Owls sweep home invitational, Boggs surpasses 600 coaching wins

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The longest tenured coach in Seymour High School history added to his long resume on Saturday morning.

Sweeping the annual ‘S’ Invitational at the SHS pool, Owls head swimming and diving coach Dave Boggs surpassed 600 career wins.

“It means I have been around a long time,” Boggs joked after the meet. “We’ve won a lot of meets. I add up the meets that I’ve been to in my life, and it’s roughly 1,300 meets I’ve been at.”

Boggs is in his 42nd year of coaching, including 35 straight at SHS. He has 307 girls and 302 boys wins in his career for a total of 609 victories.

Boggs thanked the community for its support through all of the years.

“Seymour has been really good to me,” he said.

The Owls’ swimmers defeated Salem, Switzerland County, Scottsburg Silver Creek, Southwestern and South Ripley over the weekend.

Boggs changed up his lineup for the invitational.

“The beauty of swimming is that everyone gets equal playing time,” Boggs said. “We did this meet a little differently. Today, the newer kids got four swims on the boys side and veterans only got three. In essence, the subs got more time today. On the girls’ side, every girl had an individual and two relays. We make those decisions based on our numbers.”

On the boys’ side, the Owls had nine firsts.

The Owls’ 200 medley relay team of Harrison Cottrill, Trevor Layne, Dalton Polley and Daniel Hartman were winners in 1-minute, 51.79-seconds, to open the meet.

Polley went on to win the 100 freestyle in 52.16, Hartman took first in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.54 and Layne was champion in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.99.

Ethan Dippold was the winner of the 200 free (2:15.10) and Dillon Polley was the fastest in the 500 free, clocking 5:47.16.

Jackson Carpenter won the diving competition, scoring 164.79.

The state’s top returning diver, Devin Ramsey, did not dive for the Owls on Saturday.

The boys’ meet concluded win the Polleys, Hartman and Brady Westfall winning the 400 free relay in 3:50.76.

In the girls’ competition, the Owls took first in seven events.

Sandy Cerino, Charisma Barnard, Abby Boyt and Maren McClure combined for 2:07.52 to win the 200 medley relay. Boyt later won the 100 backstroke in 1:13.69.

Kirby Hill won the 100 breaststroke (1:26.88) and Marcegui Vasquez was the fastest in the 500 free (6:00.68).

Brett Kleber’s score of 108.98 was tops in the diving well.

August Hunt, Macy Traylor, Haley Williams and Vasquez timed 1:58.31 to win the 200 free relay.

Barnard, McClure, Cerino and Vasquez teamed up to win the 400 free relay in 4:15.52.

“We have a lot of new kids, and we’re trying to get everyone doing the right things,” Boggs said. “We want them to maintain stroke technique, and work on the details.

The Owls will host Jennings County on Saturday.

“They’re going the right direction,” Boggs said. “They’ve been fun to work with. It has been really interesting. They’ve grown and developed each week.”

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