SYRACUSE – The expectations are always tempered with Julie Robinson on opening weekend. But her Wawasee girls swim team did its usual barnstorming of the Barons of DeKalb in a 144-32 victory Saturday morning at the Wawasee Middle School Natatorium.

In a point spread that unbalanced, it was a balance from the roster that pleased Robinson the most. Wawasee swept all but two of the events Saturday, and were fourth to DeKalb’s third in the other two. Of the success stories in the opener, Robinson was most pleased in the breaststroke as well as the functionality of the closing 4×400 relay that stood out the most.

“The 100 breaststroke, it was unbelievable for me to see that we had four scores in that, and all four were under 1:20,” stated Robinson without hesitation when asked what stood out most in Saturday’s meet. “We have struggled so much in that event in recent years, so it was very exciting to see that kind of swimming from us so early in the season.”

The Lady Warriors had a quartet of swimmers take responsibility in four wins. After taking third in the state last February in the 100 and 200 freestyles, Breanna Robinson switched it up to open her junior campaign with wins in the butterfly (58.12) and backstroke (57.81) while Kendra Miller stepped in to win the 100 (1:00.73) and Paige Miller the 200 (2:00.71). Kendra would also claim the 50 (27.34) and Paige the 500 (5:19.84) while the three plus Shelby Adams all teamed up to win the 400 relay (3:55.53) and joined Madison McBride in the winning medley relay (1:57.77).

Adams was also impressive in taking the individual medley (2:25.32), breaststroke (1:15.38) and joined Kayla Hershberger, Cassidy Manning and Mikala Mawhorter to easily ride the 200 relay (1:50.69).

Robinson noted several who did not win individual races still had great showings, including Manning, Mawhorter, Hannah Winters and Molly Swartz.

Wawasee’s Hannah Rhoades won diving unopposed with a score of 102.30 in her first-ever high school competition.

“I take every single meet with a chance to move kids around to see what kids can do,” Robinson said. “The goal is to get to the end of the season with the conference and sectional meets. I’ll still move kids around even if its a conference meet, just to see where they are going to be best at the end of the season. Each meet will probably be the same until we get to the end of the season and kids settle into what they will race in the tournaments.

“I came into the meet with times not really mattering,” continued Robinson. “We have worked really hard the past couple weeks and the girls were pretty tired. So, coming in as fatigued as we are and swimming the times they did, it is really encouraging to see the times that we did get.”

Wawasee’s girls program will have 10 days until its next competition when East Noble visits the natatorium on Nov. 26. The Wawasee boys will join the girls Nov. 30 as the teams open the conference season at Warsaw. That dual will open the boys regular season.