Josh Pendleton
The Columbus East boys swimming team picked up several individual event victories Tuesday night against Bloomington North, but a lack of numbers on the side of the Olympians kept them from challenging for victories.
East won about as many individual events as the Cougars, but the more second, third and fourth place finishes for Bloomington North gave them a 114-54 victory in the boys meet. The Olympians had one girls swimmer and thus dropped the girls match to the Cougars 138-6.
Trinity Lutheran also competed in the meet to make it a triple dual. The East boys defeated the Trinity 92-7, and the Trinity girls won over East 35-12.
Josh Pendleton had himself a Tuesday night. He picked up wins in 200-yard freestyle (1 minute, 48.03 seconds) and 500 freestyle (4:46.33).
“His 500 freestyle was an in-season best by far. It was at least five seconds best in-season time, which is really good,” said East assistant coach Michael Brinegar, who took over much of the oaching duties while head coach Doug Trueblood was working with the timing system. “He looked really good and strong. He’s progressed in every meet we’ve had so far. I’m really excited to see what he does at the end of the season.”
The Olympian boys got other first-place finishes from Alex Stilson in the 100 backstroke (1:03.02) and Ryan Lienhoop, Micah Wettschurack, Marvin Mauer and Mason Bean in the 200 freestyle relay (1:54.25).
Pendleton, Stilson, Ryan Turner and Bean placed second in the 400 freestyle relay (3:34.44) and Stilson, Pendleton, Wettschurack and Turner were second in the 200 medley relay (1:55.44). Stilson placed third in the 200 individual medley (2:32.00), Turner finished third in the 50 freestyle (25.47) and Wettschurack was third in the 100 breaststroke (1:21.04).
“Tonight, we did change up the order a little. We let some guys who wanted to swim some different races do that and see how they do in those races and see how they responded, just so it’s not the same thing every meet, change it up and keep it fun for them,” Brinegar said. “We got that for the most part figured out who is going to swim what (in the sectional), because you can only have three people per event, so some will have to swim other events, so it’s seeing if we can find someone more comfortable in one race and allow someone else that’s better suited to swim a certain race to do that.”
Baylee Benefield was the lone East girls swimmer. She finished second in the 200 freestyle (2:30.53) and fourth in the 100 backstroke (1:21.63).
Liz Downey won for the Trinity girls in the 50 freestyle (27.17) and 100 freestyle (1:01.40). Hannah Helt finished third in the 100 freestyle (1:18.32), and Anayh Carrigan took third in the 50 freestyle (34.43). Carrigan Helt, Marci Leinart and Downey were third in the 200 freestyle relay (2:24.14).
Oliver Eggersman was fifth in the 200 freestyle (2:40.12) and fourth in the 500 freestyle (7:29.30) for the Trinity boys.
