Stars split season-opening meets at Edgewood

ELLETTSVILLE – Bedford North Lawrence opened the 2022-23 boys swimming campaign with a 140-19 win over Edgewood on Tuesday night. Edgewood won the girls meet 97-79.

In the boys meet, the Stars won every event but the diving.

Double winners for BNL included Cole Baker (52.31 in the 100-yard butterfly and 1:04.28 in the 100 breaststroke) and Garrett Gabhart (2:13.86 in the 200 individual medley and 5:29.30 in the 500 freestyle).

“Edgewood only had three boys, who did a fantastic job, by the way,” BNL coach Adam Young said. “So we swam off events and used it as a tuneup for what should be our first of many tests this season at Floyd Central.  

“The boys put up some very nice times for the first meet of the season. Overall we look to be well ahead of where we were this time last year.”

In the girls meet, BNL’s double winners included Shelby Slaughter (2:17.88 in the 200 free and 6:01.37 in the 500 free) and Emma Gabhart (2:16.85 in the 200 IM and 1:01.23 in the 100 butterfly). Ava Lipp won the 100 backstroke (1:09.14), while the Stars also claimed the 200 medley relay (2:10.04) and 400 free relay (4:21.31).

“We came up a little short on the girls side,” Young said. “Edgewood has one of their biggest girls teams in some time, and their superior depth was enough to overcome our speed. We had a number of freshmen and first-year swimmers get some valuable experience tonight.  

“We won both medley relays with some great times for this early in the season. Ava Lipp had a fantastic first meet of her career.

“We have two challenging meets up next, with the first down at Floyd Central, followed up by Bloomington North. That will give the boys team a real gauge of where we are at and what we need to do to accomplish our goals for the season.”

BNL will visit Floyd Central on Saturday.