The Press-Dispatch
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E-6 Winter Sports Preview Wednesday, November 22, 2017 The Press-Dispatch Pictured above is the 2017-18 Pike Central High School boys' swimming and diving team. They are, first row, left to right: Samuel Theising, Garrett Boyd, A.J. Hill, Colton Carpenter, Coleman Henson, Brayden Cooper, Jersey Mills and Ijaa Chambers. Second row: Manager Meredith Benson, Jacob Dudenhoeffer, Gavin Diggs, Lukas Hill, Jackson Keepes and Jacob Bohnert. Not pictured: Ty Cassitty, Adam Wilkison and Manager Jayden Ashby. John Heuring photo Chargers shooting for seventh consecutive PAC title This group of seniors has not lost a PAC, from middle school on. You want to use that as motivation, that you don't want to be the team that gives it up." – Assistant Coach Mike Bohnert " See BOYS on page 10 Specializing in: Real Estate, Personal Property Estates, and Farm & Equipment Auctions. 812-598-3936 Call today to schedule your auction 114 E. SR. 68, Lynnville Auction pickups available Lic. #AU10800006 GOOD LUCK Chargers Good Luck Chargers 104 E. Main St. Petersburg, IN 47567 • 812-354-8531 By Ed Cahill The Pike Central High School boys' swimming team has literally rewritten the program's record book over the last three years, breaking – and, in many cases, re-breaking – the school records in 11 differ- ent events. The only school record that has not been broken during that span is the div- ing mark set by Chris Bur- ton, who posted a six-dive score of 258.85 points in 1983. Last season's team set school records in eight events – the 200 -yard med- ley relay, the 200 -yard free- style, the 200 -yard individu- al medley, the 50 -yard free- style, the 100 -yard freestyle, the 500 -yard freestyle, the 100 -yard backstroke and the 400 -yard freestyle re- lay – and six Pocket Athlet- ic Conference records in six events – the 200 -yard med- ley relay, the 200 -yard indi- vidual medley, the 50 -yard freestyle, the 100 -yard free- style and the 500 -yard free- style and the 400 -yard free- style relay – while winning its sixth consecutive PAC ti- tle and placing second in the sectional meet for the sec- ond straight year. Despite losing three se- niors to graduation – Reid Craig, Evan Marchino and Chaney McKinney – the Chargers aren't planning to let the ink dry on the re- cord board which is posted on a poolside wall. "That's what we're shoot- ing for," Pike Central head coach Mike Bohnert said. "There are several up there that will probably get bumped again this year would be my guess. But we'll see where it leads to. I think they'll come out, I think they'll be ready when the time comes. They seem to always be. The workouts are going to be the same as they always have, so, hope- fully, we'll continue and we'll get better as we go along." McKinney leaves the biggest shoes to fill for the Chargers, having posted school records in three individual events – the 50 -yard freestyle, the 100 -yard butterfly and the 100 -yard freestyle – while teaming up with Marchi- no, Jacob Bohnert and Lu- kas Hill to set new marks in the 200 -medley relay and the 400 -yard freestyle relay and with Jacob Bohnert, Hill and Aaron Keepes in the 200 -yard freestyle in 2015. McKinney advanced to the state meet each of the last three years in the 50 -yard freestyle and each of the last two years in the 100 -yard freestyle. He also teamed up to com- pete at the state meet with Jacob Bohnert, Hill and Aar- on Keepes in the 200 -yard freestyle relay in 2015; with Jacob Bohnert, Hill and Marchino in the 200 -yard medley relay in 2016; and in the 200 -yard medley relay with Jacob Bohnert, Marchi- no and Jackson Keepes and in the 400 -yard freestyle relay with Jacob Bohnert, Marchino and Jersey Mills in 2017. "We lost two off our fast- est relays," Mike Bohnert noted. "We probably have some ways around it to bal- ance it out and probably be close, maybe even be just as fast, if everybody responds well." This season's team fea- tures six returning seniors – Jacob Bohnert, Hill, Jackson Keepes, Ty Cassitty, Gavin Diggs and Jacob Duden- hoeffer – who are not only seeking the program's sev- enth straight PAC title, but their seventh straight PAC title as a class as well. "This group of seniors has not lost a PAC, from middle school on," Mike Bohnert said. "You want to use that as motivation, that you don't want to be the team that gives it up." Hill, who holds school records in four individual events – the 200 -yard free- style, the 200 -yard individ- ual medley, the 500 -yard freestyle and the 100 -yard breaststroke – placed first in the sectional meet in both the 200 -yard individual medley and in the 100 -yard breaststroke last season. As a sophomore, Hill also advanced to the state meet in both the 200 -yard individ- ual medley and the 100 -yard breaststroke. "He's a kid that could probably have every record on that board if he really