Decatur Swimmers Strong at States

BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s varsity swimming teams turned in strong performances at the state championship meet last weekend and collected more than a handful of individual honors in the process.

The Seahawk boys finished in eighth place overall out of the field of 32 teams in the state 3A-2A-1A championship meet with 103.5 total team points. Jake Middleton led the Seahawks, finishing third in the 200-meter freestyle and fifth in the 500-meter freestyle. Shayne Custodio also turned in a strong performance, finishing fourth in both the 200-meter individual medley and 100-meter backstroke. Jeff Middleton was 14th in the 100 backstroke.

Collin Bankert finished 17th in the 100-meter freestyle and 22nd in the 100-meter breaststroke. In the relays, the Decatur boys finished second in the 200-meter freestyle with the team of Jake Middleton, Cory Campbell, Chris Poole and Custodio. The 400-freestyle relay team of Tate Socha, Jeff Middleton, Zack Keiser and Bankert finished 22nd in the 200 freestyle relay. Decatur’s 200-meter medley relay team finished 13th.

On the girls’ side, Decatur finished 11th as a team out of the 24 schools represented in the state title meet. Hailey Williams finished 12th in the 200-meter freestyle, while Molly Wooten was 18th. Madison Tinus came in seventh in both the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-mter freestyle, while Williams was 12th in the 500-meter freestyle.

Carly Dieckman was 14th in the 100-meter breaststroke. In the relays, the Decatur girls finished 17th in the 200 medley. In the 200 freestyle relay, the Decatur team of Dieckman, Maria Zweifel, Jillian Wellen and Tinus finished 11th. The 400 freestyle relay team of Wooten, Zweifel, Williams and Marley Rakow finished 14th.