01.78) and Muthukumaran, Proffit, Badve and Brooklyn Pendleton captured the 200 freestyle relay (1:50.34).
Proffitt placed second in the 200 freestyle (2:15.88) and 500 freestyle (5:53.20). Also taking second were Badve in the 200 IM (2:35.88), Sophia Sandoval in the diving competition (109.95), Kanav Mehta in the 100 backstroke (1:14.35) and Sonchita Ponnathpur in the 100 breaststroke (1:21.54).
“I honestly thought that everyone did great,” Tregoning said. “While I might have not personally had my best times, I think that I gave my best performance, and it was definitely super fun competing against Bloomington North. I’d say this gave us all a fair bit of confidence, especially pulling out the win so close to conference.”
The Bull Frogs and Cougars will compete in the Conference Indiana meet Saturday at the Vigo County Aquatic Center in Terre Haute. Bloomington South will be the favorite.
“I think it gave us great confidence,” Muthukumaran said. “I’m really excited to go to conference with the team right now. I think we’re going to put a tough fight up. We’re trying to get first place. I think we’ve all worked hard, and we’ve put in what’s needed and I think at the end of the day, it just depends on what happens on Saturday.”
“It’s going to be a great meet,” Cunningham added. “Bloomington South is pretty strong, so we’ll see what happens. We did well against them at the beginning of the season. It will be a little different to see how it goes this time. I think we definitely have a great shot at being second, if not giving Bloomington South a run for their money.”
Aarush Mahato won the boys 100 butterfly (57.55). Dagan Kleffman (255.30) and Gary Streeval (203.25) went 1-2 in diving.
“I feel like I did a really good job tonight, and I’m excited to see what the next couple meets have in store,” Kleffman said. “There’s going to be some hard competition at conference, but I definitely think I can bring it on home.”
HP Devagaguptapu finished second in the 100 backstroke (1:10.10) for Columbus North, which was missing some boys because of illness.
“We’ve really been struggling with our boys being sick all season,” Cunningham said. “I don’t know if we’re going to get them back (Saturday).”
