For The Tribune
FLOYDS KNOBS
Seymour sophomore diver Devin Ramsey and swimmer Jake Vance came up with championship performances during Saturday’s Floyd Central Sectional to advance to the next round of competition.
For Ramsey, it is a return trip to the diving regional Tuesday night at Bloomington North High School.
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For Vance, it is a trip to the preliminaries of the state meet Friday night in Indianapolis in the 50-yard freestyle.
Vance, a senior, won with a career-best 22.31. Peyton Moore of Jennings County was second in 22:58.
“I felt slow on my start, but when I got in the water, I knew what I had to do, and I did it,” Vance said. “So hopefully, at state Friday, I’ll have a great start and a great turn and a great run for the season.”
Vance was seeded second behind Moore.
“He beat me two times this year, and I really wanted to get that payback, and it feels really good,” Vance said. “I got him pretty good. The water was pulling good, and it felt great. This is my favorite pool.”
He said he has looked forward to going to state since his freshman year.
“The (hard practices) are all worth it,” Vance said. “I would do it all again for the same feeling. I want to thank my family and friends and definitely my grandparents.”
Ramsey placed first in diving with a score of 465.85, setting pool and meet records. Austin Mills of Jennings County was second with a score of 349.
The Seymour sophomore won the diving competition in the Hoosier Hills Conference meet and was seeded first entering the sectional. The only time he hasn’t placed first this season was in the dual meet against Columbus North.
Ramsey said the reason he placed first is because he had a good series of dives with high marks in two dives in particular — a front triple and an inward double.
Heading into regional, he said, “I just need to work on my triple and double a little bit, try to kick it out more aggressively. My front two-and-one-half, I need to throw that dive harder than what I did today.”
Ramsey said he didn’t dive until his freshman year, and he was a regional qualifier that season.
“I watch videos, and I also went to Bloomington for an IU dive camp,” he said.
Ramsey has his sights set on the state meet.
“I want to try and make top 10 at state,” he said.
Floyd Central ran away with the team title at sectional with 518 points, and Seymour edged Jeffersonville 348-345 for second place.
Owls coach Dave Boggs said he was not only pleased with Vance and Ramsey, but with the whole team.
“(Vance) had a great start,” Boggs said. “He got off of the blocks well. He knew he had to be ahead at the 30-yard mark coming off the wall, and he knew Peyton would give him everything he wanted today. It was a great race between those two. (Vance) has been great all year. He has been one of our leaders in workouts. I’m really happy he has one more week with us.
“Ramsey had a really good day of diving,” Boggs said. “He got the meet and pool record for sectional, which is saying something. He had a solid day, and hopefully, he can carry this over to the regional on Tuesday, and hopefully, qualify for state from there.”
Seymour’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Dalton Polley, Steve Frohling, Daniel Hartman and Vance placed second with a time of 1:33.95, and the 400-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley relay teams were third.
Vance placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.40, while Hartman was third in the 100-yard butterfly in 55.14 and fourth in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:05.06.
“We had nearly all lifetime bests,” Boggs said. “I think we had one swim that was not a lifetime best, so we had a really outstanding meet.
“Our goal today was to try to get Jeff for second,” he said. “I had two key points in the meet that we had to beat them on points. We hit those two marks — after the 500 free and after the breaststroke — and we were able to do it on the relay. I’m proud of the boys. They really stepped up. A couple of weeks ago, we had some boys that were really ill, and they came back and had lifetime best, so I’m just thrilled to death.”