Munster wins Highland girls swimming invite

Updated: January 7, 2012 11:58PM

There isn’t a lot of breathing room among region girls swimming programs.

The postseason begins early next month, and if Saturday’s Highland Invite is any indication, it’s going to awfully competitive. While Munster’s depth gave the Seahorses (327.5) the victory with only one first-place finish, a little more than 30 points separated them from fellow top-20 teams Chesterton (321.5) and Crown Point (296). And in the process, three Highland pool records were set during the eight-team outing.

The battle between the No. 7 Trojans and the Bulldogs was particularly tense. CP posted seven first-place finishes, but Chesterton kept pace with three of its own. Then, on the last event, Chesterton’s 400-meter relay team of Olivia Kabacinski, Kate Curley, Madisyn Coudriet and Julia Campbell defeated Munster by 1.43 seconds for the victory (finishing in 3:36.09) and overtook CP for second place.

“It was a good characteristic of our team, I think,” said Kabacinski, who also set the 50 free pool mark in 23.78 and won the 100 breast (1:05.99).

It was a big win for the No. 11 Seahorses with the postseason looming. When the season began, Munster tied Crown Point 93-93 and the two teams will face off again in the sectional.

“It felt really good, but we still have sectionals where it still counts and I feel we can pull through at the end and be sectional champions,” said Brittany Gilbert, who gave Munster a win in the 100 fly (58.41).

For No. 10 Crown Point, Aly Tetzloff continued her stellar freshman campaign with four wins. She won the 200 free (1:53.49), 100 back (a pool record of 56.25) and contributed to wins in the 200 free relay and 200 medley relay (a pool record of 1:47.31).

“(There‘s) a lot of parity in Northwest Indiana right now,” Chesterton coach Kevin Kinel said. “We knew this would kind of be a barnburner going in.”

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