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DUNLAP – Not many involved with the 2015 Northern Lakes Conference Boys Swimming Championships left the Concord pool Saturday upset. Northridge claimed its 17th straight team title, Warsaw won a handful of individual titles and a bulk majority of the swimmers from the eight schools lowered personal or school standards.
A pretty good day at the pool, eh NLC Coach of the Year, Tony DeBrota?
“It’s not like we were going to come in here and win the team title, but we did want to turn some heads,” the Warsaw head coach said, who joined Concord head coach Tom Johnson as Co-COYs. “I think it shows the confidence in these guys to accept the challenge and swim against some of the best. We didn’t back down in any race, and we got a few wins.”

DeBrota watched his team zip out to an immediate title in the medley relay, with his power lineup of Jayden Parrett, Spencer Davidson, Zach Taylor and Matt Wildman hauling to a 1:36.36, almost four full seconds ahead of Northridge’s runner-up time. Davidson left the pool after a blistering leg of the breaststroke with a 25.86 split, in what foreshadowed his monster day.
Davidson would win the 50 free at 21.82, then come back and torch the breaststroke at 57.47, setting the meet and pool records, with no one within three seconds of his wake.
“Every year we look forward to competing against Northridge, it’s a highlight of our season to come up here and compete in the conference,” stated Davidson. “I’m really proud of our team. We came to play and took it to Northridge. They have a great team, obviously, they are in the pool celebrating, but we went after it today. This is a great meet for us heading into sectional and state.”
Parrett also put on quite a show, working to a 47.98 win in the 100 free then coming back to claim the backstroke at 52.04. As happy as Parrett was to get the backstroke win, teammate Josh Miller took second at 53.44, dropping three seconds off his prelims time in a sea of post race elation.
Warsaw finished with 428 team points, runners-up to Northridge’s 494 team points, good enough for the 17th straight cherry bomb into the pool for the Northridge team and coaching staff holding the wooden plaque. Ridge won just five of the 12 event titles, but had the max 24 swimmers in the championship round. The separation between Northridge and Warsaw came in the 500, where the Raiders went first-second-sixth while Warsaw took just fifth in the championship round. Having titles come in the 200 (1:28.87) and 400 free relays (3:16.68) plus big scorers late, the Raiders were just too much to overcome.
“Success breeds success,” DeBrota said. “I want to get away from the notion that we only have Jayden and Spencer. We have some really talented guys. They can definitely turn heads. Matt Wildman, Hudson Snyder, Josh Miller, just to name a few. These guys showed today they can swim.”
Winning titles for the Raiders in spectacular fashion was Spencer Lehman, who set the pool and meet records in both the 200 free (1:42.78) and 500 free (4:36.98). In both cases, Lehman lowered his own record, the 200 from Thursday’s prelims and the 500 from last year. Camden Koch added a title in the individual medley with a 1:59.09, edging out Wawasee’s Brady Robinson at 2:00.07.

Robinson would finish fourth in the breaststroke at 1:03.72 and teammate Logan Brugh also swam a pair of championship finals. Brugh was fourth in the 200 free at 1:46.66 but set the Wawasee school record in the 500 with a 4:44.52, his own record from a year ago.
Also highlighting Wawasee’s day were a pair of consolation wins from Logan Haessig, going 2:09.07 in the IM and 58.34 in the butterfly. Ethan Knepp also had a pair of big swims for Wawasee in the consoles, taking the 50 at 24.11 and adding a 53.27 in a close 100 free consoles final.
“Oh my gosh, I had so many kids swim lifetime bests, and not just by a little bit,” noted Wawasee head coach Julie Robinson. “It was just one kid after another, they just kept putting up tremendous times. All of the boys stepped up and swam incredible.”
The Warriors finished fourth overall in the team standings with 242 points, wedged between Concord’s third-place 388 and Goshen’s fifth-place 230 points. Memorial (142), NorthWood (103) and Plymouth (53) rounded out the team scoring.
Concord’s Stephen Krecsmar won the fly finals with a time of 52.81 and Goshen diver Hudson Kay led a Redskin assault on the board with a 471.90 winning total. Goshen went 1-2-4 in diving with Jacob Isnogle (453.90) second and Sam Bowser (383.40) fourth. Wawasee’s Mylon Betts was fifth at 351.35 and Warsaw’s Liam McCarrick was seventh at 334.25.
Warsaw has one final dual meet this season, coming this Tuesday at Fort Wayne Snider. Wawasee also has one dual left Tuesday at East Noble. The Tigers will host its sectional Feb. 19 and 21 while the Warriors will return to Concord for its sectional also the 19th and 21st.