Lady Vikings win 11 events, beat Rochester

Val T.
Jan 14
6 min read

Whetstone wins 50 free, 100 fly, but Zebra boys prevail

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Growing depth, the Tippecanoe Valley girls swimming team won 10 of 11 contested events and went on to defeat host Rochester 104-56 at the Rochester Middle School pool Monday.

Meanwhile, the Rochester boys swimming team earned a 62-53 win despite Valley winning more events (six) than it did (five).

But a deeper Rochester team got their second win of the season by scoring 33 points in events in which they were unopposed while Valley only got 18 points in events in which they were unopposed.

Diving in the girls meet and the 100 breaststroke in the boys meet were uncontested.

Girls

Girls winners for Valley included Mya Drudge in the 200 freestyle, Cassie Rich in the 200 individual medley, Bailey Anderson in the 50 freestyle, Malia Kreft in the 100 butterfly, Abby Heckaman in the 100 freestyle, McKenna Lowe in the 500 freestyle and Sophia Becker in the 100 backstroke.

Valley also swept all three relays. Becker, Heckaman, Kreft and Claire Haney came together to win the 200 medley relay. The 200 freestyle relay team consisted of Anderson, Haney, Kreft and Drudge. Anderson, Haney, Drudge and Heckaman combined to beat Rochester by over a minute in the 400 freestyle relay.

Valley’s girls team consists of 17 swimmers, and they return all 109 points from last year’s sectional.

“We have some sophomores and some freshmen who have come on this year, partly age groupers that I know coming up,” Valley coach Scott Whetstone said. “And we actually had one that wasn’t here tonight, so we’ve got another freshman that’s pretty good too. So yeah, it’s helped the girls team big time getting the depth going. As you saw, in a lot of events, we were able to swim three swimmers and compete pretty well. … That’s helped our relays quite a bit because our second relay’s stronger because of it too.”

Rich beat Lowe in the 200 individual medley, but Lowe beat Rich in the 500 freestyle.

Lily Chipps was Rochester’s lone individual winner, taking the 100 breaststroke in 1:31.31 and beating runnerup and teammate Riplee Snyder by 2.06 seconds.

“She would like to place at the TRC (Three Rivers Conference) and sectionals in that event,” Rochester coach Stephanie Brown said. “And she took off four-tenths of a second, so that was a good time for her. A season best time for sure.”

The meet was also the last for Aubrey Miller, the only senior of either gender in the Rochester program. She finished third in the 50 freestyle and fourth in the 100 freestyle and also swam a leg on the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays who both finished second.

“She was nervous,” Brown said. “Just about swimming in general, but then she had a big crowd here of people to watch her, so just some nerves that come with that.”

Boys

Rochester individual winners included Joshua Seuferer in the 200 freestyle, Brevin Nicholson in the 200 individual medley, Lucas Scorsone in the 500 freestyle and Tyson Wachtmann in the 100 backstroke.

Wachtmann pulled away in the final 50 yards of the backstroke to win 1:02.72. He beat Valley’s Aaden Bowers by 3.22 seconds. Wachtmann is a freshman while Bowers is a junior and a former sectional finalist in the event.

“That was a very good swim for him,” Brown said of Wachtmann. “He can do whatever I put him in. It’s obviously not his speciality… but he’s always up for a challenge, and he does anything I ask. His best events are freestyle, but he’ll do anything I ask him to do, and he always is looking to swim faster and get better and work harder.”

Juniors Tucker Whetstone and Bowers, who competed as part of Valley’s 200 freestyle relay team that finished 21st at last year’s state finals, had a hand in five of Valley’s six event wins Monday.

Whetstone won both the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly and swam legs on Valley’s victorious 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay teams. Bowers won the 100 freestyle and swam on both relays.

Gavin Leininger won diving and also swam on both relays. The fourth member of the team is Grayson Clark, who also dives and swims on both relays.

Whetstone was third at last year’s sectional in the 100 butterfly – his teammate Marcus Smith, now swimming collegiately at Grand Valley State, won it – in 53.94 seconds. He swam a 57.85 on Monday.

This was the team’s fourth meet in a week, and Tucker Whetstone also had a club meet last weekend.

“At the meet at the beginning of January, that weekend meet, he swam a 53,” coach Whetstone said. “So he’s capable of going faster obviously, but that was in a finals setting – prelims, finals. So we’re trying to get him set up to do well at sectionals. That’s what we’re going for.”