wanted to go after them," Mike Bohnert said. "He's just an amazing swimmer. He's just a physical freak when it comes time to swim." Mike Bohnert described Hill's breaststroke as "cra- zy fast." "He'll be competing again for probably the individual medley and the breaststroke for a sectional again," Mike Bohnert said. "He'll be one of our big ones in the two re- lays that we put him in. He'll be a solid swimmer in both of them." Last season, Hill was a member of the relay teams that placed first in the sec- tional in the 200 -yard med- ley relay and the 400 -yard freestyle relay. However, after missing three days of school due to an illness, Hill was replaced on the 200 -yard medley relay team by Jackson Keepes and by Jersey Mills on the 400 -yard freestyle relay to allow him to focus on his individual events at the state meet. "Last year, he had some back luck getting out of sec- tional," Mike Bohnert said. "He was sicker than a dog, but still won both of those events and pulled out two relays." "We didn't want to take him down too far, because you could tell he was real- ly having a struggle at that point," he added. Jacob Bohnert – Mike Bohnert's son – holds the school record in the 100 -yard backstroke, an event in which he advanced to the state meet as a soph- omore. "Even with Lukas in there, Jake's usually our push," Mike Bohnert said. "He just pushes practice every day, tells everybody, 'Okay, we're ready to go. Let's go.' We can swim him in a multitude of events, too. He's got a really good butterfly. His backstroke's down there. He's also a pret- ty good 200 freestyler and we could swim him in the 500." With Marchino and McK- inney having graduated, Mike Bohnert said that one of the team's challenges this season will be finding two swimmers to pair with Jacob Bohnert and Hill in the re- lay events. "With him and Lukas in the relays, we're going to come off of them and see where we can fill the two spots with that," Mike Bohnert said. "We have dif- ferent ways we can go about filling it, because we have another breaststroker and we have a flyer, or we could put somebody in at back- stroke and move Jake to fly. We've got several options of what we can do and, prob- ably, through the year, we will test all of them to see what we can do." Last season, Duden- hoeffer placed third in the 500 -yard freestyle and fourth in the 200 -yard in- dividual medley at the PAC meet and was sixth in the 500 -yard freestyle during the sectional meet. "We started swimming him in the individual med- ley last year and started having really good results with him," Mike Bohnert said. "We ended up with three really strong IMers for PAC and sectional. You can put him in a lot of events and he'll give you a solid run at it." Jackson Keepes, mean- while, placed first in the 100 -yard breaststroke and sixth in the 200 -yard indi- vidual medley during the PAC meet. "Last year, at PAC, we moved Lukas out of the breaststroke back to the 500, and left Jackson in the breaststroke, and ended up winning both of those events," Mike Bohnert said. "Jackson's a really sol- id breaststroker and always will swim really hard for you." Diggs, meanwhile, placed third in the 100 -yard breast- stroke and eighth in the 100 -yard butterfly during last season's PAC meet. "We've swam him in different things," Mike Bohnert said. "We swam him in the individual med- ley. We've swam him in the 200 free. He's a good breast- stroker. We can swim him in distance events. He's also a really good butterflyer, too. So we can roll him into a lot of different things." Cassitty, who set the mid- dle school diving record and helped – along with Mills, who was a sixth-grader at the time – set the mid- dle school record in the 200 -yard medley relay as an eighth grader, returns after placing fifth in the event at the sectional meet, as well as eighth in the 100 -yard freestyle. "He always does well in diving for us," Mike Bohnert said. "Last year, he did real- ly well in sprints for us. This year, he's one that can fill a spot in the 100 freestyle or the 50 free or those relays. We've just got to see where we're at with it. He did re- ally well in everything and scored a lot of points for us that we were hoping to get out of him and knew he could do, and it worked out really well." "We've got to have him dive, because he's a pretty good diver," Mike Bohnert added. "But he's got to split his time between both – we can't allow him just to dive, and we can't allow him just to swim. We're a smaller school, so we've got to have that kid that can do both." Joining the boys' swim- ming team for the first time is Colton Carpenter, who is the Chargers' only junior this season. "He has a really good breaststroke, and is work- ing really hard right now," Mike Bohnert said of Car- penter, whose sister, Selena, was a senior on last season's girls' swimming team. "He keeps improving, getting 2017-'18 SWIMMING BOYS'