For The Tribune
COLUMBUS
The Seymour boys and girls swim teams claimed a pair of wins at Columbus East on Thursday night.
In the boys meet, the Owls won 114-69. In the girls competition, Seymour prevailed 123-59.
Seymour coach Dave Boggs was happy with the wins.
“This is the girls’ third meet in five days, so they are swimming tired,” he said. “They swam well, and with the conference meet on the road we wanted to step up against East. We knew they would bring the best out in us tonight.”
The Seymour boys won all three relay races and seven individual races. Claiming first places were Dalton Polley (200-yard freestyle), Noah Bullard (200 individual medley and 500 freestyle), Daniel Hartman (100 butterfly), Levi Pfaffenberger (100 freestyle), Caleb O’Brien (100 backstroke) and Steve Frohling (100 breaststroke).
East’s Cordell Glass scored 295.65 to win the diving and Austin Smith won the 50 freestyle.
“Their goal for the season was, they were not going to win meets, so they wanted to see how much they improve,” East boys coach Dave Fribley said. “They knew Seymour was going to be strong tonight, but they just went out and stuck with it anyway.
“We also had about 75-to-80 percent get (personal records) tonight,” he said. “We had three get PR’s in every race except a couple.”
In the girls meet, Seymour also won all three relay races and was 1-2-3 in 200 IM and 500 freestyle. The Owls had individual winners in Kenzie Persinger (200 freestyle), Sarah Montgomery (200 IM and 100 butterfly), Nastya Yakovlyeva (500 freestyle), Katie Turner (100 backstroke) and Mary Kate Pritchett (100 breaststroke).
“The girls are coming in off of conference, so we knew this would be a tough week emotionally and mentally,” Boggs said. “We tried to switch things up some tonight to create a little excitement the best we could.”
East junior Cortney VanLiew continues to make strides in hopes of making a return trip to state. VanLiew won the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle, while sophomore Maggie Gregory led a 1-2 finish in the diving competition.
“We are getting ready to go into taper as we are focusing on swimming fast right now,” East girls coach Jill Arnholt said. “We knew Seymour is tough, and I told the girls before the meet we are swimming against your own times.
“We had 17 best times tonight, and they have really been working hard in the pool,” she said. “I look for sectional to be good for us. We have two meets coming up, so it will be a rough few days.”