Josie Havenaar
While most swim programs use the Christmas holiday break to get in a great deal of training, Columbus East’s quality and quantity of training was affected by illness.
Several Olympian swimmers missed multiple practices while sick, but when their meet schedule resumed on Thursday evening, they still were able to come out on top. The East boys oisted a 116-69 win, and the girls earned a 105-76 victory against Bedford North Lawrence.
“I think we swam pretty well,” senior Brady Beyer said. “We were really sick this winter. Pretty much every one of our top 10-to-12 swimmers missed three or four practices just because of the flu or something else. Now, we kind of feel healthy, and we’re just trying to get back into it. I think for the most part, we’re pretty happy with our times.”
Brady Beyer
Beyer won the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 49.24 seconds and the 500 freestyle in 4:55.51. Sophomore Misha Machavariani also was a double-winner for the Olympian boys, taking the 100 butterfly (55.33) and 100 breaststroke (1:06.14).
Misha Machavariani
Other winners for the East boys were Todd Hundley in the 200 individual medley (2:10.39), Gavin Day in the diving competition (222.05), Judah Nickoll in the 100 backstroke (57.09) and the Olympians’ 200 medley (1:43.68) and 200 freestyle relay (1:43.04) teams,.
Cavan Stilson finished second in the 50 freestyle (23.38) and 100 freestyle (52.12). Also placing second were Nickoll in the 200 freestyle (1:55.51) and Keaton Stephenson in the 500 freestyle (5:20.17). East also was second in the 400 freestyle relay (3:26.21).
“Most of us have been out sick, and I’m proud that we’ve been able to make such a strong comeback,” Machavariani said. “I’m really proud of all my teammates and what we were able to do here today. I can’t wait until conference and sectional.”
Josie Havenaar led the girls with wins in the 100 freestyle (1:00.38) and 100 breaststroke (1:19.61). Other winners were Cassidy Furnish in the 200 freestyle (2:12.62), Kira VanValkenburg in the 200 IM (2:32.86), Gabbie Meier in diving (216.15) and the Olympians’ 200 freestyle relay team (1:58.56).
“I feel really good to win two events because I’ve had a rough past couple weeks, but I think the girls all did really well and we all swam our best,” Havenaar said. “Even though we didn’t have a lot of PRs tonight, I think that everyone put in their best effort. We’ve been working really hard at practice, so I think it’s starting to pay off.”
Finishing second for the East girls were Grace Hale in the 50 freestyle (30.67), Grace Lykins in diving (150.25), VanValkenburg in the 100 freestyle (1:02.31), Furnish in the 500 freestyle (5:56.06), Hannah Dean in the 100 backstroke (1:16.22) and Ali Trueblood in the 100 breaststroke (1:23.27). The Olympians also were second in the 200 medley (2:08.52) and 400 freestyle (4:38.58) relays.
“It’s pretty good,” East coach Doug Trueblood said of his boys and girls teams. “I was worried because I felt like our winter training wasn’t quite what we typically try to do from an intensity perspective because of the kids that were coming back from sickness. They kind of had to build themselves back up. But I think we’ve recovered well. We had a lot of good practices this week. We had great training this morning, and I thought they swam really loose and fast today. I thought they did a good job.”
