THEORETICAL HHC MEET--BOYS

This weekend's Hoosier Heritage Conference Meet will represent an uphill climb for the Yorktown boys. But it isn't because the Tigers lack for quality; their problem will be depth, especially in a couple of critical events.

Using the same methodology that I did in analyzing how the girls HHC Meet might play out, the Greenfield-Central Cougars are likely to have a strong leg up on the competition. GC doesn't have a single dominant individual, but rather, SEVERAL very good swimmers capable of finishing high and accumulating a LOT of points along the way. And they have enough of that depth that it may not matter how they line up their athletes on Saturday.

After all, YHS head coach Matt Routh has a bona fide stud in senior Adam Voss, who has the best times in the HHC this season in a whopping FIVE events. But Voss can only swim in a maximum of two individual events, so where do you plug him into the lineup? For the sake of my analysis, I put him in the 200 free and the 100 fly to maximize his points relative to GC.

Fellow senior Hunter Hoffman is the conference's best in three other events, but we run into the same problem. For the sake of discussion, I plugged him into the 50 free and 100 breast.

I tried juggling the potential lineups several different ways, and each time, Greenfield-Central leads the pack. Why? They have the potential to score with all three of their entrants in HALF of the events in the meet. And we aren't talking 10th, 11th and 12th.

The Cougars could very well finish 2-3 in the 50 free, 1-3 in diving, 2-3-4 in the 100 fly, and 1-2-4 in the 100 back! They're simply loaded for bear and any other mammal or reptile that comes along.

Yorktown is going to have to win all three relays, win EVERY event in which they enter the top seed, and most importantly, have several of the guys throw down career-best swims to score in the MIDDLE of the pack to have a realistic shot at pulling the upset.

But as I've said a thousand times, seed times and reputations don't win events, RACERS do. If the Tigers show up with their game faces on, and just go out and race, even for 12TH PLACE, they just might stay close enough to shock the world.

See you in New Pal on Saturday, and as always...

GO TIGERS!