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For 2nd time in 3 days, Lady Z swimmers lose on last race of night
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester swimming coach Stephanie Brown does not want her swimmers to become stale or stagnant in an event, so she moves them around to different events.
The boys didn’t get stale against Eastern, and the by-product of that was a 106-74 win in their home dual finale at the RMS pool Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Rochester girls lost to their opponent in a meet that again came down to the third-place finisher in the final event. Eastern pulled out the win 88-86 by taking both second and third place in the 400 freestyle relay.
Had RHS taken two of the top three places in the final relay, they would have won the meet.
There was also the agonizing matter of a disqualification of a “B” relay in the meet-opening 200 medley relay. The DQ caused a swing of four points in the final score – subtract two points from RHS’ score and add two to Eastern’s.
The Lady Zs were coming off an 86-82 loss to Tippecanoe Valley Tuesday in which they needed two of the top three spots for at least a chance to tie but did not do it and lost.
There was also a standout diver in the event for the second time this week when Eastern’s Porter Brovont scored a 306.50 points. RHS’ Kadin Kelly, who set a school record with 235.55 points in the Valley meet Tuesday, was second against Eastern with 197.95 points.
Girls
Rochester lost despite winning seven of the 12 events in the girls meet.
Makenna Beall won both the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly and also ripped fast third legs on both the victorious 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.
Elena Bode added wins in both the 50 and 100 freestyles.
“I think she had PRs in both events,” RHS coach Stephanie Brown said of Bode, who is not normally known as a freestyle sprinter. “She had good splits in her relays too.”
Macie Nelson won the penultimate 100 breaststroke in 1:33.29, beating Eastern’s Johanna Hanneken by 0.14 seconds to help cut the Eastern lead to 82-78 and set up the dramatic final event.
“She had a really good swim,” Brown said of Nelson. “She took off three seconds in her breaststroke, so that was fun to watch. That was a fun battle.”
Zoe Seward and Madilyn Calloway joined Beall and Bode on the 200 medley relay. Bella Riffle anchored the 400 freestyle relay, which also included Seward, Bode and Beall.
Beall swam her 400 freestyle relay leg in 57 seconds, and her time of 2:20.46 in the individual medley was a second faster than last week. Brown also noted that Kendyll Bradley’s 500 freestyle time of 6:44.16 was over 30 seconds better than her previous personal best and that Araceli Ochoa had a personal best in the 100 backstroke.
Boys
RHS also won seven of the 12 boys events. That included four individual events and all three relays.
Individual events winners included Layne Backus in the 200 individual medley, Dylan Steininger in the 500 freestyle, Wes Steininger in the 100 backstroke and Jake Seuferer in the 100 breaststroke.
Backus swam a 2:31.26 to hold off teammate Anthony Peterson. Dylan Steininger swam a 6:04.27 in the 500 freestyle, and Peterson also finished second in that event.
“Anthony took off quite a bit of time in both events he swam,” Brown said. “Just like on Tuesday … we want to put the kids in some events that they don’t normally swim or maybe not their best events because they’re going to be doing that for conference and sectionals. And we don’t want them to become stagnant. … A lot of them got to PR (set personal records) in events they haven’t swam in a while and get a little taste of improvement knowing that their hard work is paying off.”
On that same theme, Wes Steininger and Seuferer are both freshmen who had never swam their events competitively in a high school meet before Thursday.
“He swam the backstroke for the first time in high school tonight,” Brown said of Wes Steininger. “He had a good swim. The 50 free was a good time (26.53 seconds) for him too.”
Seuferer had swam the breaststroke before for the Rochester Royals club team but not in a high school meet. His 1:15.71 was almost six seconds faster than runner-up Philip Beedham of Eastern.
“It was good for a first time,” Seuferer said. “I didn’t feel like I was dying as badly.”
Seuferer said he has been swimming competitively for nine years. His older brother Jared, a 2017 RHS grad, also swam competitively.
“I saw one of his trophies in his room, and I was like I want to do it,” Seuferer said.
Seuferer said his specialty are the distance freestyle events. He has broken 5:30 in the 500 freestyle in a high school meet multiple times, including in the win over Valley Tuesday.
It’s a grueling event where conditioning ois paramount. Seuferer joked that he does the event because nobody else wants to.
“I was just good at it,” Seuferer said. “And I went to (club) state for it. It was my first state event.”
He said the training for high school swimming is different, especially the dry land training.
“It’s new, just the weights,” Seuferer said. “I feel like that’s going to also help. I feel like it’s going to make a difference.”
