Braves earn split at Bluffton
With swimming and diving sectionals drawing closer, the Bellmont girls turned in an 87-71 win at Bluffton on Thursday night. The Bluffton boys defeated the Braves, 13647.
Bellmont started the evening with a pair of diving victories. Bella Ashley was the only diver for the girls on Thursday. Her final score was 160. Logan Whitcare defeated three Bluffton divers by racking up 187.95 points.
The first swimming event of the night- the girls 200 meter medley relay- was won by Bellmont. Shaylin McCray, Madison Witte, Brooklyn Brownlow and Ashley topped Bluffton by 1.38 seconds after McCray built a significant lead on the first leg.
Tiger teams finished first and second in the boys 200 medley relay. Third place went to Oliver Werling, Hudson Krull, Zayne Roop and Logan Whitacre of Bellmont.
Bellmont swimmer Ella Hockemeyer was the runner-up in the girls 200 meter freestyle.
Oliver Goble finished fourth in the boys 200 free.
McCray continued her stellar meet by posting a time of 2:59.55 in the girls 200 meter IM. She won the race by 8.04 seconds.
A time of 2:39.06 allowed Werling to take top spot in the boys 200 IM.
Witte swam the girls 50 free in 31.02 seconds to pick up the win. Ashley placed third in the same event.
Bluffton earned each spot in the top three of the boys 50 free. Krull of Bellmont finished in fourth place.
Brownlow finished second in the girls 100 meter butterfly, 2.73 seconds behind Lucia Corkwell of Bluffton.
Second place in the boys 100 butterfly was earned by Roop.
Morgan Brames took second in the 100 meter freestyle for the Braves.
In the same event for the boys, Taufeeq Ally of Bellmont earned fourth place.
Hockemeyer was the winner of the girls 400 meter freestyle. Her time of 5:30.43 put her 10.33 seconds ahead of the field.
Goble took fourth place in the boys 400 meter freestyle.
The girls 200 meter freestyle relay was a tight contest that was decided by less than a second. Bluffton held off Bellmont by 0.4 seconds. Brownlow, Brames, Emma Howell and Hockemeyer finished as the runners-up.
Taahir Ally, Taufeeq
Ally, Goble and Whitacre gave the Braves third place in the boys 200 free relay.
McCray topped the leaderboard in the girls 100 meter backstroke with a time of 1:19.49. Second place went to Brownlow of Bellmont.
Werling was fourth in the boys 100 meter backstroke.
Witte and Brames placed third and fourth, respectively, in the girls 100 meter breaststroke.
Krull was victorious in the boys 100 meter breaststroke. His winning time was 1:15.95.
The Bellmont girls finished the evening by winning the 400 meter freestyle relay. Ashley, Hockemeyer, McCray and Witte won the race by 26.06 seconds.
Bellmont took second place in the boys 400 freestyle relay when Goble, Roop, Werling and Krull produced a time of 4:26.88.
The Bellmont girls defeated East Noble at home on Wednesday night, 94-73.
Sectional prelims at Jay County are scheduled for Thursday night at 5:30 p.m.