With a standing room-only crowd to kick off their first home meet of the season, the Seymour swimming and diving team split its contest against visiting Columbus North on Thursday.
On the girls side, Seymour defeated the Bull Dogs 99-86.
The Owls started their night with a first place finish in the 200-meter medley relay behind a time of 1:57.42 by Katie Turner, Alexis Anders, Sarah Montgomery and Kenzie Persinger.
Persinger also finished first in the 50 freestyle in 27.05.
Turner had the fastest time in the 100 freestyle, clocking 58.38 and 100 backstroke (1:96.42).
In the 200 freestyle, the Owls placed in the top-three thanks to the efforts of Nastya Yakovley (2:12.15), Libby Rohr (2:14.57) and Molly Hayes (2:18.91).
In the diving well, Joey Cole scored a 147.25 for top honors.
The Owls’ Mary Kate Pritchett snagged the final first-place finish, in the 100 breaststroke, by hitting the final pad at 1:14.66
North’s boys team edged the Owls 123-63.
The 200 medley relay team of Noah Bullard, Levi Pfaffenberger, Daniel Hartman and Dalton Polley kicked off the races by earning first in 1:53.34.
Bullard also went on to win the 200 individual medley in 2:10.66 and 100 breaststroke, clocking 1:04.12.
The Owls’ boys got gold in three of the 12 events on the night with five second place finishes.
Seymour coach Dave Boggs said he thought both teams competed hard with North.
“We talked about making them earn everything tonight,” he said. “My philosophy always has been: I would rather see you last with a lifetime best than first with a slow time. You can’t dictate who you swim against, but you can dictate how you swim individually. If you do that enough through the year, the results will take care of themselves.”
Boggs said that his team had a better performance compared to Monday’s outing at Jeffersonville.
“I don’t know what the difference was (tonight),” he said. “It seemed like they were a little flat and down on Monday. Tonight, I thought the enthusiasm was better — we talked about that. I also thought the little details were better and we pushed harder. A lot better effort all around.”