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Sister Cities meet back to normal format-wise, but Bloomington combos win

david hughes, the tribune-star, terre haute, ind.
·7 min read

Dec. 5—Last year, the swimming teams from Terre Haute North and South high schools combined to compete against Bloomington North and South high schools — all four members of Conference Indiana — in the annual Sister Cities Invitational.

Except there was one difference in 2020: The meet was done virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Terre Haute teams swam at the Vigo County Aquatic Center and the Bloomington squads splashed through the Bloomington High School South pool. Then about two hours after everyone was done, each side knew the results of the other.

To be honest, it wasn't as much fun that way.

This year, they went back to the normal format. On Saturday, the combined Bloomington teams traveled west on good, ol' Indiana 46 and zig-zagged through Terre Haute to the Vigo County Aquatic Center to swim side-by-side against their Conference Indiana rivals.

The results were in favor of Bloomington — boys 1,242.5-500.5 and girls 1,139-836.

But the meet was not a total loss for the Terre Haute squads.

"We really emphasize community with this meet," Terre Haute South boys coach Cristina Elliott told the Tribune-Star, noting that each athlete she guided Saturday represented Terre Haute and not the "Braves" or "Patriots."

"Bloomington has very good swimmers," Terre Haute South girls coach Emily Marrs admitted. "Terre Haute did well today. We definitely had fewer swimmers than Bloomington. But even though we had less, I think we still represented Terre Haute very well.

"There were time drops for both [Terre Haute North and South] teams. The kids had a lot of fun cheering each other on and getting the opportunity to swim relays with one another. That's obviously not something we get the opportunity to do every meet."

Individual winners from Terre Haute on the girls side were South senior Haley Sakbun in the 50-yard freestyle (24.69 seconds) and South senior Grace Foltz in diving (240.10 points). Sakbun, a multi-time state finalist who has verbally committed to swim for Ball State next year, also finished a close second in the 500 freestyle and 50 butterfly.

Meanwhile, Terre Haute South freshman Connor Lauritzen won the boys 50 breaststroke.

Don't fret about seeing few winners from the Terre Haute schools, however. At this early point in the season, besides sharing camaraderie, the goal is to shave time and peak when the sectional rolls around.

"This year's Sister Cities meet was terrific," stressed Mike Williams, who coaches the Terre Haute North boys and girls squads.

"It is always good to pair up with our friends from South and being able to swim the meet in-person is so much more exciting than having a virtual meet like we did last year. We had some great swims from the North girls and boys today. Coach Haley [Stout] and I are continuing to see improvements from this very young boys team and the leadership from the senior girls is really special. Our divers had a great day too and coach Troy [Cuthbertson] is pleased with their progress."

Sister Cities Invitational

Saturday at Vigo County Aquatic Center

BOYS

Team scores — Bloomington (North and South) 1,242.5, Terre Haute (North and South) 500.5.

200 medley relay — Bloomington (Kovacs, Collins, Paegle, Slaper) 1:40.19, Bloomington 1:47.90, Bloomington 1:57.95, Bloomington 1:58.34, Terre Haute 2:16.48.

200 freestyle — Ben Dixon (B) 1:52.57, Paul Murphy (B) 1:54.14, Blake Hatcher (B) 1:54.29, Bryson Howe (TH) 1:57.40, Kian Kadlec (B) 1:59.01.

100 IM — David Kovacs (B) 55.75, Leo Nelson (B) 1:01.38, Gabriel Arthur (B) 1:01.47, Liam Hickock (B) 1:06.14, Leon Wang (B) 1:07.54.

50 freestyle — Lukas Paegle (B) 22.71, Dixon (B) 22.90, Quincy Slaper (B) 23.01, Luis Brown (B) 24.68, Connor Lauritzen (TH) 24.78.

100 butterfly — Paegle (B) 51.89, Adam Kovacs (B) 57.80, Murphy (B) 59.67, Brown (B) 1:00.66, Hickock (B) 1:02.87.

50 backstroke — Chet Paulsen (B) 27.57, Arthur (B) 27.89, Kadlec (B) 28.87, Jonas Ostlund (B) 30.65, Kasen Woodard (TH) 30.87.

50 breaststroke — Connor Lauritzen (TH) 29.61, A.Kovacs (B) 29.63, Ryan Collins (B) 29.94, Nelson (B) 30.12, Hunter Tang (B) 30.48.

100 freestyle — Dixon (B) 50.14, Slaper (B) 50.97, A.Kovacs (B) 54.61, Howe (TH) 54.94, Kadlec (B) 55.14.

500 freestyle — Ty Mayer (B) 5:15.08, Murphy (B) 5:21.63, Arthur (B) 5:26.77, Hatcher (B) 5:30.48, Paul Bawinkel (TH) 5:33.73.

