Chesterton swimmers Bonez, Laughner, Ostertag and Werner master training for relays with a smileheading into state meet

Tom Keegan
onwardtrojans.com

Even for the most talented athlete in the room, breaking into an established group can come with its uncomfortable moments.
Not the case for her, though, Chesterton freshman Brenley Bonez said.
The older swimmers had known about Bonez for years and were happy to have her join them in competition. But how would the personalities mesh?
In a word, perfect, to hear Bonez tell it.
“They’re always so fun and kind,” the freshman phenom said. “I trained with them in the summer and it was a much more fun experience than club.”
Bonez matches her new teammates in commitment level and with a lively personality, a key part of a group of girls who know how to have fun at practice when their faces aren’t in the water. They prove that training rigorously and still enjoying it is an attainable juggling act.
“We’re always dancing at practice,” junior Tegan Werner said.
Added Peyton Ostertag: “And we’re always stealing each other’s noses at practice.”
An elite swimmer who competes at national events, Bonez logged the third-best sectional time in the state in both the 100-yard breaststroke and the 50 freestyle.
The two relays that Bonez swims with the same three teammates also had the third-best sectional times in the state.
So, a Saturday that includes four trips to the medal stand, and on a higher step than most, is a strong possibility for Bonez.
For the 200 medley relay, the first event of the meet, sophomore Adalyn Laughner swims the backstroke, Bonez the breaststroke, junior Tegan Werner the butterfly and junior Peyton Ostertag the freestyle leg.
In finishing second to Valparaiso by eight one-hundredths of a second, the girls last Saturday broke their own Chesterton 200 medley relay record, which they had established at the DAC Championship.
The foursome also set a sectional record in winning the 400 free relay and is within less than a second of breaking the school record.
Bonez joined a group of steadily improving swimmers on a pair of relays. Whereas a combined three spots had to be replaced on the two relays, all four girls are back next season.
Laughner, listed fourth on the psych sheet in the 100 backstroke and ninth in the 100 freestyle, has a legitimate chance to make three trips to the podium.
Laughner and Ostertag swam for the 200 medley relay team that placed seventh at state last year, when the Trojans finished 14th in the team standings with 45 points. Seniors Annmarie Easter and Anna Wheele had to be replaced. Bonez moved into Easter’s spot, Werner into Wheele’s. Laughner, whose backstroke takes place two events in front of the 400 free, shifted from anchor leg to third. Bonez, the lone freshman among the nine Chesterton athletes competing this weekend at IU Indy’s swanky natatorium, handles the anchor leg in an event that comes directly after her breaststroke race.
Bonez set the Chesterton pool record in the 100 breaststroke before the high school season began and has the school record of 1:02.27 from the DAC Championship. She challenged but did not break that at the sectional, where she swam a 1:02.42 and placed second to Valparaiso’s Madeline Moreth, whose 1:00.68 was the best sectional time in the state.
Bonez gave up basketball, one of her passions, to focus on swimming and never has looked back, seemingly enjoying every day.
Part of the fun in swimming is chasing records and the four swimmers who used to think they would take down the 400 free relay school record first but twice have rewritten the 200 medley mark this season, still have the 400 to take. Why not this weekend?
“I think we’ll get the record at state. We’re so close to it, and I think some of our exchanges were a little too safe, so we’ll be good,” Ostertag predicted.