(Columbus, IN) – Milan sophomore Seth Thomas raced to a time of 1:00.78 in the 100 Breaststroke at Saturday’s IHSAA Swim Sectional at Columbus North, and qualified for the State Finals at IU-Indy Natatorium this weekend.
Thomas went up against state-caliber competition in the event, and outdid his closest competitor – a Bloomington North swimmer – by more than a full second.
He becomes the third-ever Milan swimmer to advance to the state championships – all within the past seven years.
The others were his older brother Dylan Thomas and Fernando Gomez.
In the team standings, Bloomington South, which finished third in last years state meet, easily outdistanced the field in the Columbus sectional to finish first.
Bloomington North was runner-up with East Central in third place. Milan’s team of eight boys secured eighth place, just six points behind large-school Columbus North.
Batesville finished ninth and Oldenburg’s Twisters were 10th.
TEAM SCORES
Bloomington South 500
Bloomington North 326.5
East Central 245.5
Edgewood 184
Columbus East 166
Greensburg 165
Columbus North 135
Milan 129
Batesville 120
Oldenburg 90
Rising Sun 57
South Dearborn 57
South Ripley 35
Lawrenceburg 16
The Indians followed up Thursday’s preliminary round where personal best times were recorded for nearly every swim, with even more improved results on Saturday.
Milan was represented Saturday in 10 of the 12 events, which is quite an accomplishment considering the size of the other schools and their teams in this sectional.
MILAN EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
- Sophomore Seth Thomas won the 100 Breaststroke and finished a strong 4th in the 200 IM
- Junior JJ Mutz competed in the same 100 Breaststroke final and finished 8th after qualifying Thursday in a career best time.
- Junior Logan Bruns also had massive time shaves on Thursday and scored in both the 100 Free (13th) and 200 Free (16th).
- Senior Tyler Myers, a relative newcomer to the team, again had PR times in the prelim round and turned around on Saturday to rise to 14th place overall with a 2.35 second improvement.
- Freshman Kyle O’Neil, shocked the field in the 100 Fly’s prelim round with a 1:05.11 and then matched the same exact career best time in the finals to score Milan points in 14th place.
- Senior Lucas Cooney was a vital part of two team relays, the 200 Medley (7th) and 200 Freestyle (6th), both of which dropped time to mark season best.
- Junior Tyler Shafer, a first year team member, dropped over 8 seconds in the 200 Freestyle and almost 4 seconds in the 100 Freestyle, showing marked improvement.
- Junior Lennox Hazeltine, yet another first year swimmer, shaved nearly five seconds off of his 50 Free time. Hazeltine also dropped over 11 seconds in the 100 Backstroke.
Thomas will represent Milan at the state prelims Friday at 4:30 p.m. at IU Natatorium in downtown Indianapolis.
(Information provided by Steve Knecht/Milan Swimming)