Girls results: Tippecanoe Valley 104, Rochester 56

Scoring on 6-4-3-2-1 basis for individual events and 8-4-2 basis for relays

All Rochester and Valley results

200 medley relay

1. Valley (Sophia Becker, Abby Heckaman, Malia Kreft, Claire Haney) – 2:16.33, 2. Rochester (Summer Tyler, Lily Chipps, Audrey Widman, Aubrey Miller) – 2:28.78, 3. Valley (Briley Lowe, Adel Cerna, Cassie Rich, Lucy Sampsel) – 2:36.74, 4. Rochester (Layla Tyler, Savannah Wolters, Jenna Seuferer, Alayna Jones) – 3:21.21

200 freestyle

1. Mya Drudge (TV) – 2:20.29, 2. Abby Heckaman (TV) – 2:22.81, 3. Riplee Snyder (RHS) – 2:25.98, 4. Audrey Widman (RHS) – 2:38.19

200 individual medley

1. Cassie Rich (TV) – 2:59.29, 2. McKenna Lowe (TV) – 3:11.11, 3. Lily Chipps (RHS) – 3:13.01, 4. Jenna Seuferer (RHS) – 3:27.31, 5. Layla Tyler (RHS) – 3:27.32

50 freestyle

1. Bailey Anderson (TV) – 28.22 seconds, 2. Claire Haney (TV) – 28.44, 3. Aubrey Miller (RHS) – 29.23, 4. Summer Tyler (RHS) – 31.35, 5. Lucy Sampsel (TV) – 33.24

Diving

(not contested)

100 butterfly

1. Malia Kreft (TV) – 1:26.04, 2. Audrey Widman (RHS) – 1:27.41, 3. Layla Tyler (RHS) – 1:45.30

100 freestyle

1. Abby Heckaman (TV) – 1:02.01, 2. Mya Drudge (TV) – 1:03.48, 3. Bailey Anderson (TV) – 1:06.85, 4. Aubrey Miller (RHS) – 1:10.24, 5. Jenna Seuferer (RHS) – 1:27.39

500 freestyle

1. McKenna Lowe (TV) – 7:12.55, 2. Cassie Rich (TV) – 7:24.71, 3. Alayna Jones (RHS) – 9:48.30

200 freestyle relay

1. Valley (Bailey Anderson, Claire Haney, Malia Kreft, Mya Drudge) – 1:58.74, 2. Rochester (Summer Tyler, Riplee Snyder, Audrey Widman, Aubrey Miller) – 2:05.21, 3. Valley (Lucy Sampsel, Adel Cerna, Jeria Long, Cassie Rich) – 2:18.56

100 backstroke

1. Sophia Becker (TV) – 1:15.66, 2. Summer Tyler (RHS) – 1:29.22, 3. Malia Kreft (TV) – 1:31.35, 4. Briley Lowe (TV) – 1:33.78, 5. Alayna Jones (RHS) – 2:07.65, 6. Savannah Wolters (RHS) – 2:18.16

100 breaststroke

1. Lily Chipps (RHS) – 1:31.31, 2. Riplee Snyder (RHS) – 1:33.39, 3. Lucy Sampsel (TV) – 1:33.45, 4. Adel Cerna (TV) – 1:39.25

400 freestyle relay

1. Valley (Bailey Anderson, Claire Haney, Mya Drudge, Abby Heckaman) – 4:19.41

Boys results: Rochester 62, Tippecanoe Valley 53

Scoring on 6-4-3-2-1 basis for individual events and 8-4-2 basis for relays

All Rochester and Valley results

200 medley relay

1. Valley (Grayson Clark, Tucker Whetstone, Aaden Bowers, Gavin Leininger) – 2:16.02, 2. Rochester (Brevin Nicholson, Tanner Hamilton, Tyson Wachtmann, Joshua Seuferer) – 2:18.98

200 freestyle

1. Joshua Seuferer (RHS) – 2:46.32, 2. Tanner Hamilton (RHS) – 2:50.70, 3. Lucas Scorsone (RHS) – 3:03.91

200 individual medley

1. Brevin Nicholson (RHS) – 2:47.54

50 freestyle

1. Tucker Whetstone (TV) – 23.57 seconds, 2. Tyson Wachtmann (RHS) – 23.83, 3. Grayson Clark (TV) – 32.55, 4. Simeon Skipper (TV) – 39.13, 5. Brayden Corning (RHS) – 40.45

Diving

1. Gavin Leininger (TV) – 112.65 points, 2. Grayson Clark (TV) – 77.45

100 butterfly

1. Tucker Whetstone (TV) – 57.85 seconds, 2. Tanner Hamilton (RHS) – 2:03.46

100 freestyle

1. Aaden Bowers (TV) – 56.47 seconds, 2. Brevin Nicholson (RHS) – 1:01.84, 3. Brayden Corning (RHS) – 1:37.69

500 freestyle

1. Lucas Scorsone (RHS) – 8:19.39

200 freestyle relay

1. Valley (Aaden Bowers, Grayson Clark, Gavin Leininger, Tucker Whetstone) – 1:53.35

100 backstroke

1. Tyson Wachtmann (RHS) – 1:02.72, 2. Aaden Bowers (TV) – 1:05.94, 3. Joshua Seuferer (RHS) – 1:36.62