The Batesville High School swim teams traveled to St. Leon for their annual dual meet with East Central.
East Central’s number of swimmers provides them a big advantage over teams like Batesville.
The fact they always field a talented squad does not hurt.
The Batesville boys team was defeated by a score of 131-43, but did not go without achieving some milestones.
Bryce Timonera became just the second Bulldog to win an individual event at East Central. He was a dual winner in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle events. The BHS freshman posted personal best times (school records) of 21.88 and 48.19 respectively.
“This was the first time he was seriously pushed this year and he won both events so it is a real good sign as we head into sectionals,” BHS coach TJ Greene commented. “Both times are under the automatic IHSAA State Final cuts of 21.93 and 48.21.
“We’re pretty confident if he’s swimming that well now that he’ll have a shot to qualify automatically in up to six events including the two he swam tonight. The challenge is that he is only permitted to swim two individual events, so we have to choose events that he has the greatest chance of succeeding in not only at sectionals, but also at the state level,” he added.
Several teammates added to the scoring as well.
Richie Gryspeerdt finished second in the 100 yard breaststroke and third in the 200 IM, while brother Scott Gryspeerdt was second in the 100 yard backstroke and third in the 100 yard butterfly.
“Scott also swam his season best in his leg of the 400 yard freestyle relay (55.07) to bring us back from four seconds to down to place second by just .21,” Greene commented “He’s a hard swimmer to beat in the second half of a race ... he’s a tough swimmer.”
The Lady Bulldogs were defeated by East Central 134-46, but there were many good performances by Batesville, according to Greene.
“We usually don’t swim our normal events when we swim East Central, so we are actually pretty happy with the effort the girls put forth,” Greene commented.
Haley Hall (100 butterfly), Nicole Hountz (100 breast) and Emily Kelley (100 free) each finished second for the Lady Bulldogs in their respective events.
Erin Hankel (200 free), Hountz (200 IM), Kelley (50 free), each added a third place finish for Batesville.
Personal best times were posted by Elizabeth Dawes (200 free), Hankel (200 free), Hountz (200 IM, 100 breast), Kelley (50 free, 100 free, 400 free relay lead off), Victoria Mendoza (50 free) and Eli Pineda (50 free).
“Emily is really swimming strong right now,” Greene commented. “She just missed a EIAC title two weeks ago in the 50 and 100 freestyle events and her times are faster now, even though she is getting less rest and tougher dry-land workouts.”
