Brenna Morgan leads the team in congratulating Wawasee on a good meet following the two team’s meeting on Saturday. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

WARSAW — The conference season started for the Wawasee and Warsaw girls swim teams Saturday morning. The visiting Warriors won seven of the meet’s 12 events to earn a 94-91 victory.

Wawasee got a big boost to start the day as it swept the top three spot in diving behind Hannah Rhoades’ score of 166.45. Riley Kunkle (129.00) and Rachel Starrett (116.15) respectively finished second and third for the Warriors. Warsaw’s Myah Kneller took fourth with a score of 76.25.

One the competition moved to the pool it became a back and forth meet for the two county rivals. Warsaw won the 200 medley with nearly a seven second cushion. The team of Lauren Kuhl, Delaney Wihebrink, Brenna Morgan and Olivia Herman finished with a time of 1:56.47 to top Wawasee’s time of 2:03.34.

Wawasee bounced back by winning the next two events, the 200 free and 200 IM.

Madi McBride

Shelby Adams (2:09.88) took first in the 200 free while Wawasee’s Alyssa Koch (2:17.83) grabbed second. Audrey Curson (2:24.42) placed third for Warsaw and Zoe White (2:33.87) finished fourth for the Warriors.

“Shelby (Adams) has had great swims,” said Julie Robinson, Wawasee’s head coach. “She’s started her season out amazing and she dropped a second off of each of her events today from the East Noble meet. She’s one of a few girls that are just doing a really good job for us right now. Kayla (Hershberger) and Jasmine (Morehead) are two of those girls as well. We’ve just got to get a little more experience for the younger kids.”

It was Paige Miller that earned the top spot in the IM with her time of 2:15.79. Warsaw’s Wihebrink (2:29.11), Maddie Ray (2:42.99) and Liz Slough (2:45.98) filled in the next three spots. Miller later took first in the 500 free with a huge cushion. The junior swam the event in 5:14.09. Kuhl took second for Warsaw with a time of 6:00.94. Curson (6:23.80) took third with Lizzie Brugh (6:42.56) getting fourth for Wawasee.

Lauren Kuhl

Warsaw’s Brenna Morgan swam a 24.76 in the 50 free to take first. Morgan was followed by teammates Herman (26.39) and Laurel Moeller (27.11). Mikala Mawhorter clocked a 31.51 for Wawasee to take fourth.

Morgan turned around and won the 100 fly in the following event with a time of 1:01.71. Mawhorter (1:11.53) took second for Wawasee while Ray grabbed third (1:16.21).

Wawasee grabbed three of the top four spots in the 100 free, led by Hershberger’s time of 59.17. Herman took second for Warsaw with a 59.85. Madi McBride and Morehead respectively took third and fourth.

Herman, Moeller, Ray and Morgran made up Warsaw’s 200 free relay team that swam a 1:47.28 to finish first. Mawhorter, Koch, Hershberger and Miller took second with a time of 1:47.99. Wawasee’s 400 free relay team would win the evening’s final event with a time of 4:08.09.

Hershberger (1:07.88) won the 100 back ahead of Koch (1:09.88) and Kuhl (1:10.69). Wihebrink won the 100 breast ahead of Adams (1:14.62) with here time of 1:12.36.

“It’s a young team. You could see some of our kids going out there and racing and some were just out there swimming,” Robinson said. “That was the hard part with having such a young team, both the boys and girls, teaching them that it’s not practice now. You have to race. I think that’s our biggest point to work on in the coming weeks, getting them to understand that when you come to a meet you need to have a race mentality.”

Audrey Curson

Warsaw did not win as many events as its county counterpart, but the depth of the Tigers allowed for them to hang around and that’s been a welcome change for head coach Tony DeBrota.

“The girls have made strides, it’s very exciting this year,” began DeBrota. “We had a strong base come in for the Y, that really helped out. We’ve got a bunch of girls that came back that are getting so much faster. The depth is phenomenal. They are really working well with their chemistry.

“We’ve been telling them to lean on each other. The coaches, we’re the bad guys, we run the practices. You’ve got to push through things. When one losses, we all lose, when one wins, we all win. I’m just trying to emphasize the team aspect and they’re responding well to that.”

Wawasee (2-0, 1-0) will travel to Elkhart Memorial Monday night. Warsaw (1-1, 0-1) will travel to NorthWood on Thursday.