King and Schutte swim to state finals
PHOTO BY OA ATHLETICS
Oldenburg Academy boys swimming finished sixth at the IHSAA Swimming Sectional on Saturday at East Central. Swimmers Nash King and Santiago Schutte are state finals bound this weekend.
The high school swim season is not over yet and a pair of Oldenburg Academy swimmers are the reason as Nash King and Santiago Schutte are state finals bound after competing in the IHSAA Boys Swimming Sectional at East Central last Saturday.
All four coverage area swim programs were represented in Saturday’s sectional finals. The preliminary round at East Central was held last Thursday.
For King, a sophomore, this will be a return trip to the state finals in Indianapolis and he has qualified in two events. Oldenburg’s top swimmer won the 500 freestyle in a time of 4:31.74 and finished second in the 200 individual medley at 1:50.97. That latter time surpassed the state standard time on the season and allowed him to advance despite a runner-up spot. The same can be said for Schutte, a senior. He finished third at the sectional but posted a state-qualifying time of 21.63 seconds.
His Saturday also included a second place ribbon in the 100 freestyle, just missing that state finals time as he swam in 47.70 seconds.
It was quite the sectional finals for Oldenburg as a whole. On top of two swimmers punching tickets to the state finals, the Twisters finished sixth out of 14 teams after scoring 136 points. Bloomington South won the sectional with 494 points and rival Bloomington North was second with 347 points. Columbus East (277), East Central (245) and Greensburg (210) rounded out the top five. Milan scored 79 points for ninth place, Batesville was 11th at 49 points and South Ripley finished 12th with 47 points.
Oldenburg competed in three other events. Schutte, Grant Rosenberger, Albert Hudepohl and King were fifth in the 200 freestyle relay in a time of 1:35.22 and it was King, Sully Hill, Schutte and Rosenberger placing sixth in the 200 medley relay at 44.49 seconds. Hudepohl, Sully Hill, Dominic Yane and Rylan Hill swam 11th in the 400 freestyle relay at 4:11.94.
Seth Thomas had the best finish of the sectional for Milan, turning in a time of 1:01.68 to place fifth in the 100 breaststroke and he, alongside Lucas Cooney, Dylan Pindell and JJ Mutz were seventh in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:54.94. It was Cooney, Thomas, Mutz and Tyler Myers placing ninth in the 200 medley relay at 1:54.16.
Thomas was 10th in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:05.60. Mutz placed 11th in the 100 breaststroke at 1:07.28 and was 15th in the 100 butterfly at 1:02.72. The 200 freestyle relay team of Myers, Logan Bruns, Hunter Wickizer and Pindell sat 13th in 1:50.79.
Matthew Lambert, Parker Oldham, Sam Richardson and Ben Kuntz finished eighth for Batesville in the 200 freestyle relay at 1:41.28 and Tripp Hertel, Richardson, Oldham and Lambert were 11th in the 200 medley relay at 2:04.23. Individual events for the Bulldogs saw Lambert 13th in the 100 freestyle at 52.66 seconds and Ben Kuntz 16th in both the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle in times of 24.94 seconds and 55.09 seconds respectively.
Two relay teams for South Ripley placed 10th. Jordan Davis, Brady Begley, Landon Saylor and Thomas Eaglin finished 1:57.08 in the 200 medley relay and Jordan Almaraz, Davis, Eaglin and Saylor finished the 400 freestyle relay in 4:10.39. Davis, Eaglin, Begley and Saylor were also 11th in the 200 freestyle relay at 1:44.50. Begley swam 12th in the 100 breaststroke at 1:08.89 and Saylor was 15th in the 50 freestyle in 24.81 seconds.
King and Schutte will swim in the preliminary round of the IHSAA Boys Swimming State Finals on Friday night beginning at 6 p.m. with state championship races slated for Saturday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. The Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis will once again serve as the host site.
