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Mallary Meyer moves on to State
PLAINFIELD -- A good showing for Putnam County athletes at the Plainfield sectional Saturday, turned into a great day for Greencastle's Mallary Meyer, who not only will be moving onto the IHSAA State Swim meet at IUPUI's Natatorium Saturday due to her finish in the 100 butterfly, but also anchored the 200-freestyle relay team which set a school record.
Greencastle took fifth place at the meet with 208, South Putnam placed seventh with 123 and North Putnam earned 22 points for 11th.
"I just couldn't be more happy for Mallary," GHS coach Kent Menzel said. "She has worked very, very hard since last year to bring her to this performance. She has recorded lifetime best swims in every one of her events this year, which really show evidence of her hard work. She is a great athlete and an even better team leader."
Meyer's butterfly time of 59.11 earned her a first-place finish. The 200 freestlye relay team of Meyer, Amelia Smith, Corrie Romer and Grace Gillen swam to a time of 1:41.10, which broke the Greencastle school record set only last year by Meyer, Cecilia Pohlar, Romer and Amelia Smith with a time of 1:41.83.
"All of our Tiger Sharks were amazing today, including Amelia Smith, Corrie Romer, and Grace Gillen, who were all able to move up in scoring. Also swimming up for the day were Sydney Lewis, Megan Haltom and Kelly Hansen, all of whom were on fire today."
South Putnam which had Eagles racing in 11 of 12 events was happy to see a fellow county swimmer move to the state meet.
"First off, we were ecstatic to watch Mallary win the 100 fly," Eagle coach Anna Kendell said. "After being somewhat overwhelmed by the competition on Thursday, our girls were really encouraged to see someone they knew from the county make it out of the sectional. It gave them a real morale boost and sense of accessibility moving forward."
South Putnam's highest finisher was Maddison Plunkett, who earned sixth in the diving competition. Katie Hansel also lowered her own school record in the 50 free, as did Megan Arnold in the 100 fly.
"Megan had a phenomenal end to her season, also dropping almost four seconds from her prelim time in the 200 IM and winning the consolation finals heat for that event," Kendall said. "Megan is such a strong athlete in terms of her ability to stay focused, to compete at any level, and to handle the mental challenges of the sport, but I'm really proud of all our athletes and the way they attacked the season from start to finish, really invested themselves in the process and stayed in the struggle when it was difficult."
North Putnam's Chloe La Pierre took eighth in diving with 11 points, Abigail Spencer took 12 in the 500 freestyle and 11 in the 200 freestyle.
"I'm really pleased with the swims of the athletes," Cougar coach Josh Willer said. "Goals for the end of the season were achieved. We had a few instances where we had some tough lessons. Very young team. I think we all learned quite a lot this year that will really help catapult our performances for next year. As a Putnam County resident, I was excited to see all the athletes from Putnam County do so well."