Owls close regular season with win over Pioneers

Seymour swim coach Dave Boggs said it is sad to see the careers of seniors Kameron Chastain, Chase Schneider and Cam Wiethoff come to an end.

“They’ve all been very important to the program with their leadership and their work ethic,” Boggs said Monday night after the seniors helped the Owls win every swimming event, break two pool records and set a school record during a 112-68 win over Providence on Senior Night.

“They’re just great kids,” Boggs said. “They come and work hard pretty much every day. They do what we tell them to do or they change what we need to them to change. They’re going to be sorely missed next year.

“Besides their points and their leadership, they’re just fun to have on the team, and that is probably the best thing I can say about them, that they’re fun to have around. In this sport, you get to know them really well, especially when you have them year-round. I’ve had Chase since he’s been in high school, and I’ve had Cam and Kameron pretty much since they were 8 years old year-round.”

The three seniors teamed up with Matt Fouts to break the pool record in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:30.37.

Earlier in the meet, Chastain broke the school and pool record in the 50 free with a time of 21.18. Todd Bollinger held the old school mark of 21.19, set in 1991, and Manuel Guzman of Bloomington held the pool record at 21.41.

Wiethoff won the 200 free, Schneider the 100 butterfly, Fouts the 200 individual medley, Sam Montgomery the 500 free, David Montgomery the 100 breast, Taylor Ritz the 100 free and Daniel Kerrick the 100 back.

The seniors said they have a lot of great memories of the Seymour pool.

Schneider recalled his sophomore year when he was on the 200 medley relay team that broke the school record in the SHS pool, but it was broken two days later.

“I was really excited when we broke the record,” Schneider said. “It was really big because I wasn’t expecting it and it just kind of happened. It’s been a lot of fun swimming here. It’s hard to think about not ever swimming competitively in here again. I’ve had a lot of good memories swimming competitively.”

Wiethoff said, “There are so many things. We’ve had such a great team. I was thinking before I set up on those blocks before the 200 free relay, my last race of the night, my last race ever in this pool. It was kind of emotional. It just kind of hit me. The last four years have just flown by. We’ve had great times, and I’ve improved so much as a swimmer the last four years.
“We’re excited about sectional next week and state after that. I’ll start my taper the next few days. My goal is to get the 200 IM record at sectional and also the 200 medley and 400 free relay records. To close with five school records is my goal.”

Chastain said, “I really didn’t think about tonight. I’ve been here so long. I just wanted to do my thing and make it a special night, and I guess I did that. I hope it’s a night that a lot of these people remember, and it’s one I’ll certainly remember as well.”

He has set five school and four pool records at Seymour.

“I’ve done a lot in this pool, but I’ve also done a lot outside this pool as well,” Chastain said. “The meets were fun, but a lot of the memories that were made in here were practice and with teammates. You help support each other through a meet, but you help support each other more and learn more about each other through practice.”

Boggs said he is pleased with their 8-1 record in dual meets.

“I’d say they had a pretty good season,” he said. “I think we got about as much out of them as we could. We had an excellent conference meet last Tuesday. We swam well tonight, we swam off. The sectional team only swam two events tonight. They all had  season and lifetime bests tonight, so we’re looking very good going into the sectional.”

The sectional will be held Feb. 18 and Feb. 20 at New Albany.

“We’ll continue to rest, continue to fine-tune, polish, work off any rough corners or edges we need to,” Boggs said, “and make sure we’re firing on all cylinders come Thursday and Saturday and do what we’ve got to do to get to state.”

Results

At Seymour
Seymour 112, Providence 68
(Seymour in top 3)
50 free: 1-Kameron Chastain 21.18, 2-Reed McKinney 25.30
100 free: 1-Taylor Ritz 57.55, 2-Lee Pollert 59.12, 3-Fabian Scholz
200 free: 1-Cam Wiethoff 1:53.54
500 free: 1-Sam Montgomery 5:45.55
100 back: 1-Daniel Kerrick 1:00.37, 2-Alex Hester 1:07.32, 3-Jon Couch 1:10.82
100 breast: 1-David Montgomery 1:10.00, 3-Bryce Werskey 1:16.05
100 fly: 1-Chase Schneider 1:00.42, 3-Garrett Kute 1:19.41
200 IM: 1-Matt Fouts 2:07.98
200 free relay: 1-(Wiethoff, Schneider, Fouts, Chastain) 1:30.37, 3-(Alan Barradas, Clayton Carr, Kute, Pollert) 1:58.94
400 free relay: 1-(Ritz, Pollert, Reed McKinney, Kerrick) 3:58.67, 3-(Luis Garcia, Alex Beaty, Scholz, Carr) 4:15.05
200 medley relay: 1-(S. Montgomery, D. Montgomery, Hester, Jordan Hartman) 1:55.14, 3-(Couch, Werskey, Garcia, Kute) 2:08.64