HELLO STATE, HELLO RECORD BOARD!

Take a good taper, add some talent and attitude, and you have the recipe for a terrific performance. And that's just what the Yorktown Tigers cooked up over the weekend at the highly competitive Hamilton Southeastern Sectional.

The Lady Tigers won three events and posted runner-up finishes in three others to finish 3rd in the team standings with 203 points. Fishers scored 406 points to capture the first Sectional title in school history, with HSE runner-up with 306.

Junior Larah Beaver was a double-winner for YHS, taking the top prize in the 100-yard freestyle (52.46), and leading a 1-2 Yorktown blitz with sophomore Caroline Grasso in the 100-yard backstroke (57.09 and 59.46, respectively). That's the first Sectional 1-2 finish for Yorktown's girls since a couple of pretty decent swimmers named Maggie Bird and Jill Lockhart pulled it off in 2006. Nice work, ladies!

Sophomore Jessica Extine also added her name to an impressive list, picking up the first of what will likely be several Sectional championships in her career. Jess led from start to finish in the 50-yard freestyle, bringing home the bacon in a lifetime best 24.21! It was the third time Jess has faced and defeated Auburn recruit Autumn Brown of Pendleton Heights head-to-head in the 50 this season. Both Extine and Brown advanced to State (Brown failed to swim the state cut, but got a calldown Sunday), so these two rivals could mix it up again at the Nat next weekend if they both make it through to Saturday.

Extine also punched her ticket to State in the 100-yard butterfly. Jess was runner-up in 59.58, just off the state cut but plenty good for a calldown in that event.

Yorktown's sprint relays also put in some incredible efforts at the Sectional. The 200-yard medley relay quartet of sophomores Caroline Grasso and Kersea Gable, Beaver and Extine gave winner Fishers all they could handle before settling for 2nd in a time of 1:49.91. That ties the YHS record in the event, and it may have been faster--a touch pad malfunction left the time off the scoreboard, and the hand-timed results were averaged to achieve the final time. Only 13 teams around Indiana were faster in that event last night, so bigger things are possible at State.

The 200-yard freestyle relay also gave it all they had, finishing 2nd in 1:39.82. That's a state cut time, and a drop of more than FIVE seconds from their prelim seed time. The team of Extine, Grasso, senior Gabby LaVoie and Beaver was closing like a heat-seeking missile on Fishers at the finish. Beaver swam a blazing 23.51 anchor split, and might have made up all the ground if the event was the 205 free relay. ;)

Several other Tigers scored points in the Sectional cause--senior Rachel Reising, juniors Kirsten Nickoli, Erin Moreno, Chappell Railey, Brooke Sigler and Chelsea Watters, along with sophomore Ashley Sexton put valuable points on the board for Yorktown. And next year looks very bright--YHS will return all but 10.5 of its Sectional points for the 2011-12 season. Throw in some impressive incoming freshmen, and the Class of '12 just might make a run at the first Sectional championship in program history.

Next up? The Indiana State Meet, with prelims this Friday, and the top 16 qualifiers returning for the big showdown at the IU Natatorium on Saturday.

GO TIGERS!