GIRLS RESULTS: EASTERN (GREENTOWN) 88, ROCHESTER 86
Scoring on 6-4-3-2-1 basis for individual events and 8-4-2 basis for relays
Winners plus all RHS scorers
200 medley relay
1. Rochester (Zoe Seward, Elena Bode, Makenna Beall, Madilyn Calloway) – 2:12.09, DQ. Rochester (Elizabeth Swango, Macie Nelson, Molly Vance-Gruss, Kendyll Bradley)
200 freestyle
1. Kantz (EAST) – 2:18.24, 2. Ellie Shank (RHS) – 2:24.47, 3. Molly Vance-Gruss (RHS) – 2:35.07, 5. Araceli Ochoa (RHS) – 3:04.18
200 individual medley
1. Makenna Beall (RHS) – 2:20.46, 4. Zoe Seward (RHS) – 2:57.49
50 freestyle
1. Elena Bode (RHS) – 28.26 seconds, 3. Bella Riffle (RHS) – 30.00, 4. Madilyn Calloway (RHS) – 30.94
Diving
1. Jordan (EAST) – 197.10 points
100 butterfly
1. Makenna Beall (RHS) – 1:05.88, 4. Zoe Seward (RHS) – 1:32.92
100 freestyle
1. Elena Bode (RHS) – 1:01.88, 4. Molly Vance-Gruss (RHS) – 1:11.33
500 freestyle
1. Shane (EAST) – 6:19.98, 2. Kendyll Bradley (RHS) – 6:44.16, 4. Madilyn Calloway (RHS) – 6:56.84
200 freestyle relay
1. Eastern (Kantz, Flanary, Shane, Kendall) – 1:59.40, 2. RHS (Elizabeth Swango, Bella Riffle, Madilyn Calloway, Kendyll Bradley) – 2:03.57
100 backstroke
1. Shallenberger (EAST) – 1:18.83, 2. Elizabeth Swango (RHS) – 1:22.47, 4. Araceli Ochoa (RHS) – 1:49.63
100 breaststroke
1. Macie Nelson (RHS) – 1:33.29, 3. Bella Riffle (RHS) – 1:37.30, 4. Kendyll Bradley (RHS) – 1:42.73
400 freestyle relay
1. RHS (Zoe Seward, Elena Bode, Makenna Beall, Bella Riffle) – 4:19.05, 4. RHS (Macie Nelson, Ashlynn Hudkins, Elizabeth Swango, Molly Vance-Gruss) – 5:23.20
BOYS RESULTS: ROCHESTER 106, EASTERN (GREENTOWN) 74
Scoring on 6-4-3-2-1 basis for individual events and 8-4-2 basis for relays
Winners plus all RHS scorers
200 medley relay
1. RHS (Anthony Peterson, Ethan Brady, Wes Steininger, Jake Seuferer) – 1:58.37, 3. RHS (Jake Freeman, R.J. Keranko, Peyton Hiatt, Tanner Reese) – 2:18.22
200 freestyle
1. Hueston (EAST) – 2:08.77, 2. Ethan Brady (RHS) – 2:18.27, 4. Peyton Hiatt (RHS) – 2:36.96, 5. Lane Shank (RHS) – 2:38.56
200 individual medley
1. Layne Backus (RHS) – 2:31.26, 2. Anthony Peterson (RHS) – 2:36.63, 4. R.J. Keranko (RHS) – 2:51.49
50 freestyle
1. Laubenstein (EAST) – 24.35 seconds, 2. Dylan Steininger (RHS) – 26.11, 3. Wes Steininger (RHS) – 26.53, 5. Tanner Reese (RHS) – 32.00
Diving
1. Brovont (EAST) – 306.50 points, 2. Kadin Kelly (RHS) – 197.95, 3. Bradley Bickle (RHS) – 187.15
100 butterfly
1. Vogl (EAST) – 1:06.90, 2. Ethan Brady (RHS) – 1:13.73, 3. Layne Backus (RHS) – 1:14.11
100 freestyle
1. Laubenstein (EAST) – 53.51 seconds, 2. Jake Seuferer (RHS) – 54.44, 4. Peyton Hiatt (RHS) – 1:06.40, 5. Jake Freeman (RHS) – 1:07.58
500 freestyle
1. Dylan Steininger (RHS) – 6:04.27, 2. Anthony Peterson (RHS) – 6:12.48, 4. Tanner Reese (RHS) – 6:53.10
200 freestyle relay
1. RHS (Layne Backus, Dylan Steininger, Anthony Peterson, Ethan Brady) – 1:45.74
100 backstroke
1. Wes Steininger (RHS) – 1:09.95, 3. Jake Freeman (RHS) – 1:19.03, DQ. Lane Shank (RHS)
100 breaststroke
1. Jake Seuferer (RHS) – 1:15.71, 3. R.J. Keranko (RHS) – 1:22.47
400 freestyle relay
1. RHS (Layne Backus, Dylan Steininger, Wes Steininger, Jake Seuferer) – 3:48.53, 3. RHS (Peyton Hiatt, R.J. Keranko, Lane Shank, Tanner Reese) – 4:30.17
