GIRLS SECTIONAL & STATE RECAP

The Yorktown High School girls have concluded their 2009-10 season by giving fans a glimpse of what could be a bright future.

Head coach Brad Grieshop's girls swam to a 3rd place finish at the tough Fishers Sectional February 4th and 6th, trailing only traditional powers Hamilton Southeastern and Fishers. The Tigers held off challenges from both Oak Hill and Pendleton Heights down the stretch to hold onto 3rd. Here's a look at the final team standings:

1. Hamilton Southeastern 416, 2. Fishers 358, 3. Yorktown 141, 4. Oak Hill 123, 5. Pendleton Heights 109, 6. Anderson Highland 82, 7. Marion 61, 8. Anderson 45.

For the second straight year, youth led the way for YHS. Sophomore Larah Beaver grabbed Yorktown's lone individual sectional championship, roaring from behind to beat Hamilton Southeastern senior Aubrey Hertzler with a 56.68 in the 100-yard backstroke. That broke Hertzler's sectional record, Beaver's own YHS record, and made Beaver an automatic NISCA All-American again in the event.

Beaver punched her ticket for the State Meet a second time in the 100-yard freestyle, swimming a state cut time of 52.90 to finish in 3rd place.

Jessica Extine followed suit, claiming her spot in the State Meet with her swim in the 50-yard freestyle. Extine's 24.49 was good for 6th place, but she was in one of the toughest 'A' final fields in all of Indiana. All six girls in that heat bettered the state cut; in fact, the winner of the 'B' final, Samantha Montgomery of Fishers, also swam a state cut time, winning her heat in 24.39! Don't let anyone tell you our sectional isn't one of the fastest in Indiana--it's more like a mini-State Meet a week before the real thing.

The glimpse of the future came in two of Yorktown's relay performances. The 200-yard medley relay team of Beaver and freshmen Kersea Gable, Jessica Extine and Caroline Grasso swam to a top seeding in the prelims, and dialed it up again in the final. The Yorktown quartet swam a 1:51.26 in the 'A' final to finish 3rd and automatically advance to the State Meet.

Junior Gabby LaVoie joined Beaver, Extine and Grasso in a 3rd place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The time was just off the state cut, but good enough to earn Yorktown a "call down" to the State Meet.

The Tigers scored six points for 36th place in the final team standings at the IHSAA State Meet February 12th-13th. Beaver accounted for the scoring, shaking off a disappointing prelim swim on Friday night to finish 11th in the 100-yard backstroke (57.73).

Beaver added a 30th place finish in the 100-yard freestyle in 54.54. Extine's 25.62 was good for 39th in the 50-yard freestyle (there were 41 competitors in that event this year!). And two Yorktown relays put themselves in the scorebook--the 200-yard medley relay team of Beaver, Gable, Extine and Grasso went 1:54.43 (more than three second slower than their sectional effort) to finish 25th. The team of senior Heather Elston and Grasso, LaVoie and Extine finished in 31st place in the 200-yard freestyle relay, posting a time of 1:46.92.

All in all, this was a season of mixed results for Yorktown. The Tigers were hurt badly by a lack of scoring depth in many of their meets, but stayed the course to accomplish some impressive things at conference and in the IHSAA tournament. If this team's girls hold together in the off-season, and convince more girls to come out for the team next fall, the 2010-11 season should be one to remember.

GO TIGERS!