Chesterton Swim and dive wins sectional, sets records, taking big team to state meet this weekend

Tom Keegan
onwardtrojans.com

​The Valparaiso girls swim and dive team is loaded this season, just not quite as loaded as Chesterton.
The Trojans won the sectional Saturday at Hobart, scoring 547 points to 517 for Valpo, and both rivals appear to be in good shape for a strong showing at the state finals Saturday.
Chesterton qualified at least one competitor for state in 9 of 11 swimming events and has two divers competing in the regional Tuesday at Valparaiso.
Chesterton’s big day gave the team a confident outlook heading into the weekend at IU Indy, where the preliminaries get underway Friday.
A realistic goal for the Trojans?
“Top five, I hope,” senior Miata Henderson said after spending a lot of time in the pool with everyone trying to catch her.
Henderson swam personal-best times in winning the 200-yard freestyle (1:53.18) and the 500 free (5:06.37) and anchoring the 200 free relay.
Diver Bayley Fowler won the event and set the school record with 427.15 points. To qualify for state, Fowler needs to finish in the top eight at the regional, where freshman Bella Walters, in her first year diving, will join her.
For Chesterton, the same four girls swam their way to state in the first event, the 200 medley relay, breaking the school record it set at the DAC Championship, and the final event, the 400 free relay, setting a sectional record.
Chesterton didn’t win the first race, but did win its race against the state standard in the 200 medley relay with sophomore Adalyn Laughner swimming the backstroke, Bonez the breaststroke, junior Tegan Werner the butterfly and junior Peyton Ostertag the freestyle.
The order was different for the 400 free relay and the performance was even better. The Trojans won that relay with a time of 3:26.89, which broke a sectional record that Chesterton held.
"We just missed the school record," Ostertag said. "We'll get that at state."
To take advantage of her quick reaction time, Ostertag swims first, followed by Werner, Laughner and Bonez.
“They’re faster than I am,” Ostertag said. “We go kind of slowest to fastest, I think.”
Also, by taking the final two legs, Laughner and Bonez get extra rest. Bonez is in the 100 breaststroke, the event immediately before the 400 relay, and Laughner swims the 100 backstroke, the event right before the breaststroke.
Bonez and Laughner also will be swimming in a pair of individual events, Werner in one. Bonez won the 50 free in 23.38 and easily cleared the state standard in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:02.42, coming close to the school record she set at the DAC championship with a 1:02.27. Laughner won the 100 backstroke in 55.92 and qualified in the 100 free via the standard with a 51.50 for second place. Werner’s 23.86 for third place in the 50 free qualified her to swim at state.
All three relays will compete at IU Indy.
The 200 free relay team of Lux Mountford, Patricia Ozimek, Emily Hofmann and Henderson won with a time of 1:38.51.