ANDERSON, Ind. —
Heading into today’s preliminaries of the girls swimming sectional meet at Fishers, Pendleton Heights coach Jeff Maydak is not harboring any delusions of a miraculous first-place finish.
That distinction will no doubt go to one of the traditional heavyweights in host Fishers or Hamilton Southeastern. Maydak said his squad’s realistic goal is to capture fourth in the team standings.
“We’re not in the running for one of those top spots,” he said, noting Yorktown as the other likely top-three finisher. “We have some individuals that we would like to see advance and we’re looking at that fourth place.”
The Arabians’ main competition for fourth, Maydak believes, should be Oak Hill. Pendleton faced Oak Hill in a dual meet during the season and came away with a win.
Also among the team goals is one simple task: improving on last year’s sectional performance.
“Last year was kind of abnormal,” Maydak said. “We had a lot of problems with weather and postponements, and we didn’t have a good performance. We’re looking to rectify that.”
Noteworthy this season is an expanded scoring system. Because all sectional sites now have eight-lane pools, each of the top 16 finishers in a given event will score points for her team, as opposed to the previous 12. Consequently, the top eight finishers will advance to the finals, instead of six.
“This is exciting for us,” Anderson coach Dave Renz said. “I think it will give us a chance to score some points and get opportunities for some of our younger swimmers to help the team.”
Renz noted several swimmers on his team were seeded in the 14 to 16 range, which could potentially yield benefits in the team competition.
Esther Misher (100 free and 100 back), Anna Gustin (100 butterfly) and Jessi Simmons (200 and 500 free) are among that group.
Anderson fields a largely inexperienced team of only 11 swimmers, with Tori Brown the only returnee from last year’s sectional. Brown finished eighth in the 200 breaststroke. A similar finish this year would place Brown in the finals.
However, Renz said he would be satisfied if his team was able to achieve a series of individual best times.
“We set goals at the beginning for every person on the team and we talked about improving throughout the season,” he said. “If they can come through with that we will all be happy. The core of girls we have are very committed and have worked hard all season. They’re always looking forward. That is how we measure our success.”
Like Anderson, Pendleton has a lot of relatively new faces. Only one swimmer remains from the 2010 team, which advanced one swimmer and two relay teams to the sectional final. However, Maydak and his team can look to recent history for confidence.
“In the seven years I’ve been here we’ve always done well,” Maydak said. “We’re going to rely on that. We don’t have a lot of people, but based on what we’ve done in the past I think we should do well.”
For individual success, the focus will fall on Pendleton’s diving duo of Hannah Cochran and Taylor Fiew. Cochran is a two-time defending conference champion and points record-holder, while Fiew finished fourth in the conference meet two weeks ago.
“I think Hannah can be in the running for first place,” Maydak said. “She’s had a great year.”
Maydak mentioned Micalah Booher, Madison Kordes, Lauren Mason-Mills, Katey Stout and Jillyan Jackson as potentially advancing to Saturday’s final round.
“They’re all on the cusp,” he said. “Having the top eight advance means we’re going to have some chances to get people in the finals. For the upper echelon teams that doesn’t make a lot of difference, but it will be nice to see our people swimming for something.”
Elwood and Liberty Christian also compete in the Fishers sectional.
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Pendleton Heights’ Katey Stout competes in the 200-yard individual medley in a meet with Anderson this season. The Arabians and Indians, as well as Liberty Christian and Elwood, compete in the Fishers sectional today. Don Knight
Discussion
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