JF Boys, Glass girls win swimming titles

This may be John Templeton’s first year coaching the Jefferson Forest swim team, but he has already joined a rich tradition of victory. Templeton led the boys team to its 41st consecutive Seminole District crown in dominating fashion Thursday night at the Jamerson YMCA, outscoring runnerup E.C. Glass by 56 points, 178-122. The girls almost captured a district title of their own, but were edged out by Glass 170-165.

JF and Glass dueled throughout the meet, in both individual events and relays. Either a JF or Glass swimmer took first place in all but one event — the 500 yard freestyle. Brookville’s Kemp Pettyjohn easily outpaced the field, never posting a split over 30 seconds to finish in 4:48.62, 10 seconds ahead of JF’s Chad Nowakowski.

One of the most exciting individual races of the night featured two of the area’s best swimmers in JF’s Joe Euhus and Glass’ Carter Head. Though Euhus qualified for the race with a time more than two seconds faster than Head, he was out-touched at the wall in a photo finish with Head winning by just five one-hundredths of a second.

“It was really good,” Head said. “I didn’t expect to win.”

Euhus, however, was just happy he could hang with Head, who swims on the Lynchburg club team.

“I’m also kind of satisfied that I could keep up with a club swimmer, because I haven’t been swimming much at all and he’s been working real hard,” Euhus said.

Head also knocked off the Seminole District swimmer of the year, Carter Watson, in the 100 yard breaststroke, posting a time of 1:03.26.

“That’s my best race, so I hoped I would do well,” Head said.

Head wasn’t the only Glass swimmer that managed to get the best of JF. The 200 yard freestyle relay team of Niki Good, Sarah Zajac, Mo Craighill and Maddy Skorcz picked up a key victory late in the meet, toppling the Cavaliers despite a qualifying time nearly 2.5 seconds slower than JF.

“We lost to JF during the season (in the 200 relay), so that was kind of cool to beat them” Head said.

Glass assistant coach Allison Lang said that the Hilltoppers have a penchant for responding to pressure.

“Especially as the competition increases, our swimmers respond really well to that,” Lang said. “They really thrive off of it, so as the competition gets better our times are going to go down.”

Although the Cavaliers girls team fell short in its hunt for a district crown, Susanna White was named girls swimmer of the year and was a part of the 200 yard medley and 400 yard freestyle relay teams that placed first. White also snagged first in the 100 yard breaststroke, breaking her own record in the process.

White is part of a Cavaliers’ foundation that Euhus says has been three years in the making.

“For the past three years we’ve had a really strong core of kids who’ve really carried the team,” Euhus said. “And not only that, but they bring up the other kids who aren’t as equipped and train them up too. I think it’s all about these core kids who in two years time we’ll be without.”

Templeton, who was named Seminole District male coach of the year, was proud of both his teams but still couldn’t quite believe just how close the race was for the girls title.

“We knew it was going to be exceedingly close, so I guess it’s just difficult to fathom once they actually announce the final results,” Templeton said. “You get that concrete score, that number there, and it’s just difficult to deal with at the end, but Glass has a bunch of phenomenal swimmers.

“(We) have nothing to be upset over, great swimmers in both genders. The guys should be really proud of themselves.”