A MEET RECORD, A SHOT ACROSS THE BOW

One Yorktown Tiger took down a meet record, and another Tiger fired a warning shot across the bow of a defending state champion Saturday at the Homestead Invitational in Ft. Wayne.

Junior All-American Larah Beaver had the performance of the day for YHS, leading three athletes under the Invitational record in the 100-yard backstroke. Beaver bested a strong field to claim victory in 57.61. Amy Katz of Indianapolis North Central and Hannah House of Homestead also broke the old record time of 58.42 set by Amber Molina of Indianapolis North Central in 2005. House was disqualified for a false start, but she was right in the race all the way to the wall. Beaver, Katz and House are going to be formidable in the IHSAA tournament in February.

Beaver also put up a 3rd place finish in the 100-yard freestyle, going a season-best 53.63.

Sophomore Jessica Extine had the only other individual Top 10 finishes for the Lady Tigers. Extine was 6th in the 50-yard freestyle (25.44) and 9th in the 100-yard butterfly (1:02.37).

All three of the girls 'A' relay teams posted season-best times on Saturday, too. The 200-yard medley relay team of sophomore Caroline Grasso, sophomore Kersea Gable, Beaver and Extine went 1:56.28 for a 6th place finish. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Grasso, Beaver, Extine and senior Gabby LaVoie teamed up for a 5th place finish in 1:45.05. And in the 400-yard freestyle relay, the combo of Extine, Grasso, junior Brooke Sigler and Beaver hit the wall in 3:50.37 to place 5th. That race included an impressive 52.94 anchor split by Beaver.

The YHS boys made some noise of their own in Allen County on Saturday, especially senior Hunter Hoffman. He went toe-to-toe with defending state 50-yard freestyle champion Tyler Fozkos of Chesterton. Hoffman and the "Rocket from the Region" were in adjacent lanes, and Hoffman shook off a relatively slow start to close on the Fastest Man in Indiana down the stretch. Fozkos managed to outtouch Hoffman to win the event in 21.31, but Hunter was right on his you-know-what inside the flags and finished 2nd in a season-best 21.41! Can't wait for the anticipated rematch for all the marbles at the Nat in February, fellas.

Hoffman added another Top 10 finish to his day, going 1:01.15 for a 3rd place effort in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Senior Adam Voss also posted a pair of Top 10 individual finishes at Homestead, going 1:46.49 in the 200-yard freestyle and 52.42 in the 100-yard butterfly for 4th in both events.

In the relays, the quartet of Voss, Hoffman, senior Michael Heavilon and freshman Scott Heavilon was 5th in the 200-yard medley relay in 1:41.00; the same four boys were 5th in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:31.21); and they combined efforts again in the 400-yard freestyle relay to race to an early lead, only to fade late to settle for 5th in 3:19.85. Put another two months of tough training on them and senior Wes Gustin (who missed Saturday's meet) and head coach Matt Routh and his staff will have some serious weapons at their disposal come tournament time.

The Tigers have another five days off from competition before resuming their season on Friday night (that's not a typo), yes FRIDAY night at Noblesville. The meet is scheduled to begin at 6:30. See you there.

GO TIGERS!