200 freestyle relay — Bloomington (Paegle, Dixon, A.Kovacs, Slaper) 1:31.70, Bloomington 1:38.43, Bloomington 1:41.55, Bloomington 1:47.14, Bloomington 1:56.45.

100 backstroke — D.Kovacs (B) 54.07, Paulsen (B) 1:01.23, Woodard (TH) 1:06.05, Howe (TH) 1:06.29, Ostlund (B) 1:08.09.

50 butterfly — Paegle (B) 23.69, Brown (B) 26.52, Aidan Cox (TH) 28.01, Wang (B) 28.62, Teagan Hojem (B) 28.82.

100 breaststroke — D.Kovacs (B) and Lauritzen (TH) 1:04.22 (tie), Tang (B) 1:05.62, Nelson (B) 1:07.40, Collins (B) 1:08.11.

400 freestyle relay — Bloomington 3:23.31, Bloomington 3:38.14, Bloomington 3:50.86, Terre Haute 4:31.49.

Diving — Max Miller (B) 223.10, Isaac Hults (TH) 202.30, Michael Tierney (B) 182.85, Hojem (B) 152.25, Andrew Baker (TH) 117.20.

GIRLS

Team scores — Bloomington (North and South) 1,139, Terre Haute (North and South) 836.

200 medley relay — Bloomington (Asplund, Mitchell, Freel, Smith) 1:53.87, Bloomington 1:56.58, Terre Haute 1:57.47, Bloomington 2:07.82, Terre Haute 2:20.81.

200 freestyle — Kristina Paegle (B) 1:52.08, Hope Westphal (B) 1:58.01, Lyric Irish (TH) 2:05.00, Madison Myers (TH) 2:10.10, Delani Fisher (B) 2:12.58.

100 IM — Lucy Mitchell (B) 1:03.72, Demme Hancewicz (TH) 1:05.04, Anna Asplund (B) 1:06.08, Annie Murer (B) 1:06.26, Bella Buehler (B) 1:08.22.

50 freestyle — Haley Sakbun (TH) 24.69, Karen Tabbal (B) 25.29, Scout Stumpner (B) 26.87, Charissa Chow (TH) 27.00, Nora Nelson Laird (B) 28.08.

100 butterfly — Ashley Freel (B) 57.13, Irish (TH) 1:03.70, Annie Demchak (TH) 1:04.00, Alex Eakin (B) 1:04.49, Annalise Coyne (B) 1:06.54.

50 backstroke — Asplund (B) 29.34, Hancewicz (TH) 30.23, Chow (TH) 30.31, Fisher (B) 31.52, Addie Covey (B) 33.06.

50 breaststroke — Mitchell (B) 30.93, Buehler (B) 32.56, Westphal (B) 34.12, Izzy Stultz (B) 36.39, Stumpner (B) 36.43.

100 freestyle — Paegle (B) 50.67, Freel (B) 52.14, Hancewicz (TH) 56.73, Tabbal (B) 57.12, Irish (TH) 57.69.

500 freestyle — Eakin (B) 5:17.16, Sakbun (TH) 5:17.19, Westphal (B) 5:19.31, Myers (TH) 5:43.40, Tait (B) 6:03.20.

200 freestyle relay — Bloomington (Paegle, Tabbal, Eakin, Murer) 1:42.72, Bloomington 1:49.29, Terre Haute 1:49.33, Terre Haute 1:54.98, Terre Haute 2:06.14.

100 backstroke — Stumpner (B) 1:03.84, Demchak (TH) 1:05.11, Murphy Moore (TH) 1:06.08, Nevaeh Lauritzen (TH) 1:08.25, Chow (TH) 1:10.83.

50 butterfly — Freel (B) 26.14, Sakbun (TH) 26.96, Paegle (B) 27.25, Coyne (B) 28.70, Murer (B) 29.76.

100 breaststroke — Mitchell (B) 1:08.76, Buehler (B) 1:13.26, Cetulio Gutierrez (TH) 1:15.74, Asplund (B) 1:19.63, Stultz (B) 1:20.10.

400 freestyle relay — Bloomington (Freel, Asplund, Westphal, Paegle) 3:37.48, Terre Haute 3:53.57, Bloomington 4:14.12, Terre Haute 4:15.84, Bloomington 4:19.58.

Diving — Grace Foltz (TH) 240.10, Ava Thompson (TH) 234.15, Kayln Alivio (TH) 206.50, Haley Overton (TH) 189.15, Claire Lutz (B) 175.00.

Next — Terre Haute North will be its own team again next Saturday when it competes in the Mooresville Invitational. Terre Haute South will have a home meet Wednesday against Vincennes Lincoln inside the Vigo County Aquatic Center.