Another year, another title for Mustangs
MUNSTER — Tradition in Munster swimming runs as deep as the waters in its newly dedicated Jon Jepsen Pool. Fittingly, the Seahorses coasted to their 25th consecutive conference title Saturday, the day Munster’s aquatic center was dedicated to the legendary former coach.
Munster outscored runner-up Highland 424-279 to win the Northwest Conference Crossroads conference boys’ meet. The Seahorses have won all eight of that conference’s championships.
“Conference is always important,” Munster coach Matt Pavlovich said. “To me it’s about getting ready for the sectional meet and the state meet.”
The Seahorses placed first in nine of the 12 events. Munster swimmers broke one conference record, tied another, and nearly eclipsed two more.
“It was a great meet for the kids. We had a lot of good swims today,” Pavlovich said. “I actually thought we looked a lot better in the pool today than we did against Chesterton on Thursday.”
Wilson Beckman let the Munster charge by tying the NCC record of 20.86 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle. Later, he broke his own twoyear-old mark by 1.24 seconds in the 100 backstroke.
“My swims were really great. I liked what I did,” Beckman said. “I didn’t make a lot of mistakes throughout the meet, which was good.”
Beckman’s teammate, Joey Gardner, missed another NCC record by .05 seconds, taking the 100 butterfly in 50.78 seconds. Gardner also won the 200 individual medley in 1:59.70, the only swimmer under two minutes.
Munster’s relay teams also fared well. The 200 medley team of Beckman, Jack Wulf, Gardner and Logan Armagast won in 1:36.47, missing the NCC record by .18 seconds. Nick Lundin, Seth Weston, Armagast, and Collin Sroge won the 200 freestyle Relay. Sroge, Beckman, Wulf, and Gardner took the 400 freestyle Relay in 3:16.71.
Highland’s Chris Dabrowski claimed the other races that Munster left for the field. Dabrowski won the 200 freestyle in 1:46.21, three seconds ahead of Sroge. He won the 500 freestyle by more than seven seconds, swimming 4:45.88.
Highland diver Mitch Mastey set the conference and pool marks with 517.15 points. Mastey finished his record-setting performance by nailing a high difficulty reverse one-and-a-half somersault with two-anda-half twist dive for 55.50 points in his final dive.