All-RTC4 girls swimming: Dominant in distance events, Lute is Swimmer of the Year

Val T.
Mar 27
2 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

**RTC Girls Swimmer of the Year Hayden Lute**

With rare exceptions, Culver’s Hayden Lute was dominant in the distance events, and as a result, she is our RTC4 Girls Swimmer of the Year for the second straight year.

Lute won the 200 freestyle at the Hoosier North meet by nearly 27 seconds. She beat the runner-up in the 500 freestyle by a minute.

And after swimming a 2:06.95 in the 200 freestyle at conference, she cut more than 3.7 seconds off that time to finish second at the Warsaw sectional. She also finished sixth in the 500 freestyle at the sectional.

Lute also headlines our All-RTC4 Girls Swimming Team.

Besides Lute, the other story among area girls swimmers was the young sprinters at Tippecanoe Valley. Coach Scott Whetstone built an outstanding boys team there, and now he appears to be building a deep, talented girls team.

We would like to thank area coaches for sending us their results. We would also like to thank them for sharing their insights with us after meets.

Having said that, this list is ours and ours alone, and we take full responsibility. We place a strong emphasis on the conference and sectional meets, where swimmers tend to compete in their strongest events.

First team

Hayden Lute (Culver) (Swimmer of the Year) – Lute will finally get a home on-campus pool when she swims at Albion College next year. The Lady Cavaliers have been practicing at Culver Academy this year. There is no pool at Culver Community.
Alayna Parker (Tippecanoe Valley) – A freshman, Parker won the 50 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke at the Indiana Northern State Conference meet, and she followed it up by taking third in the 50 free and second in the 100 free at the Warsaw sectional. We think she can get her 50 freestyle time under 26 seconds starting next year, and she is already under 58 seconds in the 100 freestyle.
Abby Heckaman (Tippecanoe Valley) – Heckaman is another freshman who has already gone under a minute in the 100 freestyle, and she might be even more versatile than Parker after winning the 200 individual medley at conference as well. She was also eighth at the sectional in the 50 freestyle.
Sophia Becker (Tippecanoe Valley) – Becker, a sophomore, is the only area swimmer to go under 1:10 in the 100 backstroke.

Honorable mention