LAPORTE | Saturday morning's LaPorte Invitational induced smiles for Crown Point girls swimming coach Bryon Angerman and Bulldogs senior Hannah Raspopovich.
Crown Point not only won its third straight crown, but the team found a way to really have fun with the event format.
"It's really nice that we had a chance to get all the girls a chance to compete," Angerman said. "It was a great experience for our junior varsity swimmers."
A scoring discrepancy postponed the release of the final team scores for the event. The results of 200 A free relay were mistakenly duplicated for the B race. Final results will be available at a later time.
It's the second straight year Chesterton has split its squad, sending the varsity to the Hall of Fame meet in Indianapolis. That move made the Bulldogs more of an overwhelming favorite in almost every race, but Angerman tweaked his lineup to push all members of his squad.
"We put the JV girls in some relays with the varsity swimmers," Angerman said. "It helps push them, because they know they are swimming a varsity race. It also pushes the varsity swimmers, because they might have to step up even more."
The Bulldogs won nine of the swimming relays. Raspopovich swam legs on the victorious 16 x 25 free, 200 A free 400 breast and 400 A free squads. In each of those events, the senior tri-captain had a chance to work with JV swimmers.
"I was working so hard for them," Raspopovich said. "I'm really proud of what they were able to do.
"It was a lot of fun, because we were able to work on something together."
Valparaiso junior Khalela El-Naggar and freshman Taylor McBride swept the diving events, winning A and B title, respectively.
Vikings coach Bill Chappo has had to deal with the loss of two divers to his squad, one quit the team and the other moved to another school. This meet was extremely important to the development of both El-Naggar, a state qualifier last season, and McBride, who just started the sport 4 1/2 weeks ago.
"This format has its values," Chappo said. "This is huge for Taylor, because she has a chance to do many dives. It also helps Khalela. I'm busy judging, so she has to be there to give tips to Taylor."
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