bonez, laughner each win four girls state swim meet medals, Trojans finish eighth

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

An elite, national-caliber swimmer, Chesterton freshman Brenley Bonez has competed against the nation’s best in her age group, but for pure enjoyment, she said she never had a day like Saturday in Indianapolis at the state high school finals.
To hear her tell it, not even close.
Bonez took home four medals. Twice, when sharing a step with three friends, she was on the same medal podium at the same time as an Olympic gold medalist, Carmel’s Alexandra Shackell. And get this: Bonez high-fived her.
Plus, Bonez is a member of a team that finished eighth in the state meet, held Friday and Saturday at IU Indianapolis.
“This was so much more fun,” Bonez said. “It was amazing to be a part of this team. This team makes it so much more fun. It’s not the same as anything else. We’re all together having fun conversations.”
Bonez placed fourth in the 50-yard freestyle (23.50) and 100 breaststroke (1:02.42), took home another fourth-place medal in the 400 free relay and fifth-place hardware in the 200 medley relay.
Making the day even more memorable for Bonez, she wasn’t the only one on the ride back to Chesterton packing the maximum number of medals a swimmer can win at state.
Sophomore Adalyn Laughner won four medals of her own. They shared two of the medals with their friends and relay partners, juniors Peyton Ostertag and Tegan Werner, and Laughner added eighth-place medals in the 100 free and 100 backstroke.
“It’s so much fun,” Bonez repeated. “Even in the individual events you have the team with you. They’re cheering you on, and then the relays, you have your team right next to you, and it’s just amazing.”
Bonez is on a pace to win 16 state medals. Swimmers are limited to four overall events and two individual events. They can swim in all three relays if they don’t swim more than one individual event.
Bonez has three more years to add to her trophy case and make it all the way to the top step in an individual event.
“I’d be shocked if she doesn’t do it before she graduates,” Ostertag said.
That’d be fine with Bonez.
“I’m really hoping I can be state champ,” she said. “That’d be awesome.”
She doesn’t care which event and said she doesn’t consider herself better in one than the other.
“The 100 breaststroke and the 50 free, I’m right there in both,” she said.
Second-year Chesterton coach Jenni Kellstrom said it’s no accident that Bonez and Laughner were the ones bringing home the most bling.
“They did a phenomenal job, but you know those two always do,” Kelllstrom said. “They show up. They get the job done every day. They’re the two with the least amount of excuses. They don’t miss practices. They don’t miss yards. Great kids, and it shows here at a meet like this. They show up at the state meet, a freshman and a sophomore, and they’re each going home with four pieces of hardware.”
Another nice aspect of competing in a high school meet for Bonez was that she didn’t have to act like she wasn’t star-struck at the site of an Olympian. She was and she didn’t care who knew it. Shackell won Olympic gold and silver medals swimming for Team USA in Paris and on this day she was a peer.
Six months later, Shackell won four first-place medals for perennial state -champion Carmel, winning the 100 butterfly and the three relays.
“Yeah, gold medalist, no big deal really,” Ostertag said with a smile.
Added Laughner: “We were all watching her and trying to say hi and giving her high-fives and wanting to take pictures with her. It’s so cool that she’s here.”
Werner echoed the sentiment: “That was really cool. That was crazy. We asked to take a picture with her but she no. She said, ‘Oh, I have to go swim.’ Brenley high-fived her and was really excited about that.”
Carmel, of course, won the team title, scoring 448 points. Fort Wayne Carroll placed second with 212.50 points. The rest of the top 10: 4. Hamilton Southeastern (142), 5. Franklin Community 136, 6. Zionsville 129, 7. Penn 126.50, 8. Chesterton 112, 9. Wawasee 110, 10. Valparaiso 102.
Werner, who earned a Saturday swim in the 50 free with her performance in Friday night’s preliminaries, earned a couple of points finishing 15th.
“This is my first time getting a second swim individually and just being here with all my teammates, this is what we work for all season, and it paid off,” Werner said. “I think I was able to enjoy this more than sectionals because I was just so happy to be here.”
Senior Bayley Fowler also earned a point for the Trojans by making it to the finals.
Miata Henderson swam a lifetime best 5:04.95 in the 500 prelims and earned two points, finishing 15th with a 5:06.37 in the final.