WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, WE WILL ROCK YOU!

A wise man once wrote, "They came, they saw, they conquered!" And that's exactly what the ladies of the Yorktown swimming and diving team did Saturday, as they won their school's first girls Hoosier Heritage Conference championship since 2008.

The Tigers fought off a strong challenge from host New Palestine to bring the hardware back home to Tiger Drive where it belongs, defeating the Dragons 274-246. The performance also earned YHS rookie head coach Matt Routh the HHC Coach of the Year award in the girls meet, a richly deserved honor.

YHS was led by its Dynamic Duo of junior Larah Beaver and sophomore Jessica Extine, who were both four-time winners on the day. Beaver broke her own HHC record in the 100-yard backstroke (58.04) and coasted to an easy victory in the 100-yard freestyle by nearly six seconds (54.02). Extine traded strokes and kicks with Auburn recruit Autumn Brown of Pendleton Heights over every inch of the 50-yard freestyle, winning in 24.99. Extine also claimed the blue ribbon in the 100-yard butterfly (1:02.40).

Sophomores Caroline Grasso and Kersea Gable teamed up with Beaver and Extine to win the 200-yard medley relay in a season-best time of 1:54.34. In the final event of the meet, Beaver, Extine, sophomore Ashley Sexton and junior Brooke Sigler brought home the bacon in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:51.41).

Several other Tigers scored critical points--Sigler's 2nd in the 500-yard freestyle (5:46.99), Grasso's 2nd in the 100 back (1:02.64), and juniors Kirsten Nickoli (6:01.36) and Chappell Railey (6:01.71) going 4-7 in the 500 free were huge for the girls. YHS scored 29 points in the back, and 31 points in the 500, the virtual equivalent of winning two more relays!

The Tiger boys also gave a valiant effort before falling short of victory, settling for a runner-up finish to the extremely deep Greenfield-Central Cougars (303-248.5). The YHS boys were SPECTACULAR on Saturday--the Tigers won EIGHT of the dozen events in the meet, broke the only two meet records to fall on their side of the ledger, and beat the Cougars head-to-head in a majority of the events.

The best analogy I can think of is that Yorktown had the better gun, but Greenfield-Central had more bullets. The Cougars won only ONE event in the meet (200-yard freestyle relay), but rode superior depth to the team title.

The "Old Men" Tigers put on a fantastic show for the packed house. Voss, Michael Heavilon and Hunter Hoffman made their final go-round as seniors a day many fans will remember for a long time. All three were quadruple winners--Voss broke the HHC Meet records in both the 200-yard freestyle (1:45.32) and the 100-yard backstroke (53.44), the latter holding off former record holder Jacob Childress of Pendleton Heights to win by a tenth of a second. In fact, both Voss and Childress were more than a second faster than the former record (54.61) set in 2010!

Heavilon was also brilliant, cutting more than five seconds off his seed time in his gold medal performance in the 200-yard IM (2:03.58), and dropping jaws again in the 100-yard butterfly. All he did in that swim was go more than four seconds faster than his seed time, touching the wall in 54.17.

Hoffman continued to scorch the water in the 50-yard freestyle, besting the field in 21.54--a time that may have disappointed him, but a very good effort when the nearest sprinter was nearly 1.5 seconds behind. When Hunter gets pushed in the state tournament, WATCH OUT! Hoffman also stood atop the winner's podium in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:01.42.

Senior Wes Gustin and freshman Scott Heavilon also got their first HHC titles on Saturday; Gustin joined Voss, Hoffman and Michael Heavilon to win the 200-yard medley relay (1:40.45), and Scott was part of the top dog 400-yard freestyle relay with his big brother, Hoffman and Voss.

There were also several more notable performances by the YHS guys--sophomore Thommy Brown dropped more than six seconds in the 200 IM (2:22.18), freshman Kyle Rees cut more than two seconds off his seed time in the 50 free (26.31), and in the 500 free, senior Joe Eskew dropped more than 10 seconds (5:35.11), only to be outdone by freshman James Kemp. All Kemp did was swim a stunning 26 SECONDS faster than his seed time to finish in 6:01.54!

Nice job, kids. Way to go!

Results to follow shortly.

GO TIGERS!