CMA earns 2 state berths at swim sectional

February 21, 2011

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WARSAW — With no one challenging David DeVries at sectional, Culver Military Academy head coach Tom Duckett issued a special challenge to his star swimmer at the Warsaw Boys Swim Sectional Saturday: Lap the field.
The trick worked, giving DeVries a little extra impetus in the 500-yard freestyle as he followed up a school record-breaking 1:45.93 for a 200 free sectional title with a CMA record-breaking and sectional championship 4:46.54 in the 500.
“The 500 free, he struggled with swimming that. Mainly his stroke cadence, and so we did some film reviews the night before finals,” said Duckett. “the real trick came in — and your going to laugh about this — I told him ‘David, you’re not going to have much of a race so you’re point to have to make a race. What I want you to do is go out and lap the entire field,’ and he worked on that and proceeded to do that.”
The host Tigers easily won the team meet, winning nine of the 12 events for 401 points Saturday, while CMA won the remaining three en route to second place, and Plymouth finished out its season in sixth.
In addition to DeVries’ dual championships, junior Zach Grant provided a nice surprise for the Eagles with another championship swim in the 100-yard backstroke, clocking a 57.48 in the event on his way to a first state berth.
“Zach Grant was a complete surprise; the best he’d turned in in the dual meet season was a 1:03 in the 100 back,” Duckett said. “I moved him in there from freestyle — he was going to be my 50 and 100 freestyler — and he was just showing something in practice that said he might be able to do the backstroke... I wasn’t too sure if he could hold off the field because most of the boys were older than him and much bigger than he was, but he was able to hold them off.”
Plymouth’s lone senior Poaolo Palmitessa entered the preliminary round at Warsaw seeded first in both the backstroke and the 200-yard individual medley. He placed fifth in the back and missed a first state berth by roughly two and a half seconds in the IM to close out his career with the Pilgrims.
• WARSAW BOYS SWIM SECTIONAL
At Warsaw
Team results: WARSAW 401, CULVER ACADEMIES 259, COLUMBIA CITY 157, LOGANSPORT 144, ROCHESTER 119, PLYMOUTH 108, PIONEER 65, HUNTINGTON NORTH 53, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 37, WABASH 33
200 medley relay: 1. Warsaw (Caleb Snyder, Gavin McGrath, Thomas Wack, Harrison Green) 1:43.23, 2. Culver Academies (David Devries, Leopoldo Burguete, Javier Bravo, Zachary Grant) 1:45.19, 3. Col. City 1:47.43, 4. Rochester 1:51.17, 5. Logansport 1:51.45, 6. Plymouth 1:53.48; 200 freestyle: 1. Devries 1:45.93, 2. Craig Wesley (WAR) 1:51.83, 3. Jorge De la Vega (CA) 1:52.53, 4. Dominick Cesaretti (WAR) 1:57.7, 5. Pablo Padilla Liaguno (CA) 1:59.73, 6. Michael Meadows (WAR) 2:00.31; 200 individual medley: 1. Tyler Arscott (WAR) 2:05.27, 2. Poaolo Palmitessa (P) 2:07.75, 3. Caleb Snyder (WAR) 2:15, 4. Kevin Hershberger (CC)2:15.38, 5. Bravo 2:15.41, 6. Schuyler Hand (L) 2:19.77; 50 freestyle: 1. Mitchell Gauger (WAR) 21.58, 2. Cole Smith (CC) 22.47, 3. Green 23.19, 4. Patrick Easter (WAR) 22.95, 5. Bryan Devries (CA) 23.66, 6. AJ Hudkins (R) 23.91; Diving: 1. Michael Boyle (WAR) 517.65, 2. Kellen Lemler (WAR) 327.65, 3. Luke Doughty (H) 319.8, 4. Austin Highlen (WAR) 303.95; 100 butterfly: 1. Wack 56.49, 2. Craig 57.88, 3. Burguete 58.43, 4. Patrick Kays (R) 59.51, 5. Hudkins 1:00.12, 6. Webb 1:01.68; 100 freestyle: 1. Gauger 47.26, 2. Easter 50.09, 3. Smith 50.25, 4. Grant 50.93, 5. De la Vega 51.47, 6. Cesaretti 53.61; 500 freestyle: 1. D. Devries 4:46.54, 2. Nate Stone (WAR) 5:17.86, 3. Kays 5:21.28, 4. Meadows 5:24.07, 5. Logan James (L) 5:24.82, 6. Andrew Thrasher (WAR) 5:25.62; 200 freestyle relay: 1. Warsaw (Gauger, Craig, Easter, Green) 1:28.69, 2. Col. City (Garrett Vandersaul, Kyle Mertz, Hershberger, Smith) 1:34.87, 3. Culver Academies (Jose Herrera, B. Devries, Bravo, De la Vega) 1:35.13, 4. Logansport 1:39.52, 5. Rochester 1:39.73, 6. Plymouth 1:40.65; 100 backstroke: 1. Grant 57.48, 2. Max Carter (WAR) 59.02, 3. Dustin Clements (L) 58.97, 4. Snyder 59.28, 5. Palmitessa 59.36, 6. Phillip Zook (H) 1:00.84; 100 breaststroke: 1. Arscott 1:04.73; 2. Hershberger 1:05.29, 3. McGrath 1:06.29, 4. Burguete 1:06.99, 5. Joe Loposser (L) 1:09.13, 6. Hand 1:09.63; 400 freestyle relay: 1. Warsaw (Easter, Wack, Craig, Gauger) 3:18.27, 2. Culver Academies (De la Vega, Grant, Burguete, D. Devries) 3:20.23, 3. Col. City (Vandersaul, Justin Moss, Tucker Daniel, Mertz) 3:37.25, 4. Logansport 3:38.78, 5. Plymouth 3:41.28, 6. Pioneer 3:46.13.