Shelbyville High School swim coach Coen Weiler believed Will Rife was poised for a breakout sectional.
The sophomore showed off in a big way Saturday winning two sectional titles and helping the Golden Bears to a fourth-place finish at the New Palestine Sectional.
Rife was expected to be part of a sectional-winning relay team with Tyler Harker, Juan Gonzalez-Gallego and Trey Carrell. The quartet was the top seed in the sectional-ending 400-yard freestyle relay.
Instead, those four Golden Bears won the opening 200 medley relay in 1:41.06 (photo, top of podium), taking nearly a full second off the school record set in 1998. They were seeded third entering the sectional and held that seed at Thursday’s preliminary race with a time of 1:46.01.
Harker put the Golden Bears back on the top podium in the next race – the 200 freestyle. The top seed in the event torched the field by more than five seconds in winning in 1:46.2.
Rife put his name on the Shelbyville record board a second time in winning the 100 butterfly over the former record holder, Gonzalez-Gallego. Rife touched the wall in 53.56 seconds to edge Gonzalez-Gallego by .27 seconds (53.83).
Gonzalez-Gallego broke the SHS record at the Hoosier Heritage Conference Meet in December with a time of 53.79. Rife was seeded seventh (58.84) coming into the sectional.
Shelbyville’s top-ranked 400 relay team finished runner-up to Mt. Vernon in the final event. The Marauders stopped the clock in 3:20.69 ahead of the Golden Bears’ 3:23.25.
Mt. Vernon won the sectional title with 348 points. New Palestine was second (294) with Richmond (255), Shelbyville (235) and Eastern Hancock (221) rounding out the top five.
Gonzalez-Gallego also finished second in the 200 individual medley (2:04.79).
Carrell placed seventh in the 50 freestyle (23.39).
Harker was second in the 500 freestyle (4:55.15).
Lance File, Andrew Duffy, Michael Fox and Tristin Maloney placed eighth in the 200 freestyle relay.
Rife also finished second in the 100 backstroke (57.79), dropping nearly five seconds from his seed time of 1:02.73.
All sectional champions qualify for the IHSAA State Championship Meet later this week at the Indiana University Natatorium. Qualifying heats are Friday for Saturday’s championship and consolation races.
