Jay County swimmer James Keen is the only East Central Indiana competitor coming back to the second day of the IHSAA State Finals with a chance at a title.
Keen finished seventh in the preliminary round of the 100 backstroke on Friday with a time of 51.37, good enough to get into Saturday’s championship heat. Keen finished 17th last year, narrowly missing a chance at the second day.
The top eight finishers in each event come back for the championship round on Saturday. Teams and individuals who place between 9th and 16th come back for a consolation round.
Two other ECI schools will have individual competitors in the consolation round. Delta’s Andrew Torres finished 13th in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.61. He was Delta’s only individual competitor, but also competed in the 400 freestyle relay and 200 freestyle relay. The team of Torres, Joshua Minch, Chandler Tucker and John Hart finished 24th with an official time unavailable. The Delta 200 freestyle relay team of Hart, Jared Hunt, Devyn Tarr and Torres finished 25th with a time of 1:29.24.
Central’s Cullen Tyler finished 15th in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 58.38 and was 16th in the 100 butterfly with 51.07. The Bearcats were the only school to send three individual swimmers, as Alec Hale and Lukas Bradford also competed in individual events.
Hale finished 28th in the 500 freestyle at 4:52.11 and 29th in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:46.62. Bradford was 31st in the 200 IM at 2:05.32.
Central’s 200 relay team is also headed to the consolation round after Cameron Ottinger, Tyler, Bradford and Hale finished 16th with a time of 1:37.97.
Jay County also sent one other swimmer to Friday’s meet. Sok Vormohr finished 30th in the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.02.
No ECI competitors qualified for the second day last year.