Wheeler girls cruise to GSSC title

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VALPARAISO -- Wheeler girls swim coach Adam Klimczak resisted a little bit, but he really didn't have a choice.

Klimczak asked his swimmers if he could take his shoes off before they all dragged him to the edge of the pool deck and shoved him into the pool.

His request, of course, fell on deaf ears.

"No matter what he was going in -- there was no way he wasn't going in,'' said Ashlee Sweeney, who set Greater South Shore Conference records in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle races and swam legs on the Bearcats' winning 200 and 400 free relay teams.

"Coach was having a good old time, and was enjoying it as much as we were,'' said Gabbi Popovich, who set a GSSC record in winning the 100 butterfly.

Popovich also won the 100 breaststroke and swam legs on Wheeler's winning 200 and 400 free relays.

Amanda Janda set GSSC records in winning both the 200 individual medley and 500 free races. She also swam legs on the Bearcats' winning 200 and 400 relay teams.

As expected, it turned out to be a really dominant day for Wheeler, which rolled up 429 points and cruised to the conference title.

"I'm very, very pleased with the way we swam today,'' Klimczak said. "We're swimming where we need to be a couple of weeks before the sectional. I'm just very happy, very happy.''

The Bearcats won every event except for diving, where North Newton's Brittney Schuitema took first after barely edging out Wheeler's Kristen Barton.

Sweeney, Popovich and Janda all credited Klimczak for pushing them to be their best.

Sweeney just missed a personal record in the 50 free with her time of 26.06. Her best time is 26.03.

"I thought we'd win, but I didn't know if we'd do as good a job with our individual performances as we did,'' Sweeney said. "We did really well today. I give it all to coach Adam.''

Popovich agreed with her teammate.

"He's been pushing all of us to do our best and to reach our full potential, and it really helped me out today,'' Popovich said.

Janda, meanwhile, turned in her best time in the 500 free (5:42.47), beating her previous best by two seconds.

"I was aiming for like a 530-something, but I thought I did pretty good,'' Janda said. "I think I did very well. It was the best time for me. I was really pleased with myself.''

Sweeney said the Bearcats did well, particularly when you consider they didn't practice since Tuesday, because of the bad weather and off school days.

"I could have used that practice time to work on my foot turns,'' Sweeney said. "That's something I definitely need to work on.''