By Brady Extin | The Times-Post
FORTVILLE — With the swimming and diving season beginning to ramp up toward the sectional meets in February, Pendleton Heights showed promising things on Thursday, Jan. 18, on the road at Mt. Vernon.
In a dual meet with a Hoosier Heritage Conference foe, the boys defeated the host Marauders 111-72, while the girls fell 114-63.
The boys won nine of the 12 events to help grab the team victory, led by five individual event winners.
Jacob Simpson led the way with a pair of individual wins and two relay wins.
By himself, he took the top spot in both the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard backstroke.
To begin the night, Simpson, Eli Brindley, Ian Christian and Parker Christenson took first place in the 200-yard medley relay. Later in the evening, Simpson, Brindley, Christian and Evan McKinney won the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Along with the relays, Brindley, McKinney and Christian all grabbed individual wins as well.
Christian was the top swimmer in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. McKinney won the 500-yard freestyle, and Brindley won the 200-yard individual medley.
Rounding out the first-place finishes for Pendleton Heights was diver Nick Radcliff in the 1-meter diving competition.
To go along with the top finishes, the Arabians took second place in an array of events.
McKinney grabbed second in the 200-yard freestyle. Christenson was runner-up in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke. Max Nivens was runner-up in the 1-meter diving. Radcliff was second in the 100-yard breaststroke, and the team of Christenson, McKinney, Reese Dixon and Nate Ghosh was runner-up in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
On the girls side, the Arabians had a pair of first-place finishes.
Ella Rector won the 100-yard backstroke, and Mallory Gentry was the top swimmer in the 50-yard freestyle.
Helping add to the team total were second-place finishes from a variety of swimmers.
Rector was runner-up in the 200-yard IM. Kennedy Safford finished in second in the 100-yard butterfly. Clara McIntyre was second in the 100-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke. Emily Moore was runner-up in the 500-yard freestyle.
The girls also had three relay teams grab second-place finishes.
The team of Rector, McIntyre, Safford and Gentry placed second in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of Moore, Macey Parker, Alayna Eichhorn and Jillian Jackson was runner-up in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
The meet ended the regular season for Pendleton Heights as it begins to prepare for the sectional meet. Both sectional meets will take place at New Palestine, with the girls on Feb. 1 and the boys on Feb. 15.
