Chesterton girls swim team, flush with accomplished returners and a talented group of freshmen, primed to have monster showing at state meet

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The Chesterton girls swim and dive team scored 112 points at the state championship meet at IUPUI last February. Except for the three points that distance swimmer Miata Henderson and diver Bayley Fowler combined to score, all the girls responsible for the eighth-place finish are back for the Trojans.
Plus, the 200-yard relay finished two spots shy of making it to the second day, and three of the four swimmers are back.
Figure in improvement from several of the girls and it’s reasonable to expect a finish higher than eighth.
Now mix in five elite freshman swimmers joining the team and the outlook shines even brighter.
“We're looking at top five this season, that's our goal,” boys and girls head coach Jenni Kellstrom said.
That’s another way of saying anywhere from second to fifth, since Carmel is bound to secure its 40th consecutive state championship.
A look at how many points each Chesterton swimmer scored at state last season demonstrates why finishing in the top five is a realistic goal. The points breakdown of returning swimmers, based on awarding one-fourth of a relay point total to each of the four swimmers: 1. Brenley Bonez 43, 2. Adalyn Laughner 36, 3. Tegan Werner 16, 4. Peyton Ostertag 14. Bonez is a sophomore, Laughner a junior, Werner and Ostertag seniors.
The four swimmers made up Chesterton’s two All-American relay teams, the 200-yard medley and the 400 freestyle.
Senior Lux Mountford, and juniors Patricia Ozimek and Emily Hofmann swam for the 200 free relay anchored by Henderson, which finished 18th at state. Mountford also finished 23rd in the 200 freestyle preliminary at state.
So, a sophomore, three juniors and three seniors have experience swimming at state. Also, at the Hobart sectional meet, sophomore Kennedy Draves earned a fourth and a fifth, sophomore Alyssa Scalf and senior Natalie Pieters each placed fifth in an event.
So, even before including newcomers, the Trojans have serious depth.
And that doesn’t account for a freshman class that includes five swimmers who have the potential to make it to state this season: Reese Kellstrom, Brynn Law, Taylor Ryan MaKenzie Soto and Cate Swistek.
All five swimmers were zone qualifiers, a distinction earned by just 6% of swimmers in a specific age group who meet AAA standards.
“It's a pretty spectacular group of national level swimmers,” Kellstrom said of the five freshmen. “One of the things that is helpful when you bring in a freshman class like we did this year, it just elevates the training.”
So much talent and depth can translate to three loaded relays. All three made it to state last season and it’s not difficult to picture all three making it to the second day of the state meet, reserved for the top 16 placers at the Friday night preliminaries.
As for what swimmers compete where, that’s a fluid equation that the coaches discuss throughout the season.
“As always, we focus on state and figuring out what's going to be our best lineup for the state meet, and then we work from there,” Kellstrom said. “So, we don't know how the relays are going to shake out yet, but there's a lot of talent coming in and a lot of talent returning, so it'll be exciting.”
The versatility of the talented swimmers makes putting the puzzle pieces together to maximize the points at state all the more challenging and fascinating for Kellstrom and her assistants, Rich Ostertag and Alexis Orange.
“I think we have a lot of wiggle room and a lot of moving parts, a lot of athletes who can swim any event we need them to,” said Kellstrom, who puts names on imaginary state lineups at least once a week, forever revising them throughout the season.
In addition to the aforementioned 15, the Trojans have seven swimmers lending depth: senior
Sofia Teall, junior Claire Swistek, sophomore Cassidy Keeling and freshmen Tynley Creasbaum, Hailey DiMiele, Evie Fortney and Annabelle Paniagua.
Diving coach Elijah Mercado has three athletes competing for the girls team: junior Ruby Fowler and sophomores Serena Nieves and Bella Walters.