Wawasee’s Danny Allen finishes his 100 back during Tuesday’s meet. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – The Wawasee boys swimming team picked up its second conference win of the season Tuesday night behind a flurry of lifetime bests from its underclassmen.

The Warriors won all 12 events against the visiting NorthWood Panthers, proving that cats really cannot swim, en route to a 131-53 victory.

The story of the night was the freshman class of Warriors. The trio of Jacob Cowan, Brady Robinson and Brett Willaman combined for five lifetime bests and three individual wins.

Ethan Knepp checks the board after swimming the 50 free for Wawasee.

Robinson picked up his first win of the day in the 200 yard freestyle. The freshman swam a lifetime best with his final time of 1:55.99. NorthWood’s Drew Flickinger was a very distant second at 2:07.36. Robinson than picked up another lifetime best and win in the 500 free with a 5:08.86, 12 seconds faster than his previous best.

Willaman edged out teammate Ethan Knepp to win the 100 free with a time of 59.33, a lifetime best. Knepp swam a 59.88 for the 100 free and would win the 50 free (26.34). Cowan took sixth place in the 100 fly, but recorded a lifetime best 1:18.49 in the event. Chase Ritter also recorded lifetime bests in both the 50 (27.38) and 100 (1:01.13).

Winning that 100 fly race was Warrior senior Logan Haessig (1:03.12). Haessig was also a part of two winning relay teams in both the 200 and 400 free relays. Wawasee won the 200 (1:42.37) with the team of Haessig, Knepp, Robinson and Logan Brugh. Spencer Naugler replaced Knepp in the 400 to give the Warriors another win with a time of 3:45.63. Wawasee’s second relay team took second in the event (4:12.47). The Warriors swam a winning time of 2:02.14 in the 200 medley relay, that evenings first swimming event.

Warrior freshman Spencer Naugler comes in strong during the 100 fly.

Brugh picked up his first individual win of the night in the 200 IM (2:15.21), Haessig took second in the event (2:21.47) while Isaiah Metcalf (2:36.40) took third to give Wawasee the top three spots. Brugh’s second win of the night came in the 100 back as he swam a 1:00.84, coming in ahead of teammate Danny Allen (1:05.88).

Owen Donahoe used a lifetime best (1:12.62) in the 100 breast to claim yet another first place finish for Wawasee. Naugler (1:18.74) and Metcalf (1:20.40) claimed third and fourth, respectively.

Diving started the night off and, of course, the Warriors were victorious there as well. Mylon Betts led the way for Wawasee, taking first place with a score of 227.80. Panther junior Teagan Stutsman claimed second (213.70), third was NorthWood’s Spencer Chupp (153.90) while Warrior freshman Austin Dunithan (120.00) claimed fourth.

“Our younger and new swimmers really stepped up on the boys team tonight,” said Wawasee head coach Julie Robinson. “I was amazed with them all tonight. Chase Ritter and Brett Willaman had phenomenal meets. Jake (Cowan) dropped three seconds in his 100 fly, that was great to see.

“We came into this tonight after a really hard practice last night. Then I swam all of our swimmers hard before the meet and to see the young swimmers still come out here and step up and race and record best times, by quite a bit, was pretty amazing.”

After a night full of watching the youth of the program rise to the occasion, Wawasee (2-2 in NLC contests) will honor its seniors on senior night when it hosts Plymouth Thursday night at Wawasee Middle School. The ceremony starts at 6:15 p.m.

Chase Ritter swam a lifetime best in both the 50 and 100 free.