Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Entering the 2008-09 swim season, the Hopkins County Central boys swim team, with just seven members, faced the difficult task of keeping pace with the stronger and deeper girls squad, but on Monday evening the Storm swimmers rose to the occasion.
In just the third meet of the year, the boys finished in second place, as did the girls, in a quad meet against Calloway County, Christian Fellowship and Marshall County at Hopkins County Family YMCA.
“We don’t have very many boys at all, but they pack a big punch so we’re really pleased with them,” head coach Cheryl Vaughn said. “It looked like most of the athletes are still dropping times, which is extremely important right now, especially coming off Thanksgiving.”
Senior Wesley Ipock paced the boys squad with a first-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle (:27.76) and second place in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:17.38).
Ipock also competed on Central’s second-place 200-yard medley relay (2:23.21) and 200-yard freestyle relay (2:10.25) teams with Kain Bean, Chase Durrance and Cody Patterson.
Durrance cut an astonishing 19 seconds from his previous time in the 100-yard backstroke to claim third place.
“It’s the first time other than time practice that I’ve actually swam it,” he said afterward.
Durrance, a junior who also plays tennis, said this winter marks his first with the Storm swimmers, but he can see a bit of correlation between the two sports.
“They’re both all about sprinting as hard as you can,” he said. “It’s short and quick exercise and for me it’s all about pushing yourself.”
Patterson’s best races came during second-place finishes in the 200-yard individual medley (3:00.32) and 500-yard freestyle (7:25.37).
Despite his high placement in the 200 IM, Patterson said it will be an area he needs to improve upon during practice.
“I didn’t do that good, I’ll be honest,” he said. “I’m really going to be pushing that.”
Patterson said he was pleased though with how the small group of boys competed overall.
“I know we don’t have that many guys, but getting second place, that feels pretty good.”
On the girls side, junior Ellen French also expressed some unhappiness with her individual times despite a pair of first-place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:23.57) and 100-yard butterfly (1:09.54).
“Personally, I wasn’t too proud of my races,” she said. “I didn’t get my best times...I won both my races, but personally I didn’t knock off times, so I wasn’t happy.”
Vaughn said she has noticed French’s determination to excel.
“She steps out of the water after getting first place and she said, ‘I know I won, but I don’t feel good about it, I’m going to do better,’” Vaughn said. “You can’t ask for anything more from a captain. It’s just great leadership.”
Right behind French in the 100-yard fly was teammate Ellen Cox. During the 100-yard backstroke, Cox also took second place, finishing just .34 seconds behind Marshall County’s Sarah Telle.
“I think a lot depends on turns,” Cox said of the close time differential. “I don’t know if I reached back far enough. Her arms might be longer than mine, so I guess I sort of lost it.”
Although she narrowly missed taking top honors in the event, Cox shaved four seconds from her previous time and said assistant coach Sophie French thinks it’s her best opportunity to compete at regionals.
As for relays, the Central girls team of Cox, French, Rebecca Spraggs and Lindsey Hooper combined to win the 400-yard freestyle relay (4:38.29). The foursome finished in second place during the 200-yard medley relay as well.
Individually, Hooper ended in third place for the 200-yard freestyle (2:43.57) and Spraggs took second in the 200-yard IM. Spraggs and Hooper finished two-three in the 500-yard freestyle as well with Spraggs coming out ahead.
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