AVON — AVON — While his front flip probably would have registered as a failed dive, Avon boys’ swimming and diving coach Jon Karr had been waiting seven years to make the jump.
Celebrating Avon’s first sectional victory in 18 years, the rest of the Oriole’s team followed soon after into the pool.
Avon led the sectional with 432 points, Plainfield came in third with 364 points, Danville placed sixth, Tri-West finished eighth and Cascade took home 10th at Avon High School.
The win was validation for an Avon squad that has been looking to make the leap into the upper echelon of Indiana swimming teams.
“It’s means the world to these boys just knowing that we are bringing Avon back to prominence and they’ll get their picture up on the wall by the locker room,” Karr said. “It’s been a long time coming.
“It puts us right on our way, we saw some times with a very young group that are pretty fast. Just knowing that we can compete at a very high level is just a confidence builder for this group.”
Helping to make the victory sweeter was the misfortune the Avon swim team has faced recently. In recent weeks, members of the boys’ team were in a car accident with minor injuries and just this past week, a member of the team’s father passed away.
“It’s just been a roller coaster of a couple weeks for us. A lot of adversity the past couple weeks, I’m so proud of the way our boys and girls both stepped up staring some unfortunate events in the face and being able to stay focused through that and go swim really well,” Karr said. “I just love my group of kids, they are a very resilient bunch. When things don’t go our way we get a little bit tougher, it’s just a great feeling.”
The Orioles trailed nearly the entire meet after being disqualified in the opening 200 medley relay when they left early on one of the legs.
“We were down in a hole right away at the beginning of the meet and we just looked at each other and said, ‘We are going to win this thing,’ “ said Karr. “And we stayed focused and strong and competed like crazy and pulled it out.”
Winning events for Avon were Quinn McPhail (200 free), Dylan Ferguson (200 IM), Christian Lorenz (100 breast) and the relay team of Ferguson, Parks Jones, Grant Lewis and Greg Sprout (200 free relay).
For the Quakers, the third place finish gave Plainfield coach Chris Cavanaugh plenty to be happy about.
“We swam lights out,” he said. “We put it together for our best meet of the season top to bottom and I’m really, really happy.”
Taking home individual sectional victories for Plainfield were Nick Allen in the 500 free and Evan Becker in diving with a final score of 354.55. Andrew Wright placed second in the 100 breast for the Quakers as they also added two second place finishes in the relays. The team of Allen, Wright, Chris Tice and Michael Hurst (200 medley) and the team of Tice, Allen, Ben Miller and Robert Weisbach (200 free).
Also earning notable finishes for Hendricks County schools were Tri-West senior Austin Kelly’s second place in the 50 free, Danville junior Grant Callahan’s third place in the 100 free and Cascade senior Saxton Archer’s fifth in diving.
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